Ditton Park

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit the The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

www.historicengland.org.uk/lis...

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Ditton Park lies to the south-east of Slough in the hamlet of Ditton. The site is defined by residential development to the north, open farmland to the west, Ditton Park Road to the east, and to the south by Riding Court Road and Farm, the adjacent research station (built on part of the former parkland) and the M4. The construction of the motorway in the early 1970s caused the loss of the south-west corner of the park and the lodge associated with the south drive.

Entrances and Approaches

The main approach to the house is the drive through the double lime avenue which leads west from the lodge on Ditton Park Road. It crosses the iron-railed bridge (listed grade II) over the east arm of the moat and runs through the stuccoed, turreted and crenellated gatehouse (C18, listed grade II) leading to the rectangular walled forecourt (walls listed grade II, those to north and south C17, brick), a remnant of the early C18 layout, on the east front of the house. The stable block and offices (C18, listed grade II), and a number of new buildings, stand to the north and south of the forecourt. The circle of elms which led to the bridge across the east arm of the moat, first shown on the 1718 survey, was lost to Dutch Elm disease in the early 1970s. A second drive, Conduit Lane, leads in from the northern boundary; the line of the drive from Windsor and Datchet has been obscured.

Principal Building

Ditton Park house (William Atkinson 1813-17, listed grade II) stands towards the centre of the site. It is built in early Gothic Revival style, of cement rendered over brick, with turrets and crenellations, and retains some remnants of the earlier house destroyed by fire (1812). The south, garden front has a full height octagonal bay window, with a gothic cast-iron balustrade around a balcony on the first floor.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The house stands set within a 6ha rectangle of pleasure grounds enclosed by a moat. The present moat is first shown on the 1718 survey, at which date the land within was laid out with complex formal gardens. At its north-west corner the moat is extended as a pool with an island, formed between 1718 and 1725 from an earlier fishpond. This is dammed at Gibraltar Bridge, perhaps named in commemoration of the end of the Siege of Gibraltar in 1783, west of which is a long informal canal extending across the park to Longmead Bridge.

Below the south front of the house is a lawn, while the western half of the area is laid out with wooded walks. A brick-walled garden which survives from the early C18 scheme (walls listed grade II) occupies the south-east corner of the moated enclosure. On the outer face of its west wall is a brick-built summerhouse (listed grade II).

Park

Until the late C18, when the area was enclosed by a system of perimeter belts, the park was divided into a number of closes. The south park, occupying the area between the moat and the motorway, is now an open area dotted with park trees including some survivors from the early C18 avenue; this is the site of the early C18 wilderness. The southern shelter belt has been replanted following damage during the 1987 storm. An icehouse, now ruinous, is situated on the walk around the southern perimeter, at a point roughly south of the house.

The western edge of the south park is defined by a fishpond, which would appear to date from the early C19; to the west of this is a late C20 industrial complex. Otherwise, like the north park from which it is divided by the extension to the moat, this area is level, open parkland. An open area in the north park, between Conduit Lane and the east drive, is associated with the old dairy, and is now used as a sports ground.

The area to the east of the moated enclosure currently houses (1999) new development including a car park, temporary huts and hard standings, and new buildings. The south-west corner of the park and a lodge were lost through the construction, in 1965, of the Chiswick to Langley Special Road Scheme, later (early 1970s) upgraded to the M4.

Kitchen Garden

The kitchen garden lies to the east of the house, outside the moat and adjacent to Ditton Park Road. It presumably dates from the mid to late C18 when this area was taken in as part of the grounds.

REFERENCES

Heritage Survey: Ditton Park, (Nicholas Pearson Associates, August 1994)

N Pevsner and E Williamson, The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (1994), p 279

Maps

J Norden, A description of the honour of Windesor, 1607 (British Library and Royal Collection)

Estate surveys, 1718, 1725, 1742, 1834

John Rocque, Map of Berkshire, 1761

A Bryant, Map of Buckinghamshire, 1824

OS 1" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1811

OS 6" to 1 mile:

1st edition published 1886

2nd edition published 1894

3rd edition published 1920

Description written: February 1999

Register Inspector: SR

Edited: March 2000