Everingham Park

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE

Estate owners

The manor of Everingham was in the hands of the archbishops of York before and after 1086. The Everingham family held the manor from the archbishops by the late-11th century until the late-14th century. It then it passed through various heiresses until Sir Marmaduke Constable married Barbara heiress of John Sothill in the early-16th century.

The Constable family and their descendants owned the Everingham estate until it was sold, for the first time, in 1982.

The owners chiefly responsible for the landscaping were:

Sir Marmaduke Constable, owner 1706-46

William Haggerston-Constable, owner 1746-1797

William Constable Maxwell, Lord Herries, owner 1819-75

Early history of the site

The Everingham family had a deer park at Everingham in the 13th century. It probably continued throughout the Middle Ages for a park is shown at Everingham on Saxton's map of the East Riding published in 1577.

In 1635 the park covered 378 acres 2 roods and 20 perches. It was described as having existed ‘time out of mind' in 1687 when Sir Philip Constable applied for a licence to allow him and his heirs ‘to keep up the said park and store it with deer'. There were over 50 deer in the park in 1702. (Neave, Medieval Parks, 36)

The probable boundary of the medieval deer park, with its characteristic ‘oval' shape, can be traced in the landscape today.

In 1702 Sir Philip Constable directed his steward at Everingham, Francis Stansfield, to plant 1,000 young oak and elm trees, presumably in the park, and a ‘sufficient number of fruit trees near the walls of the garden'. (Wickham, ‘Historic Garden Project: Everingham' 2, quoting HHC, U DDEV/9/104)

The walled garden was probably a kitchen garden which stood close to the hall and is mentioned in 1743. The kitchen garden may have been accessed through one of the doorways shown around 1720 on the north and south sides of the forecourt on the entrance or west front of the hall. Samuel Buck's unfinished sketch of this date appears to show a broad tree-lined avenue leading westwards from the forecourt to grand entrance gates.

Chronological history of the designed landscape

The park at Everingham was landscaped in three main stages over the century from 1730.

1730s-1740s

The work on the grounds in the 1730s-40s was carried out for Sir Marmaduke Constable (1682-1746) although during this time he was in self-imposed exile on the Continent, seeking relief from the effects of a hunting accident and avoiding persecution as a Roman Catholic. Letters written to and from Dom John Bede Potts, Constable's estate steward and chaplain at Everingham, chart the great activity in the planting and landscaping of the parkland and gardens. (Henrey, No Ordinary Gardener, 275-290)

Constable and Potts were fortunate in obtaining the advice and practical assistance of Thomas Knowlton (1691-1781) who was the celebrated gardener to Richard, 3rd Earl of Burlington on the adjoining estate at Londesborough. A study of Knowlton published by the British Museum (Natural History) in 1986 records that he ‘was undoubtedly one of the most outstanding gardeners of his time. His advice was constantly sought as a horticulturist, garden designer, and planter, especially in Yorkshire, and his skill in the cultivation of rare and exotic plants was widely recognised. Furthermore he was noted for his interest in our native flora, and was responsible for several first records of plants in the British Isles.' (Henrey, No Ordinary Gardener, 15)

As well as carrying out the transformation of the park at Londesborough to the designs of Lord Burlington and his protégé William Kent, pioneer of the natural landscape garden, Knowlton advised on the gardens and landscaping at Birdsall, Burton Constable and South Dalton in the East Riding and Aldby Park and Duncombe Park in the North Riding.

Knowlton was working at Everingham by November 1730. Initially he was accompanied by Marmaduke Lawson of Moreby Hall, Stillingfleet, an authority on arboriculture. Constable directed operations from the continent passing instructions through his steward who was periodically asked to reward Knowlton handsomely. In early 1742 Constable confessed ‘I have no idea left of Everingham so lett him (Knowlton) do every thing as he judges best'.

Extensive planting took place with Lawson and Knowlton supplying a large number of trees including large oaks, 400 limes, 3400 fir seedlings and 1500 beech seedlings for hedges and hornbeam. Amongst the other trees planted in the park were birch, elder, elm, poplar and sycamore and in the gardens there were apricot, peach, nectarine, morel cherry, pear and plum trees. On one occasion Constable sent a consignment of fruit trees to Everingham from a Carthusian monastery at Paris.

The correspondence, a survey and map of 1765 provide evidence to the changes made to the grounds by Knowlton.

1. Plantations were made in the park south of the hall. Pecker plantation on left was being planted with ‘Scotch furs' in 1740.

2. Southwards from the hall a walk was laid out through a new plantation to the Harswell Road, and then continued through lines of trees to the beck in Everingham Carrs. The line of the first part of this survives as the South Avenue.

3. An avenue, planted with elms from a nursery at Scorborough, was laid out running west from the hall.

4. A ‘line of elms' was planted from the churchyard to the ‘back way' to the hall.

5. The Hall Garth was levelled and planted with fruit and other trees.

6. To the north of the hall two rectangular ponds were created one of which was stocked with carp and perch from Londesborough.

7. A green walk was laid out on each side of the ponds.

Mid-18th century

William Haggerston-Constable (d. 1797) succeeded to the Everingham estate on the death of his great uncle, Sir Marmaduke Constable, in 1746. In the years 1757-64 he rebuilt Everingham Hall to the designs of John Carr and then seemingly set about improving the park and gardens.

There are no plans or detailed documentation recording what was done at this time but clues are provided in the estate accounts and correspondence. A scheme for bringing water to the hall and pond was put forward in 1764 by Mr Foord and the following year work on a sunken fence and the new kitchen garden are mentioned. (HHC U DDEV /9/113; 59/34; 60/20A )

The kitchen garden covering 3 acres was recorded in the 1765 survey and shown on the 1765 plan some distance to the east of the hall. The large irregular pond shown in the centre of the Lawn on the plan but not recorded in the 1765 survey must have been created soon after because it appears on Jefferys' county plan of 1772.

Later 18th century

A comparison of the first large-scale plan of the park at Everingham made in 1806 with the estate plan of 1765 and Jefferys' plan of 1772 show that it was transformed at some stage in the later-18th century to produce a more natural landscape in the style of Capability Brown.

A serpentine lake was created to the north of the Hall, clumps of trees were planted in the park and it was bounded by plantations on all but the west side. The formal South and West Avenues were removed and the walled kitchen garden was taken out of the park and resited between the lake and the village street. The large irregular pond was filled in.

No information has been found to date this significant period of landscaping. It might have been carried out later in the 1770s. There was a complaint from the estate steward of the great expense of the work on the gardens in 1776 which he thought was ‘very ill conducted'. Two years later the work of a Mr James Bayne, in planting and thinning the shrubberies, was said ‘to go on well'. (HHC, U DDEV/60/20A)

No designer is known for the work at this time but it has the hallmarks of Thomas White, who worked for Brown 1759-65, and later became the most prolific landscape gardener in the north of England and Scotland. It is significant that the nearby landscapes at Houghton Hall, Sancton and Holme Hall, Holme on Spalding Moor were designed by White in 1768 and 1778 respectively. The owners of these estates, Philip Langdale and Lord Langdale, as fellow Catholic landlords would have been close associates of William Haggerston-Constable of Everingham. The serpentine lake at Everingham is similar to that shown on Thomas White's plan for Houghton Hall. ( Neave & Turnbull, Landscaped Parks , 36-39)

1820s

The final major phase of activity at Everingham, which completed the landscape that largely survives today, is the best documented. William Constable-Maxwell (1804-76) inherited the Everingham estate in 1819 and on coming of age in 1825 he commenced a series of ‘improvements' which included alterations to the grounds, considerable rebuilding in the village, the building of the magnificent Roman Catholic chapel 1836-39 and major extensions to the Hall 1845-48.

The grounds were improved 1826-7 at a cost of £1294 under the supervision of a little-known landscape gardener, J.N. Sleed of Kensington. (HHC, U DDEV/9/48, 139, 213-215) Sleed had been the gardener at Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire in 1813. Sleed, an enthusiastic follower of the horticultural writer J.C. Loudon, was working at South Dalton, 10 miles north-east of Everingham, in the 1820s. There he laid out the kitchen gardens in 1822 and landscaped the grounds to the east of the Hall around 1827. (HHC, U DDHO/8/3)

Sleed began work at Everingham in 1826, Constable-Maxwell noting in his memorandum book on 1 April that year: ‘Sleed came down to give his plans respecting any alteration he might deem fit in the Pleasure Gardens, Park, etc.' (HHC, U DDEV/9/48) His main proposals were:

1. The removal of ‘the present road beyond the Drawing Room windows' some fifty yards to the west into ‘the meadow so as to conceal it when looking from the house.'

2. The extension of the ‘Pleasure Ground' on the west side up to the new road.

3. The enlargement, and extension to the east, of the lake.

4. A new entrance road to the Hall and park from the Thorpe road from the north east. It was to cross the lake by an iron bridge.

A contract was drawn up and work began before the end of April. In October Constable-Maxwell noted that he was ‘much pleased with the improvements'. By then the extension of the lake had been completed but was not yet full owing to the lack of rain. A boat house, almost certainly the one that survives, had been built and the ‘new road', possibly that through the park, was ready for laying the gravel.

The following April two cast iron bridges ‘executed by Mr Marsden of Wakefield' for the new approach road and an iron fence for the new pleasure-grounds were erected and on 3 May 1827 Constable-Maxwell recorded that he had ‘opened the new village road and laid the foundation of the lodge'.

Later changes

There were only minor changes to the park and gardens between the 1820s and the early 1850s when the first Ordnance Survey map was surveyed. There was an increase in the number of trees particularly in the west and south-west areas of the park and a road had been laid out across the park from the hall to the Harswell road where a lodge was built in 1841.

The pleasure gardens to the south of the walled kitchen garden appear to have been laid out in two stages. A straight path or avenue led though the centre of the gardens, from the lake to the kitchen garden, and the right-hand section of the gardens had been laid out with paths by 1845. (Wickham, ‘Everingham', 10 refering to a plan of 1845 ref. HHC, U DDEV/70/26) The left-hand section of the pleasure gardens was probably laid out with a wide path going south-north with an open area in the centre by 1867. At this date a small classical oratory was built at the western end of a smaller path running at right angles. By the 1890s there was a rose garden with four Wellingtonias in the pleasure gardens and a lime avenue with perennial borders led to the kitchen garden. (Wickham, ‘Everingham', 11 and Appendix 1)

The grounds were evidently neglected during World War II when the house was taken over by the military. More care was taken of the gardens by the 1950s when the house was used as a country club. The kitchen garden was cleared in the 1970s and all but the east wall was demolished in the 1980s. (Wickham, ‘Everingham', 11-12)

Later changes to the park were largely confined to planting and re-planting. There was a large plantation cut though by a a series of radiating paths in the south-east corner of the park by the 1970s. The eastern section of the lake had been drained by the 1970s.

Despite these changes and the thinning out of the trees within the park the overall pattern of the landscape at Everingham in the early-21st century is much as it was in the Regency period.

Detailed history contributed by Yorkshire Gardens Trust 02/11/2014

Type

Park

Purpose

Ornamental

Period

18th Century (1701 to 1800)

Survival

Extant

Hectares

160

Civil Parish

Everingham