Grimston Garth

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE

Estate owners

Grimston was held, as part of the manor of Roos, from the mid-12th century by the Grimston family from the Ros family and their heirs. (Kent , VCH Yorks ER, VII, 42.) The manor of Garton with Grimston passed down to Thomas Grimston of Kilnwick-on-the-Wolds in 1780. He built the present Grimston Garth in 1781-6 as a summer residence. (Ingram, Leaves, 104-125)

The estate descended in the family to Thomas's grandson Marmaduke Grimston, (1826-1879) the last of the male line. It was through his daughter Rose, wife of George Hobart, that it passed to their daughter Armatrude Rose Sophia Effie Bertie, Lady Waechter in 1927. Lady Waechter, who took the additional name de Grimston, gave the estate to her cousin Norman Grimston in 1946, who sold the estate two years later to St Andrew's Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. In 1949 Grimston Garth (the house) and other land were bought by Joan Little, and she in turn, in 1964, sold the house and part of the grounds to Reckitt & Sons (later Reckitt & Colman). In 1972 the house and some of the grounds were bought by the present owner. (Kent, VCH Yorks ER, VII, 43.)

Early history of the site

The medieval Grimston Garth or Hall stood some 500 metres north of the present house on a moated site that still survives. The house contained 7 hearths in 1672 when it was occupied by William Grimston (1640-1711). The building is said to have been burnt down during his lifetime. (Kent, VCH Yorks ER, VII, 43.) A farmhouse was built on the site. Just to the west of the hall site is another smaller moated area called The Mount which may have been an ornamental feature in the grounds. It lies in an area known as Great Parks which, it has been suggested, may be the area that was reported in 1517 as having been converted to pasture.

The site of the present Grimston Garth and its parkland lay in the area of open-field land that had been enclosed by the later 17th century. Ridge and furrow survive in the northern and north-eastern part of the park

Chronological history of the designed landscape

Late-18th to early-19th century

On inheriting the estate Thomas Grimston decided to build a house at Grimston, the original family home, on a new site about 600 metres south of the moated site of the former hall. Soon after work began Grimston turned his attention to providing a suitable setting for the house. The landscape gardener and arboriculturist Thomas White, who had already produced designs for half-a-dozen East Riding lands, was drawing up an improvement plan for Grimston Garth by June 1782. (ERALS, DDGR/43/2) The plan was to be delivered in the autumn or early winter. There is no record of the plan being implemented although considerable planting did take place at Grimston at this time. White advised that a nursery should be provided at Kilnwick on the Wolds, Thomas Grimston's main residence, to raise seedling trees, particularly larch, which would then be transported to Grimston for planting. In 1783 6,000 oak trees were obtained from the nurseryman William Reid at Aberdeen. (Neave & Turnbull, Landscaped Parks, 32.)

A drawing of Grimston Garth made in 1788 by Joseph Hargrave and engraved for William Dade's planned history of Holderness, cannot give a true representation of the landscape as it was then. The trees are much more substantial than would have been possible after no more than five years. It does however show a natural landscape with clumps of trees and border plantations typical of Thomas White. The first available map, the first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1850s shows such a landscape and suggests that White's scheme was implemented.

The parkland with its clumps of trees is surrounded by a perimeter plantation. Although the section of the plantation on the east side has presumably been cut down to allow views of the sea its boundaries have been retained. Orginally there must have been a vista, albeit narrower, through the plantation to the North Sea.

The regular block to the south with its own perimeter plantation looks like a later addition to the parkland, possibly of the early-19th century. This may have been around 1812 when the large Gothick gatehouse was built for a lodge on the western edge of the park.

During the lifetime of Thomas Grimston the house was only used as a summer residence, as originally intended, with the family spending July, August and September there.

Late-19th to early-20th century

The evidence of Ordnance Survey maps published 1855-1910 indicates there were no changes to the appearance and character of the parkland and perimeter plantations during the later-19th and early-20th century. The only minor changes to the grounds were some additional planting to the west of the drive, just before it enters the village, and the introduction of an aviary and adjacent planting to the east of the stables by the 1880s.

The aviary had gone by 1910 and replaced by what appears to be a small orchard.

Limited activity possibly reflects the seasonal use of the house by the Grimston family and the periods when it was unoccupied or leased to others. Only once, in 1861, was the house occupied by a member of the family at the time of the decennial censuses from 1841 to 1911. Mostly it was occupied by someone acting as caretaker. (Census Enumerators' Returns).

The main period of extended residence by the Grimston family appears to have been between the late-1850s and 1873 when the house was again let. (Morning Post 23 June 1857; Hull Packet 14 February 1873.) Around 1860 the house had undergone minor alterations, and a school and school house had been built in the small village at the gates of Grimston Garth, as well as a lodge, and two pairs of estate cottages. (Pevsner and Neave, Yorkshire, York and the East Riding, 446-7) This is probably when the aviary was built.

Mid- to late-20th century

The major changes in the mid- to later-20th century included the removal before the 1970s of the perimeter plantation on the west side of the parkland and the westernmost section of the plantation on the south side of the park. Evidently these areas had been replanted by 2000.

The kitchen garden was cleared in the 1960s by Reckitt & Colman to accommodate laboratories.

Detailed history contributed by Yorkshire Gardens Trust 03/11/2014

Type

Park

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Domestic / Residential

Period

18th Century (1701 to 1800)

Survival

Extant

Hectares

64.5

Civil Parish

Aldbrough