Hall Place, Hurley

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/listing/the-list

A late 17th century landscape park with 18th, 19th, and 20th century modifications and additions, surrounding an early Georgian house on the site of a 13th century manor house.

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Hall Place is situated c 4km west of Maidenhead and c 7km east of Henley on Thames. The park is c 1.5km south of the River Thames and borders the west side of the village of Burchett's Green. The site comprises c 180ha and is in a rural, largely agricultural, setting. The site rises gently from east to west, rising more steeply to the south-west and incorporating a steep valley to the north. There are views towards Ashley Hill Forest to the south-west and to High Wood and Prospect Hill to the north-west. The park is bordered by the Grassland Research Institute, formerly part of the estate, and part of Henley Road to the north and north-west, by farmland and housing along the road to the east, by a road, copse, and woodland to the south, and by agricultural land and some housing on Honey Lane to the west.

Entrances and Approaches

The principal approach road is from Burchett's Green Road, c 700m to the north of the centre of the village of Burchett¿s Green. A C19 red-brick lodge lies to the north of the entrance. The entrance drive, a mid C19 avenue of mature lime, ascends rising ground to the west. Some 300m to the west the ground levels off at the location of the former castellated 'Norman' Gothic Entrance Arch (late C18, demolished 1967). This marks the earlier entrance running north from Burchett's Green, which fell out of use following the extension of the approach avenue to Burchett's Green Road in the mid C19. A late C17 lime avenue extends from the site of the Gothic Entrance Arch to the house.

Other entrances include a track running from a lodge on the north boundary that is shown on the Tithe map of 1843 (now, 2004, in separate ownership), a drive running east from Honey Lane in the west, and a third running along the south avenue from the south boundary.

A public footpath runs through the park from Hall Place Lane in the south, crossing the main approach avenue and running along part of the northern avenue before passing north-north-west through arable land.

Principal Building

Hall Place (listed grade I) is a large country house built between 1728 and 1735 for William East, incorporating a small part of the former late C17 house and with interior stucco work attributed to Artari and Vassali. It is located in the centre of the present park and built of brick with stone dressings and a slate roof. The house is symmetrical in plan, the centre section having three storeys and basement, with single-storey linking blocks to two-storey wings. The east front overlooks the forecourt, a near circular carriage drive enclosing a circular lawn and the east side bounded by an arc of mature lime trees.

The house has been used by the Berkshire College (formerly Institute) of Agriculture since 1949 and has been altered and extended since the mid C20. An C18 stable block (listed grade II) with a central archway and clock and bell tower is located to the north of the house. Mid to late C20 college buildings extend north and south of the house.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The gardens lie to the west of the house. A gravel terrace, c 150m long, runs north to south along the west front and overlooks the lawns to the west and parkland beyond. The terrace terminates at its southern end in an embanked semicircle, paved and grassed, accommodating the base of a statue (statue gone 2004, listed grade II). Steps lead south down the bank through a hedge to C20 college buildings. A shrub and herbaceous border runs along the east side of the terrace while parts are enclosed by hedges. The main lawn is flanked to north and south with shrubberies, previously herbaceous borders (CL 1938). Mature specimen trees, including holm oak, Wellingtonia, plane, and yew, and supplemented with recent planting, screen the walls and enclosures of the former kitchen gardens.

Some 170m to the north-west of the house is a small sunken garden with grassed banks and yew topiary. Immediately to the north of this, an opening in the brick wall of the former kitchen garden, running east to west, leads to the late C19 octagonal timber bee house (listed grade II, possibly replacing a structure shown in 1843). The bee house was repaired in 1976 and is set amongst mature specimen trees in a clearing in the former orchard and garden, as indicated on the Tithe map of 1843. This map also shows planting in the sunken garden and in the surviving woodland garden located c 100m further south. East of the bee house and north of the former north range of kitchen gardens are glasshouses and late C20 gardens laid out on the site of a poultry ground and adjoining the former gas works (Tithe map, 1843; OS 1875). Some 170m west of the house, a masonry ha-ha, with a section of recent timber construction, separates the lawn from the park.

On the south elevation of the house, an arched loggia and terrace overlooks a former forecourt or bowling green, later used as a tennis court and now (2004) laid out as a rectangular lawn. The lawn is flanked to east and west by C20 college buildings and bounded c 50m to the south by an early C18 wall with brick and flint piers (listed grade II) which formerly contained a clairvoie giving a view of the deer park to the south (CL 1938).

Park

The former deer park extends to the south and north-east of the house and is largely laid to grass and pasture. The park is bisected by a narrow avenue running north to south immediately east of the house and the wider entrance avenue extending east from the house to the main entrance. The late C17 part of the entrance avenue runs from the house to the former Gothic Entrance Arch and was extended c 280m eastwards to the current entrance on Burchett's Green Road by 1875 (OS 1883). Since the late C20 there has been a programme of replanting between surviving mature common lime trees. The avenue has grass verges and timber post and rail fences enclose paddocks to the north and grassland and playing fields to the south. The park retains some mature planting, including a clump of cedars c 100m north of the entrance avenue and a group of mature oaks and planes to the south.

A second late C17 lime avenue runs north from the entrance forecourt for c 450m, from which point there are views to the north-west over a steep dry valley towards High Wood (outside the area here registered ) which existed by 1761 (Rocque). From here a track runs north-north-east along the base of this valley towards the River Thames. Workshops are located to the west of the avenue and stables and a riding arena to the east.

A third, less complete, avenue, also originating from the late C17, extends south from the forecourt to the southern boundary and is planted principally with lime, giving way to oak and other species. To the south-west of this avenue the park has been re-landscaped as a golf course and the ground acidulated to support gorse. There are views over rising ground to the perimeter woodland.

A winding track leads west from this avenue c 200m south of the house, passing a small pond c 400m south-west of the house and mature parkland oaks. In the 1830s this area was planted with a formation of oaks to commemorate the Battle of the Nile of 1798, of which a few trees survive, including a Turkey oak on a prominent rise at the south-west of the formation, from which there are views over this feature north-east to the house. In the 1990s oaks were replanted and labelled with the names of ships present at the battle. The feature also contained brick pyramids, of which one remains partly intact, and a statue of Nelson, of which only the plinth remains. A late C20 pond lies nearby.

Land immediately west of the house and gardens is grazed. Mature single and hedgerow trees and distant views to woods to the west give a parkland appearance.

Kitchen Garden

Two rectangular ranges of kitchen gardens are located to north and south of the formal garden to the west of the house. Formerly these were divided into rectangular sections (Tithe map, 1843) and they may date to the late C17 or early C18. Sections of the red-brick walls of each kitchen garden survive. The north kitchen garden is now (2004) largely occupied by modern glasshouses and other buildings used by the Agriculture College. The south kitchen garden is laid to lawn with some recent tree planting. It is separated from the main lawn by a hedge and a hedge encloses a crèche building at its eastern end. The C18 Garden Cottage (listed grade II) lies at the west end of the south kitchen garden.

REFERENCES

Beard & Co, Seats and Mansions in Berkshire (1866)

Victoria History of the County of Berkshire III, (1923), pp 153-4

Country Life, 83 (5 March 1938), pp 246-51; (12 March 1938), pp 272-7

I Nairn and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (1966, reprinted 1975), pp150-1

Brief History of Hall Place, (Berkshire College of Agriculture 1981)

M Hayles and B Hedges, Around Maidenhead in Old Photographs (1994)

History of Hall Place, (Berkshire College of Agriculture, nd)

Maps

John Rocque, A Topographical Map of the County of Berkshire, 1761 (Margary edn 1973)

Tithe map for Hurley parish, 1843 (Berkshire Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1875-8, published 1883

2nd edition revised 1897, published 1900

3rd edition revised 1910, published 1913

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1875

2nd edition published 1899

3rd edition revised 1910, published 1912

Illustrations

Engraving of Hall Place, Seat of Sir Gilbert East, Bart, 1822 (Hurley PR36), (Reading Local Studies Library)

Engraving of Hall Place, Seat of Sir Gilbert East, Bart 1822 (rear elevation) (Hurley PR35), (Reading Local Studies Library)

Hall Place, front elevation (in Beard & Co 1866)

Description written: May 2004

Amended: July 2004

Edited: October 2004