Introduction
Heneage Court has a garden, pleasure grounds and woodland laid out in 1913 by Edward Warren for Russell Thomas. The site was previously utilised in the 17th century.
Terrain
The land falls away sharply to the south-west, south and eastThe gardens were re-modelled around 1913. Plantings of this date include Lombardy poplar, Magnolia grandiflora and Hydrangea petiolaris trained against the house walls. The stone gazebo also dates from this time. The land falls away sharply to the south-west, south and east, and to take advantage of the views there is a stone terrace to the south-east. The terrace is thickly planted with clipped yew hedges, broken at the centre to provide a prospect point.
Below the terrace, to the east, the owner was having a large lake excavated at the time of the last survey (1987), using the natural hollow and the water supply of the stream. The M5 motorway on a raised embankment forms the eastern boundary of the property. It is presently very intrusive, although natural scrub growth on the banks will mitigate the effect.
To the north-west of the house are well-planted pleasure gardens. There are large heather beds, specimen broadleaved trees and shrubs in a wide expanse of lawn. There is a pond with lilies and other aquatics and marginals, ornamented with wooden footbridges. This was also constructed during the re-modelling of 1913.
A path from here leads over a stile to Skay's (or Skey's) Grove (or Copse), which has been attached to the property since the house was built. Skey's Grove is a natural woodland with conifer plantations in the interior. It occupies rising ground and is an important landscape feature and part of the setting of the house.
The garden boasts an impressive sundial of indeterminate age.
Heneage Court is immaculately maintained. Much money has obviously been spent on the house and the garden. There is a lot of recent planting, and garden expansion is in progress with the addition of the lake.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
- History
The following history has been taken from Country Life, 1919 (see references):
In the twenty-third year of Henry VIII, lands, called Barry's, in the Manor of Thornbury, were granted....on the attainder of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, to Thomas Henneage, or Henege, and Catherine his wife, for their lives. Fosbrooke, in his History of Gloucestershire (1807) says that an estate at Falfield containing a messuage and lands, and four acres of wood, was sold by Sir John Berkeley in the reign of Elizabeth, having been in that family for some generations, and adds: ‘Part of them, or the whole was, I suspect, purchased by the ancestors of William Skey, the present owner.'
In 1649 Richard Allen of Bath, a fuller, sold to Thomas Skey of Falfield a messuage and lands at Falfield. The deed refers to the house as newly erected. For the next 150 years the property seems to have remained in the hands of successive Skeys, whose name is still perpetuated in Skey's Copse........
In 1803 William Skey, the last of the male line, died, leaving a daughter, Jane, as sole heiress. In 1810 Jane married, as his second wife, Peter Edward Scobell of Penzance. Heneage Court.....was then let as a farm, and, when bought by its present owners, Mr. Russell Thomas, in 1912, had suffered considerably from neglect and rough usage. Its repair and enlargement were undertaken by......Mr. Edward Warren.
The dwelling has been entirely re-roofed with Gloucestershire "slates" from Stonesfield, its original covering. The gardens have been completely remodelled, a stone garden house built and a small lily pond formed....examples of how a new and fitting setting can be provided for an old and satisfying picture of the simple handiwork of our forefathers.
Period
- 20th Century (1901 to 2000)
- Early 20th Century (1901 to 1932)
- Associated People
- Features & Designations
Designations
The National Heritage List for England: Listed Building
- Reference: Heneage Court
- Grade: II
Features
- Gazebo
- Description: Stone gazebo
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- House (featured building)
- Description: Heneage Court
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Lake
- Description: Site of 'new' (after 1987) lake.
- Earliest Date:
- Grove
- Description: Skay's Grove has been attached to the property since the house was built. Skey?s Grove is a natural woodland with conifer plantations in the interior. It occupies rising ground and is an important landscape feature and part of the setting of the house.
- Planting
- Description: Lombardy poplar, Magnolia grandiflora and Hydrangea petiolaris.
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Flower Bed
- Description: Heather beds.
- Pond
- Description: There is a pond with lilies and other aquatics and marginals, ornamented with wooden footbridges.
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Terrace
- Description: The land falls away sharply to the south-west, south and east, and to take advantage of the views there is a stone terrace to the south-east.
- Hedge
- Description: The terrace is thickly planted with clipped yew hedges, broken at the centre to provide a prospect point.
- Sundial
- Description: The garden boasts an impressive sundial of indeterminate age.
- Key Information
Type
Estate
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Period
20th Century (1901 to 2000)
Survival
Extant
Hectares
16
Open to the public
Yes
Civil Parish
Falfield
- References
References
- List of Buildings of Architectural and Historical Interest, County of Avon
- {Country Life January 1919} (1919) Country Life January 1919