Introduction
The site had a small park in the Victorian period, overlying what was probably an older site. Features include a pond (there were more previously), woods and a stream.
Horsfield (1835) includes an illustration of Markly It shows a tall, three-storied house of great simplicity surrounded by trees and fields. There is no evidence of ornamental gardens. Pike (1910) notes that there was ‘an avenue of Spanish chestnuts and a broad mossed walk'.
- History
Horsfield (1835) gives the owner as John Darby, who purchased it from the executors of Robert Hawes. Pike (1910) states it is ‘the seat of the Misses Darby' and that the back part of the house dates back to the 12th century.
There is a collection of buildings in an enclosed area, named Great Markly, shown on the Ordnance Survey 1" map of 1813. To the west of the house is a large pond.The Ordnance Survey's 6" map (1874) shows an area of parkland to the west and mainly to the south of the house. It covers, with the house and its surroundings, about 1.2 hectares (30 acres). Close to the house is an enclosed area. There are two ponds to the west of the house, one about half a hectare in area and the other much smaller. Further west, beyond the big pond, is Pond Wood. The parkland is bordered by woods or strips of woodland. A stream runs down the west side of the parkland, in and out of the large pond, and then after about 700 metres into another large pond, in Millpond Wood, which has a corn mill by it.
- Features & Designations
Features
- House (featured building)
- Latest Date:
- Stream
- Pond
- Woodland
- Parkland
- Key Information
Type
Park
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Survival
Part: standing remains
Civil Parish
Warbleton
- References
References
- Horsfield, Thomas Walker {The History, Antiquities, and Topography of the County of Sussex. [With plates and maps.] Volume 1} (Lewes: Sussex Press, 1835) 571 The History, Antiquities, and Topography of the County of Sussex. [With plates and maps.] Volume 1
- Pike, W.T. Sussex in the twentieth century : contemporary biographies (Brighton: Pike, 1910) Sussex in the twentieth century : contemporary biographies
Contributors
Dennis Cooke
Sussex Gardens Trust