Introduction
A Kip engraving published in 1712 shows small formal gardens close to the house with a lake and avenues beyond. Although demolished in 1790 the elements are still discernible.
Close to Old Coberley Hall were a series of small walled gardens with straight gravelled paths quartering the lawns. A potager existed to the east across a drive.
A water garden to the south and east of the Hall still exists complete with retaining walls to create small ponds with waterfalls and a pavilion on the bank and a decorative gazebo on an island. It utilised a permanent spring at SO96751592, which also supplied a medieval village, now deserted.
Beyond the garden Kip illustrated avenues to the south.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
Directions
0.6 miles south on A435 from A436 / A435 intersection turn right. The site is behind the first buildings encountered.
- History
Coberley Hall was built in the early part of the 13th century. The manor had belonged to the Berkeley family at the time of Domesday. The house was first lived in by Giles II and in 1278 was visited there by Edward I, where he wrote a letter to King Alexander III of Scotland headed Coberley Oct.17 1278.
Giles died in 1295 - his heart was buried in Coberley Church and the mound on the southern boundary of the church is the probable site of the burial of his horse Lombard. The house at this time must have had fine grounds and lakes as in his will he left his peacocks and swans to John Giffard at Brimpsfield Castle.
The Hall passed from the Berkeley family, through the female line to the Brydges in the late-15th century. Queen Elizabeth the wife of Henry VII was entertained here in 1502. In 1606 Coberley Hall was sold to John Dutton, later Lord Sherborne. His youngest daughter Lucy and her husband Thomas Pope, Earl of Downe, owned Coberley and twice sheltered Charles I during the Civil War.
In 1651 Charles II found shelter here after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester.
Paul Castleman bought the Hall in 1660, passing it onto his son Jonathan in 1678. At this time the Baskerville Diary tells us "the greens (lawns) were well kept as also the garden walks and a little above Coberley do arise Seven Springs which make good fish pools. Hard by the house other great springs do rise". This is the period of the Kip engraving. Jonathan sold the Hall in 1720 for £40,000 to John Grobham Howe of Stowell who died the following year. His son, John, was created Baron Chedworth in 1741 and died the following year, passing the estate to his wife Dorothy. Their son Henry Frederick Howe was in possession 1769. John Howe owned the site after this until he died in 1804. After his death the estate was split and sold but as the Howes never lived in the house it had fallen into disrepair and was demolished in 1790. Mr Phelps bought Coberley Hall and Coberley Court Farm. The stones from the house were used to build local houses and as for the foundations of a road.
- Features & Designations
Style
Medieval Garden
Features
- Avenue
- Kitchen Garden
- Garden Wall
- Gateway
- Dam
- Ornamental Canal
- Spring
- Key Information
Type
Garden
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Survival
Part: ground/below ground level remains
Hectares
3.6
Civil Parish
Coberley
- References
References
- Atkyns, R and others {The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire} (London: W. Bowyer for Robert Gosling, 1712) Plate 22, opposite page 376 The Ancient and Present State of Gloucestershire
- Herbert, N.M. {Victoria County History: Gloucester, Volume 7} (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981) 174-177 Victoria County History: Gloucester, Volume 7
Contributors
D G Chamberlayne