Oxton Hall Park and Garden

Ownership

18th Century

Originally called ‘Mount Pleasant’, the mansion’s first known owner was Mrs Mildred Bourchier. She was the widow of John, the owner of Beningbrough Hall, north of York. On his death in 1759 and that of her only child the following year, she moved out of her main marital home to her property in York, Micklegate House. She acquired Mount Pleasant before 1784, when the accidental death of her gardener there, William Liddle, is recorded in the local parish records. Following Mrs Bourchier’s death in 1796 and by direction of her will (NA PROB 11/1289/192), the estate became the property of Peregrine Dealtry. He was the son of a York doctor, John Dealtry and it appears he was a friend rather than a relative of Mrs Bourchier.

19th Century

By 1806, Dealtry had sold the estate to John William Clough as Philippa Brooksbank of nearby Healaugh Hall records in her diary that year – ‘28th Jul. Walked to see Mr. Clough’s house at Oxton’(THS 03-D-02). The Baines Directory of 1823 notes Clough as the occupier of ‘Oxton Hall’, although in 1824, it was still referred to as ‘Mount Pleasant’ in the 17th edition of Paterson’s roads (Mogg 1824, 283). The remodelling of the main house (NHLE entry No 1296566) is thought to date from Clough’s tenure and so it is conceivable that he was responsible for the other modifications to the estate by the time of the tithe map of 1845 (NA IR 30/43/314).

Clough sold the ‘Oxton House’ estate to Christopher Wilson in 1841, as the latter’s will written that year on the 29th November, refers to: ‘satisfying and discharging the purchase money and expenses of completing the purchase of a certain estate tithes and premises at Oxton in the said county of York for the purchase whereof I have lately contracted with John William Clough Esquire but which has not yet been conveyed’ (NA PROB 11/1968/388). Wilson died the following year and left Oxton to his wife, Sophia, for her lifetime and ‘after the decease of my said wife I give and devise and appoint the same estates and premises…to the use of and equally between my said nephews William Beckett and Christopher William Wilkinson’ (NA PROB 11/1968/388).

After Sophia’s death in 1848, Wilson’s nephews decided to sell the estate and it was bought by Admiral William Ramsden (2nd son of Sir James Ramsden 4th Bt of Byram Hall) for £24,000 (LULSC YAS MD290/6/2). In 1853 William Ramsden died and the estate was inherited first by his wife, Annabella and then in 1855 by his brother, Henry James. Henry Ramsden died on the 19th October 1871 and the following year the ‘Oxton Hall estate’ was put up for sale by his Trustees. It was bought by Alfred Harris.

20th Century

Following Alfred Harris’s death on 11 April 1880, the estate was divided between his three daughters: Anna Jane Harris, Sophia Harris and Emily Busfield (d1881). The two unmarried sisters continue to live there until the death of Anna Jane on 26 October 1900 and the estate was sold to Isabella Anne Oliver (neé Ramsden, daughter of Henry James) the next year. Although Isabella died in 1908, her two sisters Louisa and Selina Ramsden continue to live there. With the death in 1918 of Selina, the last of the Ramsden sisters, the estate was once again put up for sale in 1919 (HEA SC01326). It was bought by Samuel Smith, who owned the local brewery at Tadcaster and the Oxton Hall estate remains in the possession of his family.

Key owners:

• John William Clough (1806-1841)
• William Ramsden (1848-1853)

Site History

11th to 13th century

The Oxton Hall estate lies in the townships of Tadcaster East and Oxton (both in the parish of Tadcaster). The Percy family held lands at Tadcaster from the 11th century until the mid-19th century. In Oxton the owner listed in the Domesday Book is Osbern of Arques, with 4 carucates (about 480 acres of land) but there were no inhabitants (http://opendomesday.org/place/SE5043/oxton/, accessed 25 January 2017). This land passed onto the Percy family (Farrer and Clay 2013, 15) and was recorded in the Inquisition Post Mortem of Henry de Percy in 1292 (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/inquis-post-mortem/vol5/pp312-325 , accessed 25 January 2017).

16th Century

In a survey of 1525, the Chantry of St John the Baptist of Tadcaster had ‘lands and tenements in Oxton, 36s to wit, for one messuage with 22 acres of land and a messuage with 8 acres of land there, 14s; for two cottages with orchard, 10s; in all 60s’ (Bogg 1904, 31). By about 1546, William Hyll (or Hill) is recorded as holding a messuage ‘with barn and garth lying within fields of Oxton, and payable to the King’s Majestie for a tenth, to Sir W Fairfax, to the city of York, to Spofford for suite of court, and Tadcaster for like suite’ (Bogg 1904, 35).

18th Century

The Hill family appear to have been a major landowner by the end of the 18th century. Elizabeth Fletcher, granddaughter of William Hill (d1795), notes in her autobiography (Richardson 1874, 1) that her grandfather had ‘inherited a considerable estate [in Oxton], which had lineally descended to him from the time of Queen Elizabeth, his ancestor being a younger brother of the Hills of Marston’. Her father, Miles Dawson, was also a landowner there, being ‘descended from a respectable race of yeoman, his grandfather having purchased a small estate in the township of Oxton, in the time of Charles II, as appears by the title deeds’ (Richardson 1874, 1). Whether Mildred Bourchier bought the estate from either of these families or indeed from the Percy descendants is not known, nor whether she was responsible for the building of the mansion called ‘Mount Pleasant’.

William Hill had sought to buy all the tithes in Oxton in 1792 from John Woodyear of Crook Hill [near Conisbrough, South Yorkshire] with the exception of those belonging to Mildred Bourchier (WYAC RP/3:339). It is also noted in the same document that Mrs Bourchier had bought some tithes in Tadcaster East and lands belonging to her are shown in the Tadcaster Enclosure Award of 1798 (THS Map 1).

The mansion house of ‘Mount Pleasant’ is shown on the 1771 Jeffrey’s map but no owner is given nor any indication as to a designed landscape around it. There is more detail on the 1785 Francis White’s map of the Ainsty of York, showing Mrs Bourchier as the owner and a narrow strip of woodland on the boundary between the townships of Oxton and Tadcaster East.

19th Century

The tithe map of 1845 (NA IR 30/43/314) and the 1^st edition 6” OS map, surveyed the following two years, are the first evidence we have of the designed landscape during the tenure of John William Clough. There is a small area of parkland (just over 27 acres) to the east and south of the hall, named ‘Oxton House’ at this time. Within this area are lines of trees that are remnants of previous field enclosures running parallel to the pattern of field boundaries seen to the east. A narrow strip of woodland ran round the park’s eastern edge. To the north, the area that was previously Tadcaster Common before its enclosure in 1798 (THS Map 1) was acquired by Clough and he created the plantation of ‘Fox Covert’ (just over 2 acres).

Around the house is an area of shrubbery (1.5 acres) and to north west of it, the walled kitchen garden (1 acre) with two buildings (probably greenhouses) on the northern wall. In addition, there is a pond and a lodge next to Oxton Lane. This road appears to have been moved south away from the Hall and there are plantations either side of it. At the time of the tithe award (November 1844), the section of woodland of one acre shown in the earlier maps to the east (‘Oxton Field Nursery’) belonged to Colonel George Wyndham (who inherited the Percy estates) and was occupied by Sophia Wilson.

There is also a drive that leads north from the house running northeast, then turning northwest to reach the York to Tadcaster road at The Slip Inn Farm. The label ‘Pindars Balk’ maybe referred to the embanked carriageway or the woodland belt.

The total land held by Christopher Wilson and his heirs in 1844 was 143 acres, with 99 acres in the Oxton township (NA IR 30/43/314 & NA IR 30/43/391). The extent of the designed landscape around Oxton House was about 42 acres. When it was put up for sale in 1872 (LULSC YAS MD290/6/3), the size of the total estate had increased to 167 acres, with about 79 acres described as ‘indispensable to the enjoyment of the Residence’ in the letter to the prospective purchaser, Alfred Harris (LULSC YAS MD290/6/2).

William Ramsden is said to have spent £3000 in ‘additional buildings and permanent improvements’, together with the acquisition of more land (LULSC YAS MD290/6/2). This included increasing the existing parkland to nearly 56 acres to the west and north and adding a second Lodge off the main York to Tadcaster road with accompanying carriage drive. He also increased the size of the plantations as the letter indicates: ‘the plantations are young and thriving, planted principally about 25 years ago’ (LULSC YAS MD290/6/2).

Around the house to the south west were new pleasure grounds and below the south front of the house a terraced parterre garden shown on the painting of the Hall included on the plan. The kitchen garden had an additional glasshouse on the south wall and the interior was now laid out with circular paths.

20th Century

By the early 1890s and the publication of the 1st edition 25” OS map, little had changed in the designed landscape. By 1908, the second edition of the 25” map showed three additional freestanding greenhouses to the north of the walled garden. On the terraced garden below the south front, there was now a fountain.

By the time of the sale in 1919 (HEA SC01326), the mansion, park and pleasure grounds amounted to just under 61 acres. The description is as follows:

The Park and Pleasure Grounds are fully matured, and studded with choice specimen trees in variety and wealth of timber…The East and West Sides of the Park are partly sheltered by Plantation Belts.

The Pleasure Grounds, situate on the South Front of the House, are undulating, shaded by various Cedars, Cupresses and other trees, while the Lawn is intersected by winding gravel paths. Pond and Rock Garden.

On the South-West of the House is the Conservatory, Pigeon House, Rustic Summer House, Flower Beds, Rose Garden with pergolas, and, immediately in front of the Verandah, are additional Flower Beds cut in geometric patterns. The Upper Lawn is terraced and relieved by a Water Fountain, and the Lower Terrace provides the Tennis or Croquet Lawn screened by a Wooded Walk.

In 1978, the Tadcaster bypass of the A64 was built through the northern and eastern part of the estate. This meant the separation of the North Lodge and its surrounding woodland from the rest of the site.

Type

Park

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Domestic / Residential

Survival

Unknown

Hectares

30

Civil Parish

Oxton