Ramsbury Manor

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 18th-century park including woodland and parkland originating from the late 17th century, surrounding a house built in the 1680s. The Manor together with its Park and Gardens are not open to the public.

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

A site of c 62 ha, 5 miles northeast of Marlborough, sloping gently to the southeast to the River Kennet which runs through the southern half of the site. The southern boundary of the site is formed by woodlands, The Plantation and to the far south by Cutnights. The northern boundary follows the Bank-pale on White Hill.

Entrances and Approaches

The main entrance to Ramsbury Manor lies along White Hill to the east of the site. It is marked by late C18 wrought iron gates, a set of gate piers of c1680, and two late C18 flanking lodges (all listed grade II*).

Principal Building

The Manor (listed grade I), is situated in the centre of the site, c 50m north of the lake. The two storey, brick house, with attics and basement has a hipped roof and is adorned by 24 pane sashes with stone architraves. Circa 200m northeast of the Manor is a mid C17 timber framed stableblock with a brick façade (listed Grade II).

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

c8ha, laid to lawn, extends to the north, west and south of the Manor. It is separated from the park by a late C18, brick ha ha. To the southwest of the Manor, along the lakeside, is an area known as the Wilderness (Andrews and Dury's map of Wiltshire, 1773), situated immediately northeast of the walled garden. Within this area is a late C18 or early C19 rustic Bath House (Tithe map, 1839), built of brick and flint. To the southwest of the Bath House lies the Fisherman's Hut, a small rustic building probably dating from the late C18 or early C19.

Park

The park surrounds the Manor and its Pleasure Gardens on all sides. To the west lies Old Park Wood, dating back to late C17 (Walgrave's survey, 1676), to the north a thin belt of trees planted in late C18 when the park was extended north and eastwards. The lake, created in the late C18, runs through the full width of the park from the southwest to the northeast. In the centre of the southern park stands the late C18 or early C19 Manor Cottage (Tithe map, 1839), screened by a small piece of woodland. By the late C19, the southern strip of parkland was in use as a Horse Race, with a pavilion (now (2002) no longer there) standing towards its eastern end.

Kitchen Garden

The late C18 kitchen garden (Andrew's and Dury's Map of Wiltshire) of c 2ha, stands c 500m to the southwest of the Manor, and is enclosed by brick walls of c 2m high. Enclosure formally laid out as ornamental flower garden and central lily pond. A walled garden, situated on the site of the current walled garden, is indicated on William Walgrave's survey of Ramsbury dated 1676.

REFERENCES

Country Life, 22 (10 August 1907), pp 198-205; 48 (2 October 1920), pp 432-39; 130 (? 1961), pp 1376-80, p 1526 & pp 1580-83; 157 (23 January 1975), pp 194-95

The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire xii, (1983), pp 19-22

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (1985 reprinted 2nd ed), pp 379-381

Maps

W Walgrave, The Number of Acres answering to each figure in this plott being parte of Mannoar Ramsbury, as it was measured in November 1676 for Henry Powle Esqr. , 16 pole in 1 inch, 1676 (Copy held in Wiltshire Record Office, Trowbridge, original in private collection)

Andrews and Dury, Map of Wiltshire, 1773 (Wiltshire Record Office)

Tithe map for Ramsbury, 1839 (Wiltshire Record Office, Trowbridge)

OS 6” to 1 mile: 1st edition 1889

OS 25” to 1 mile: 1st edition 1889

Illustrations

JP Neale, Views, vol 5 (1822)

Several photographs of Ramsbury Manor are held in the Photographic Collection, Wiltshire Reference Library, Trowbridge

J Warrender, An Elevated View of Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire, From above the Kitchen Garden with the House in the Middle Distance, 1992 (private collection, printed in J Harris, The Artist and the Country House (1996), p 164)