Rendcomb College (also known as Rendcombe Park)

The following is from a report prepared by the Gloucestershire Gardens and Landscape Trust in September 1997.

Of the late 17th/early 18th-century garden Brewer writes, referring to the Kip engraving (published 1714-5), 'That engraving curiously exhibits the disposal of the grounds in terraces, plots, ponds of formal shape, woods cut into fantastical patterns, vistas of trees and fountains designed as ornaments.'

By the late 18th century Rudder shows a very different picture - of parkland with no sign of a formal garden. Brewer comments 'it will be seen that the formal labours of those who indulged a perverse taste, by torturing nature into artificial resemblances, are entirely swept away by the better genius of recent ages. The whole domain is now lovely in natural charms; a cursory glance must be sufficient to convince the examiner that the dignity, as well as the beauty, of a family residence is advanced by such alterations as have here been effected.' Kingsley comments that the picture in Rudder shows a third storey added to the house while the formal garden had 'disappeared under a fashionable greensward.' A wash drawing of around 1840 by Peake also depicts parkland.

The mid-19th-century garden created by Hardwick for Sir Frances Goldsmid was detailed in the very informative sale particulars of 1878 as comprising beautifully laid out Italian gardens, charming pleasure grounds, a grandly timbered park studded with numerous plantations, an ornamental lake with cascade, walled kitchen gardens (three) with large ranges of glass-houses. The sale particulars also refer to 'most tastefully arranged flower gardens, three terraces with stone walls and parapets, Portland stone steps with piers and vases top and bottom.' A circular stone and slate temple on a high elevation overlooking the lake with its island was also a feature as was a very pretty rugged cascade at the foot of the lake.

By the time of the 1913 sale the grounds are described as of simple design but quite in keeping with the property. There is reference to a fountain (not noted in 1878) and to an 18-hole golf course. The kitchen gardens are again detailed.

An interested and knowledgeable gardener told us where to find the fountain, now located in the stable block. The centre-piece, which the gardener told us is listed, has been erected without its basin. The edging stone of that is now used to edge flower beds around the edge of the stable yard.

On the south west side of the house the three terraces, two long and one small, with their walls and urns are still visible. There is a large flat area on the north-west side of the house which could have been part of the formal garden shown by Kip. Part of it is now occupied by a large conservatory now used as the Assembly Hall. Looking at Kip's engraving in the field many similarities in the use of the land can be seen. The Pinetum, above the house, has fine specimens of yews, cedars and other trees. The golf course still exists and there are many mature trees. The old brick walls of the kitchen garden can still be seen but the lake is now silted up and overgrown.