Royal Estate, Windsor, Cumberland Lodge

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 country house, the largest house within Windsor Great Park, surrounded by the remains of gardens and associated parkland laid out mainly in the 18th century.

NOTE

This site is part of the Royal Estate, Windsor, together with the following six related park or garden areas which are given separate entries within the Register: within Berkshire, Windsor Great Park (within which Cumberland Lodge lies), Frogmore Gardens, Windsor Castle and Home Park, Royal Lodge; within Surrey, The Savill Garden and Valley Gardens, Virginia Water.

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Cumberland Lodge lies towards the centre of Windsor Great Park, c 6km south of Windsor Castle. The c 120ha landscape surrounding the Lodge is enclosed by the Great Park, and bounded to the north by the road connecting Sandpit Gate on the west boundary of the Great Park to Bishop's Gate on the east boundary. The Lodge lies at the edge of a plateau, with the associated undulating ground falling gently away to the south-west. The setting is largely rural, within the ancient precincts of the Great Park, close to the Royal Lodge to the north, with the mid C18 Virginia Water lake (qv) to the south and the C20 Savill Garden (qv) to the south-east. Views extend south-west from the house across the rolling parkland, uninterrupted by C20 structures.

Entrances and Approaches

Cumberland Lodge is approached from the north-east via the Bishop's Gate entrance lying on the eastern boundary of the Great Park, 1.2km north-east of the Lodge. The main drive runs south-west along the south side of the Royal Lodge enclosure, turning south close to the King George VI Coronation Grove, before turning west 350m east of the Lodge, from where it is flanked by a lime avenue, approaching obliquely the main, north-east front of the house. The drive arrives at a gravel forecourt flanked by lawns, overlooked by a large porch standing on the north-east front.

The lime avenue extends east, giving access to Cow Pond lying 600m east of the Lodge. This c 1.5ha rectangular formal canal has a curved north end and is set within evergreen shrubs and woodland, enclosed by a perimeter path. It is believed to have been formalised in the early C18, at the same time as the avenue linking it with the Lodge was laid out. At this time the Pond had a more elaborately shaped north end and lay in a clearing within a formal woodland compartment (Wise, c 1712, in Roberts 1997, 374).

During the C18 (Vardy, 1750) the house was approached from the north-east by a straight, double avenue aligned on Bishop's Gate, the course of which remained evident until at the least the early C19 (Smith, c 1830), by which time it had been superseded by the present route. In the early to mid C18 (Wise, c 1712; Vardy, 1750) the avenue arrived at a screen allowing access to a forecourt laid largely to lawn bisected by the drive running up to the main door. The forecourt was flanked by two almost circular features, that to the south-east giving access to the gardens, whilst in that to the north an open lawn was partially enclosed by a double row of trees from which a double avenue extended north-west, aligned on the north-west front of the house.

Principal Building

Cumberland Lodge (mid C17, remodelled early C19, remodelled again by A Salvin 1870s, listed grade II) stands at the north-west end of its associated grounds. The three-storey, brick-built house is entered from the east front, the garden being approached from the crenellated and turreted, Gothick-style, west front. On this front a central flight of stone steps leads down from a large garden door set into the main, central tower. Adjacent to the north-west stands a two-storey, brick-built house (early C18, listed grade II). Further to the north-west stands the stable yard (C18, restored early C19, listed grade II; now converted to domestic and conference use), with two single-storey, brick, former stable buildings facing each other across the stable yard.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The informal gardens, laid largely to lawn, lie to the west and south-west of the house. The lawn extends from the west, garden front to a fence dividing it from the parkland beyond, and south into a wooded area planted with mature evergreen shrubs including rhododendron and laurel. The Wilderness woodland lies south of the garden, separated from it by a field. The woodland is bisected by a curving path running southwards, and contains many mature limes and two small ponds lying adjacent to each other towards the centre of the area. Views extend west from the western boundary of the woodland over the associated parkland and Meadow Pond towards the distant Great Park.

In the early C18 (Wise, c 1712, in Roberts 1997, 334) the garden around the Lodge was laid out in formal, rectangular, terraced compartments. These extended from the south-west front, aligned on an avenue extending south-west into the Great Park. The design was probably laid out by Hans Willem Bentinck, first Earl of Portland who occupied the house as Ranger 1697-1702. A formal, circular, partly wooded enclosure (of C17 origin; Review of Windsor Great Park, 1662, in Roberts 1997, 253) lay adjacent to the south front, a ride through the trees aligned on an avenue extending south-east into the Great Park

. In the mid C18 the circular wooded feature on the south front remained, with its associated avenue, although the rectangular compartments on the west front had disappeared. These were replaced by a large, informal lawn which extended c 300m south-west from the Lodge, overlooking Great Meadow Pond. The lawn was bounded on the south side by the Wilderness, which at that time was laid out as an ornamental woodland divided into compartments by straight rides containing serpentine paths connecting small clearings. Two small, rectangular ponds lay adjacent to each other towards the east boundary of the Wilderness.

Park

The associated parkland lies largely to the south and west of Cumberland Lodge, bounded to the east by woodland leading up to the plateau of Smith's Lawn, to the west by Duke's Lane and to the south by the lane leading east from Norfolk Farm. The principal feature is the approximately square Great Meadow Pond (c 1747-50; known until the mid 1750s as the Great Lake), the focus of the surrounding parkland in the Duke of Cumberland's estate, and his first major project within the Great Park. The c 12ha Pond, visible from the Lodge, lies on lower ground c 500m to the south-west.

The parkland is now (1999) subsumed within the arable land, clumps and copses of Norfolk Farm, laid out over much of the Cumberland Lodge parkland in the 1790s by George III's agricultural adviser Nathaniel Kent. Temple Hill lies adjacent to the south boundary of Great Meadow Pond, and is now within arable land, the summit of this small artificial knoll having formerly held a circular Doric temple by Henry Flitcroft (1748; Roberts 1997, 356), now (1999) without visible trace. Other ornamental structures around the Pond, now gone, included a classical boathouse and a wooden, Chinese-style bridge, both designed by Flitcroft (c 1748).

The pond-head and dam form the southern boundary of the Pond, with a small cascade leading south into Mill Covert, a low-lying wooded area with a series of linear ponds culminating in the largest, Mill Pond. These water features lead south into Johnson's Pond, forming part of the feeder supply for Virginia Water (qv) to the south. Great Meadow Pond declined in importance as an ornamental feature during the 1750s as Virginia Water developed, and the ornamental character of park and Pond was eroded when the area became part of Norfolk Farm.

Kitchen Garden

The c 4ha, L-shaped kitchen garden lies to the west of the stable yard, partially enclosed by a brick wall. It remains partly in cultivation as a nursery in the western portion, the remaining area to the east being planted with conifers, and the south arm being disused. A lean-to glasshouse, the Vinery, stands at the west end supported by a brick wall.

By the mid C18 (Vardy, 1750) the kitchen garden had been laid out covering much the same area as now (1999), with a free-standing central wall running south-west to north-east along the spine of the area, at the centre of which stood the extensive Vinery (Henry Flitcroft c 1748, now gone), the structure of which was replaced to the west by the present Vinery in the C19 or C20. Three ponds (now gone) descended the hillside north-west from the boundary closest to the Lodge. The kitchen garden later supplied produce for George IV's lavish entertaining at the nearby Royal Lodge (c 1815-30), but its role in supplying the Royal Household with produce was superseded in the 1840s following the construction of the Royal Gardens at Frogmore (qv).

REFERENCES

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (1966), p 297

H Hudson, Cumberland Lodge (1989)

D Lambert and T Longstaffe-Gowan, Report on Windsor Home and Great Parks (1996)

J Roberts, Royal Landscape, The Gardens and Parks of Windsor (1997)

Maps

J Norden, A description of the honour of Windesor, 1607 (British Library and Royal Collection)

Review of Windsor Great Park, 1662 (Royal Collection)

H Wise, A Sketch plan of part of Windsor Great Park, c 1712 (Royal Collection)

`M H', A Plan of the Gardens in Great Windsor Park belonging to HRH the Duke of Cumberland, 1747 (British Library)

J Vardy, Plan of Windsor Great Park, 1750 (Public Record Office)

J Rocque, Map of Berkshire, 1761

W Faden, Plan of Windsor Great Park, 1789-91 (Public Record Office)

OS surveyor's drawing of Windsor and the Great Park, 1811 (British Library)

W J Smith, Plan of Windsor Great Park, c 1830 (Royal Collection)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1881

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1912

Description written: May 1999

Amended: September 1999

Edited: April 2000