Stoke Place

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

Summary of Garden

Mid-C18 pleasure ground by Lancelot ‘Capability' Brown as the setting for a late C17 Chiltern villa, extended in the mid-C18, for General Howard. A second major phase of development of the gardens followed in the early C19 by Howard's grandson with head gardener Mr Patrick, in which Brown's lake was enlarged, kitchen gardens erected, and features and parkland added to the east and south.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING:

Stoke Poges parish is set on the dip slope of the Chiltern Hills in a predominantly wooded area which leads south towards the Thames at Eton and Windsor. The largely level 40 ha site lies 0.5 miles south-east of the parish church and Manor House. It is roughly rectangular, extending c700m north-south and 600m east-west, and slopes gently to the south-west of the lake below the dam. It is bounded to the west by Stoke Road, to the north by Stoke Green and to the east by Wexham Road. A red brick boundary wall (listed Grade II) encloses the north and west roadside boundaries for c500m alongside the pleasure grounds and kitchen garden, with the main, north gateway off Stoke Green. The site is bordered to the south by agricultural land.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES:

There were, by the mid- to late C19, three main drives. The principal one of these enters from the north, off Stoke Green, 100m north-east of the front door of the house. The gateway is set back from the road, flanked by curved and rendered wing walls adjoining the boundary walls (listed Grade II). Adjacent to the east, a pair of single-storey C19 brick cottages is hidden from the road by the boundary wall. From here the drive curves south-west to a turning circle in the forecourt to the north elevation of the house, enclosing a broad panel of lawn. The north side of the forecourt is enclosed by the walls to the kitchen gardens. This approach was created following the 1822 Inclosure when the long east-west strip of Stoke Green was acquired by Howard-Vyse, enabling him to extend the grounds by c90m as far north as the Stoke Green road.

The south-west drive enters off Stoke Road c650m south-west of the house, at Stoke Place Farm (C18 farmhouse, barn and cart shed listed Grade II). The disused north-facing gateway is set at right-angles to the road adjacent to the farmhouse and yard. C19 brick piers support tall wrought iron gates and overthrow (listed Grade II). From here the remains of the former south-west drive lead north through the park and into the pleasure grounds to the west of the lake, linking with the turning circle to the north of the house. The south-east drive originally entered through the farmyard at Stoke Place Farm, and led north-east through the park. The southern section survives as a track but no longer links through, as it did, to the east side of the forecourt between the former frame yard and pleasure ground. The south-east park drive had been created by Richard William Howard-Vyse by 1846 (parish map, PR 198/28/8/R) and the south-west drive by 1875 (OS).

PRINCIPAL BUILDING:

Stoke Place (listed Grade II) is a long, narrow country villa developed in a number of phases, incorporating Lambe's fine red brick 1690s central block and Howard's 1760s-70s wings. The long north entrance front overlooks the main drive and turning circle, and the garden front to the south overlooks a narrow terrace and informal lawns and a lake beyond, framed by trees. Formerly, a view extended further south over the park towards Windsor Castle (1818 Plan of Stoke Place D/121/11/3; late C19 OS), but southerly views are obscured by vegetation.

The service yards and buildings are adjacent to the east of the house with access via a spur off the main, north drive. These are now ancillary buildings to the hotel and include modern additions/replacements. The buildings and yards were screened by planting from the approaches and pleasure ground to the south, some of which survives including mature yew.

The stable yard and block were moved from the east end of the house in the early C19 to a yard 140m further east (1818 Plan of Stoke Place, D/121/11/3; 1846 Stoke Poges Parish plan, 198/28/8/R). The area now (2016) contains modern sheds.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS:

The 9 ha rectangle of gardens and pleasure grounds occupies the north-west quarter of the site. To the south of the house an informal lawn leads to the lake beyond, and forms the starting and finishing points for a circuit walk around the lake. A sinuous lake was formed by Brown in the 1760s and formed the centrepiece of the pleasure grounds. The lake was widened and the pleasure grounds were elaborated in the early C19 by head gardener Andrew Patrick for Howard-Vyse. Patrick's low mounds around the lake survive, with various trees including a fine common oak; nearby are a mature scarlet oak and two mature sweet chestnut, also a fine Atlantic cedar. The remains of a path cross the lawn west to east, 20m south of the house, linking the northern ends of the circuit walk.

To the west of the main lawn and south of the kitchen gardens a group of mature conifers form the remains of a pinetum, likely to date from the late C19. Directly in front of the south elevation of the house, a gravel terrace leads east towards the north end of the lake and a lawn enclosed to the north by a semi-circular red brick wall which divides the gardens from the former frame yard (now a car park) to the north. A pedestrian gateway at the centre of the curved wall is flanked by brick piers and contains a wrought iron gate with Howard-Vyse's initials (1820s). This east lawn formerly contained the free-standing Classical orangery shown in Gendall's 1820s view from the south shore of the lake (Rigby, 62).

South of the lawn, the 350m-long lake is surrounded by a wooded walk; the path enjoys views over the water, pleasure grounds, and pasture, partially obscured by C20 tree growth. The path has been diverted, in places, from its original route. Various features punctuate the walk, beginning at the north tip, now dry, where there is a sunken boathouse (late C19) with a rustic masonry façade framing an arched opening. On the north-east side of the lake, 100m south-east of the house, is a mound planted with mature yew which was the position of the former rotunda (also shown in Gendall's 1820s view, and then on late C19 OS maps). There is a mound at the south-east corner of the pleasure ground, at the corner of the paddock, which late C19 OS maps show was the site of a substantial structure, the rubble remains of which are present. At the south tip of the lake are the ruinous remains of a larger, masonry boat house (1820s) within an artificial mound, its tunnel entrance leading to a partly sunken chamber. It is set back from the water, enclosed by mature yew, and the path passes in front of it alongside the water. The waterside footings of a second boathouse, first present on the 1925 OS, lie nearby to the north-west. On the west side of the lake the path leads along the flattened top of the dam, passing a C19 iron gateway and fencing with the lake outlet to the north. Here Patrick's 1820s rockwork channel with springs and planters leads to a pool, now dry.

PARK:

The park extends south and east of the pleasure ground and was added as the family acquired additional land to the south and east of the pleasure grounds. It remains largely pasture broken up by fences and hedges, planted with scattered mature trees and enclosed by a narrow belt around the roadside boundaries to west, north, and east. The north-east paddock remains a cricket pitch as it was by the early C20 (OS 1932) with associated later C20 buildings and car park in the north-west corner. Stoke Place Farm stands at the south-west corner of the park and formed a feature at the entrance to the two C19 park drives.

KITCHEN GARDEN:

The 1 ha kitchen gardens, built by Patrick in the 1820s, follow the curved boundary walls to the north-west of the house. They have high walls enclosing them on the south-east with cross walls forming three compartments, with an early-C19 gardener's cottage built into that between the two southern sections. The areas remain open and laid largely to grass. Ornamental wrought iron gates bear Howard-Vyse's initials.

To the east of the main drive lie the remains of a glasshouse and frame yard, also understood to date from the 1820s. It is enclosed to the north by the boundary wall along Stoke Green with a large fig growing against it and evidence of lean-to glasshouses, and a mushroom house surviving adjacent to the cottages. To the south it is bounded by the curved pleasure ground wall with a pedestrian gateway flanked by brick piers giving access to the east lawn and the site of the former orangery.Reasons for Designation

Stoke Place, a mid-C18 pleasure ground by Lancelot ‘Capability' Brown, developed and extended in the early C19 by head gardener Mr Patrick, is registered at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: as a mid-C18 pleasure ground, developed further in the early C19 with the addition of various landscape features, including a park and extensive kitchen gardens;

* Survival: retaining the general layout of the two main phases, both of which pre-date 1840;

* Designer: ‘Capability' Brown is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of English landscape design, and Stoke Place is an unusual example of a design by him for a pleasure ground in a villa setting;

* Historic association: General Sir George Howard and his grandson, Richard William Howard-Vyse, responsible for the two major phases of work at Stoke Place, are notable figures in C18 and C19 military and political history;

* Documentary evidence: early-C19 accounts provide an insight into gardening practices of the period, for which evidence on the ground survives;

* Group value: with Stoke Place house, two sets of gates and walls, and Stoke Place Farm, which once formed an entrance to the park, all of which are listed at Grade II.

Selected Sources

Books and journals

The Victoria History of the County of Buckingham, (1925), 302-313

Lipscomb, G, History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, (1847), 561

Penn, J, An Historical and Descriptive Account of Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, (1813), 66

Pike (ed.), WT, Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in the C20, Contemporary Biographies, (1907), 79

Rigby, L, Stoke Poges a Buckinghamshire Village, (2000), 60-64

Sheahan, J, History and Topography of Buckinghamshire, (1862), 871

Websites

Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust, ‘Stoke Place: Bucks Gardens Trust Research and Recording Project Site Dossier', 03 Nov. 2015, accessed 24/06/2016 from http://www.bucksgardenstrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Stoke_Place.pdf

John Phibbs, ‘Brown, Lancelot [Capability Brown] (bap. 1716, d. 1783)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, April 2016, accessed 19/07/2016 from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3635

Jonathan Spain, ‘Howard, Sir George (bap. 1718, d. 1796)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, May 2009, accessed 21/06/2016 from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13900

Other

1760s, Jefferys, Map of Buckinghamshire (CBS)

1813, Road Diversion Plan (CBS Q/H/38)

1814, Plans of grounds to north and west of Stoke Place house by ‘WA' [?William Atkinson] (CBS D121/11)

1817, Road Diversion Plan (CBS Q/H/46)

1818, Plan of Stoke Place, R Binfield (CBS D121/11/3)

1822, Inclosure Map, Stoke Poges and Wexham (CBS IR138 Q)

1822, Stoke Place, parcel of land acquired for new kitchen garden (CBS D121/10)

1824, Bryant, Map of Buckinghamshire

1824, Stoke Poges (CBS Ma/198/I.R.)

1825, Stoke Place, parcel of land acquired for new kitchen garden (in deed margin) (CBS D-HV/A/94)

1846, Stoke Poges Parish (CBS PR 198/28/2/R)

Ackerman, Repository of Arts (1826) [view by John Gendall]

Buckinghamshire County Council: Photograph 1933, garden by south front of house phStokePoges52

c.1814, Plans of proposed alterations to Stoke Place house by ‘WA' [?William Atkinson] (CBS D121/12)

D-HV 1642-1812 Howard-Vyse Collection Deeds relating to properties in Stoke Poges, Bucks and papers relating to the Howard and Vyse families. Centre for Bucks Studies, Aylesbury

D-HV/A Deeds, Centre for Bucks Studies, Aylesbury:Mid-late C17 sales of land, main sale Boon Jordans from Richard Windsor to Wm Astley, then Astley to Patrick Lambe who built core of Stoke Place house, D-HV/A 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16. Early- mid-C18 sales of land, Patrick Lambe's son to Dame Frances Stapleton, then to her son Sir Thos, then to Hannah Sedgly, D-HV/A 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 28, 35, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43. 1764 Sale of estate, Hannah Sedgly to George Howard, D-HV/A/44, 47. Late C18 land acquisitions by Howard, D-HV/A/48, 50, 52, 87 (abstract of title, George Howard). Relevant early-mid-C19 deeds, etc, D-HV/A/87, 94, 95, 106, 109.

D-HV/C Deeds for properties beyond Bucks, and other material, Centre for Bucks Studies, Aylesbury: D-HV/C/3 Marriage apportionment to George Howard 1749. D/121 includes further early deeds for various parcels of land: D 121/77, 79, 81, 82, 88 (1657-1723). D/121/10/1 Correspondence: Sir George Howard got Mr Penn Lord of the Manor to rail off that part of Stoke Green in front of the house, i.e. Stoke Place (1764-96).

Gardener's Magazine, vol 9 (1833), 525-28; (January 1835), and 12-13; (1834)

Knight's Tourist's Companion Through the Land We Live In (1853), 22-23

Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury (31 Oct 1788), 3. [visit by the royal family]

Ordnance Survey 6" & 25" to 1 mile, 1st edition surveyed 1875; 2nd edition surveyed 1897; 3rd edition surveyed 1923/24;

1938 revision.

1: 2,500 scale, published 1971.

Ordnance Surveyor's Drawing (OSD), sh. 153, 1811-12 (British Library)

The Times: 01 November 1793, 2. [visit by their majesties during the course of an airing]; 07 September 1793, 2. [visit by their majesties and the princesses]; 11 October 1793, 2. [visit by their majesties and the princesses]; 11 October 1793, 2. [visit by their majesties and the princesses]; 17 March 1789, 2. [visit by George III on horseback].

Wright's Leeds Intelligencer (26 November 1810), 3. [marriage of RW Howard-Vyse in Chester]