Wivenhoe House (also known as Wivenhoe Park)

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 National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

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

An old deer park, improved in 1776-1780 by Richard Woods to form a landscaped park of 34 hectares around a country house, with the remains of a garden designed by William Andrews Nesfield between 1847-1848.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Wivenhoe Park lies on the north side of Wivenhoe, in an increasingly developed area just to the south-east of Colchester. It covers c 34ha, bounded to the north by Elmstead Road, to the north-east by Colchester Road, to the south-west by the main University campus and to the south by Boundary Road. The relatively flat parkland is divided by a valley to the north-west of the House where three lakes cross the site from north-east to south-west.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The present approach is from the west of the House, via a drive through the University campus known as Park Road. This leads off Boundary Road which marks the southern edge of the site. The mid C19 entrances are marked by small Gothic-style cottages. The West or Colchester Lodge (listed grade II) on Elmstead Road, known locally as Clingoe Hill, is shown on the Tithe map of 1838 but was given its present gothic exterior by Thomas Hopper in 1848. The line of the drive from the West Lodge was laid out in c 1837 when the park was enlarged to the west. It is no longer in use but its route across the park to the north front is still visible. The East or Wivenhoe Lodge (listed grade II) on Colchester Road is similar in style to the West Lodge. This small, octagonal, Gothic-style building is linked to the House by a short drive through the pleasure grounds.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Wivenhoe House (listed grade II*) is situated towards the eastern boundary of the park, overlooking the valley and the lakes. It is a red-brick, three-storey mansion with shaped gables and transom windows, in the Victorian Flemish style. It was built by Thomas Reynolds in 1758-61, in the deer park, and was enlarged and refaced by Thomas Hopper for John Gurdon Rebow in 1846-53. Hopper was also responsible for the stable block (listed grade II) to the north-east of the House which was constructed in matching Tudor style, now (2000) incorporating modern extensions associated with the University use.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

To the west and south of the House is a garden area, originally oval in shape, surrounded by a low brick retaining wall (listed grade II) which separates it from the flat parkland beyond. The garden was laid out in 1847-8 by W A Nesfield who also carried out some planting in the park and advised on the entrances and carriage drives, although his proposals for the latter were rejected. There have been late C20 alterations to the garden design.

PARK

Wivenhoe Park lies to the north-west and south-east of the mansion and is well scattered with mature oaks, sweet chestnut, lime, and beech. Most of the trees date from the mid C19 and are set in grass, managed for a variety of purposes by the University. The area here registered represents the park designed and laid out by Richard Woods in 1777, the later C19 extensions having been used for the development of the University campus since the 1960s. A series of three lakes runs through the valley. The top two lakes were developed as part of Woods' landscaping, the third, on the site of the kitchen gardens, having been added by the University. A modern house was built in the 1960s on the site of Woods' bridge and dam between the top lakes. Woods designed a rubble grotto for the head of the lakes which has recently (late C20) been rebuilt in red brick. The icehouse stands close by. Woods' plan of the park is dated 1765 but the majority of the work for which he was responsible was deferred until 1776, all his work being well documented in the Rebow archives.

The painting of the park completed in 1816 by John Constable is discussed by Sir Ernst Gombrich in Art and Illusion (1960), and by J Clarkson and N Cox in Constable and Wivenhoe Park (2000).

KITCHEN GARDEN

The site of the late C18 kitchen garden was used to create a third lake by the University since the 1960s.

REFERENCES

T Wright, History and Antiquities of Essex (1836), p 397

D W Coler, The people's history of Essex (1858)

E H Gombrich, Art and Illusion (1960)

R Feesey, History of Wivenhoe Park (1963) [copy on EH file]

Country Life, 142 (7 December 1967), p 1473

M Sommerlad, Wivenhoe Park and John Constable (1984)

Garden History 14, no 2 (1986); 15, no 1 (1987)

T R G Gray, Wivenhoe Park: history and natural history (Univ of Essex 2000)

J Clarkson and N Cox, Constable and Wivenhoe Park (Univ of Essex 2000)

Maps

Richard Woods, Design for the improvements of Wivenhoe Park, 1765 (copy in Essex Record Office, location of original unknown)

J Chapman and P Andre, A map of the county of Essex from an actual survey ..., 1777 (Essex Record Office)

Tithe map for Wivenhoe parish, 1838 (D/CT 152B), (Essex Record Office)

Estate map, c 1840 (T/M 275), (Essex Record Office)

OS Surveyor's drawings, 1799 (British Library Maps)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1874

2nd edition published 1898

3rd edition published 1924

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1876

2nd edition published 1896

Illustrations

J Constable, painting, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816 (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC) [reproduced in Clarkson and Cox 2000]

J Constable, pencil drawings of Wivenhoe Park, 1816 (Victoria and Albert Museum) [reproduced in Sommerlad 1984]

T Barber, print of Wivenhoe mansion and park, 1835 (Essex Record Office)

Description written: September 2000

Amended: April 2001

Edited: September 2001