Woburn Farm

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

Arcadian landscaped ferme ornée designed by Philip Southcote from 1734/5.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Woburn Farm lies on the north side of the A317, 2.5km from Chertsey to the north-west and 2km from Weybridge to the south-east. The registered site covers an area of c 60ha, of which some 37ha are occupied by the College and its grounds; the central section of the site to the north-west which is in private residential use covers an area of c 5ha, and the remainder, owned by the local authority, is leased for various uses. Alongside the A317 the site is enclosed with a variety of fencing and walls. The boundary to the north-west is a stream that flows north into The Bourne, which flows from west to east and forms the northern boundary of the site. The far bank of Woburn Park Stream, which also flows north into The Bourne, forms the eastern boundary of the site. The landform is mainly flat, lying as it does to the south of Chertsey Meads in the Thames flood plain, but in the centre of the site the land rises to a hill c 15m high, with a steep slope on the north, the high ground giving views across the Thames valley.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

Today (2001), access to St George's College is via a roundabout on the A317, opposite the end of Station Road. The original, C18 entrance to Woburn Farm lies c 70m to the south-east, where a single-storey stucco lodge is situated on the west side of the original access drive, c 170m south-south-east of the house, behind a bellmouth of 1.5m high stucco walls and two pillars surmounted by urns. The present lodge dates from the mid C19 and replaced Southcote's octagonal lodge of yellow brick. The drive, flanked by an avenue of lime trees, runs straight for c 150m, before turning west towards the main house. There are vehicular entrances to the various residential properties within the registered site from the A317, Woburn Hill. At the northern end of the site, access is gained from the road Addlestone Moor, which also gives pedestrian access to the stream on the northern boundary.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Woburn Park (listed grade II) is a square, two-storey house designed by William Kent c 1748. Built of yellow brick, it was substantially altered in the mid to late C19 by the Earl of Kilmorey who added an ornamental parapet and had the elevations cement rendered. An extensive range of C20 school buildings, principally of red brick, is situated to the north of the house.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

Very little remains today (2001) of the landscape laid out by Southcote in the mid C18. Whately (1771) noted that the site covered c 150 acres (c 60ha), of which 35 acres (c 14ha), 'are adorned to the highest degree'; of the remainder, some two thirds was pasture and the rest in tillage.

Immediately to the south of the house is a small rectangular area of rose beds in turf around a small pool and fountain. This dates from the late C19 or earlier (OS 1885). The area is enclosed on three sides by a 1m high stucco wall, interrupted on the south side by wrought-iron railings and gates (?C18, listed grade II) opening onto an informal area of trees and grass with a small watercourse running through. This is all that remains of the almost circular water feature created by Southcote to the south of the house. The creation of this water caused great inconvenience to the local residents and necessitated the diversion of the road (Manning and Bray 1804?18). A stone grotto (listed grade II) which terminated a blind arm of the water survives c 20m south of the house. A large, brick-built gateway (listed grade II) designed by Kent stands to the east of the main drive, c 70m south-east of the house. The area to the south of the house is illustrated in an engraving by Luke Sullivan of 1775 (reproduced in Symes 1988). This shows the house, part of a Chinese bridge crossing the water, plinths and urns, the Octagon building, Kent's gateway, and the grotto. These features are all recorded in Parnell's description of the site (Garden Hist 1979).

PARK

The open land within the college grounds is used for sports pitches, these occupying what were once Southcote's fields. The eastern perimeter of the site, adjoining Woburn Park Stream, is fringed with trees, and in some places a pathway exists, a relic of Southcote's boundary circuit walk. A cricket pavilion with a swimming pool to the rear, built between 1885 and 1896 (OS), stands to the west of the stream, c 200m east of the main house complex. Near the north-east corner of the site a drain flows into the stream, crossed by a brick bridge which was part of Southcote's circuit around the farm. In some places the path was sand, in others, gravel. Turning west there are views across the Thames water meadows at Chertsey Meads. The land rises steeply from The Bourne, forming a hill north of the college buildings. The hill is wooded and 440m north-west of the original house contains the base of Southcote's Octagon Temple, said to have been designed by Lord Burlington (Symes 1988). No trace remains of the tree-lined avenue which led south from the Octagon Temple to a Ruined Chapel which was situated in the centre of the site, west of the house, nor of the canal which flowed north into The Bourne (Plan, Jacques 1974). Other features around the site included a Rustic Cell, a Gothic Hut, and a menagerie near the stream in the north-west corner where Southcote kept first exotic pheasants and later ducks and turkeys.

Between 1885 and 1896 (OS) the site was divided, and three large properties erected north-west of the College grounds. This central area of the site still consists of private residential properties, surrounded by trees. To the north-west the land slopes away to the flat Thames flood plain, crossed by high-voltage power lines and pylons. The former Woburn Park Farm now houses a lorry park and winter quarters for showmen within the brick walls and corner turrets of the kitchen garden. The stream on the north-west boundary has the remains of bridges and artificial stonework along its banks (early C20). At its northern end where it joins The Bourne a bridge gives a vantage point across the Meads towards the Thames. East of the stream and north of the walled enclosure, the ground which was formerly (mid C20) Brackendene Caravan Site has been remodelled (late C20) to create a BMX track for children.

KITCHEN GARDEN

Nothing remains within the complex of school buildings of Southcote's circular kitchen garden, described by Parnell from his visit in June 1769 (Garden Hist 1979), except the layout of roadways around it. The garden was replaced in the late C19 (OS 1896) by the walled enclosure in the north-west corner of the site which is now (2001) used as winter quarters for showmen.

REFERENCES

T Whately, Observations on Modern Gardening (1771)

T Jefferson, Memorandums Made on a Tour to some of the Gardens in England (1786)

O Manning and W Bray, The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey (1804-14), pp 227-8

E Brayley and J Britton, History of Surrey (1850), p 234

Garden History II, no 3 (1974), pp 27ff; III, no 2 (1975), pp 3ff; VII, no 2 (1979), pp 82ff; VII, no 3 (1979), pp 9-12

J Dixon Hunt and P Willis, The Genius of the Place (reprinted 1979), pp 34-5, 267, 334

D Jacques, Georgian Gardens: The Reign of Nature (1983), pp 25, 28

Country Life, 176 (5 July 1984), pp 28-30

M Symes, Fairest Scenes: Five Great Surrey Gardens (1988), pp 50-7

M Batey, Alexander Pope, The Poet and the Landscape (1999), pp 91-2, 117, 121

Maps

D Jacques, Plan [copy on EH file]

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1864?70, published 1868/72; 2nd edition published 1897; 3rd edition published 1920

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1865, published 1885; 2nd edition published 1896; 3rd edition published 1914

Illustrations

William Woollet, engravings, 1759 (reproduced in Garden Hist 1974)

Luke Sullivan, engraving, 1775 (reproduced in Symes 1988)

Description written: February 2000