Yarnton Manor

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

Late 19th-century formal gardens laid out within the framework of an early 17th-century layout, and a park of 10 hectares. The late Victorian gardens were laid out by Thomas Garner to accompany his restoration of an early 17th-century manor house.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The 10ha site lies at the southern tip of the village of Yarnton, bounded to the north, west and south largely by agricultural land and to the east partly by the parish church and churchyard.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The house is approached via a lime avenue which leads from the entrance gates, down the south side of the churchyard, entering at the east corner the walled forecourt on the north-east front of the house.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Yarnton Manor house (listed grade II*), now (1999) used as a college, stands at the centre of its gardens. Originally a large courtyard house built in 1611 for Sir Thomas Spencer, the north and south wings were pulled down in the late C17 and the remaining west wing used as a farmhouse. In 1897 the buildings were carefully restored by Thomas Garner for R F Franklin, head of the building firm which carried out much of Garner's work.

GARDENS

Garner was also responsible for reinstating gardens round the house using the bones of an existing, probably early C17, layout, as the basis for his design.

The main gardens (listed grade II), formal, walled and in Jacobean style, lie to the south-west and south-east of the Manor. Steps lead down from the south-west front to a level lawn surrounded by raised walks, beyond which a stone gateway leads to a pleached lime alley. The levels here predate Garner's involvement and presumably remain from the gardens which surrounded the original C17 house. At the southern corner of the garden, set into the perimeter wall, is a stone gazebo. An iron gate and overthrow, dated 1907 and flanked by stone gate piers, leads out from the gardens to the poplar avenue which runs westwards from the site. A yew-enclosed, sunken flower garden lies beneath the south-east front; beyond this is a farm building which has been converted into a library by the college.

KITCHEN GARDEN

The kitchen gardens occupy the north-west corner of the site.

REFERENCES

Country Life, 110 (21 December 1951), pp 2096-9; (28 December 1951), pp 2162-5

N Pevsner and J Sherwood, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (1974), pp 867-8

CPRE, Information sheet (1990)

Maps

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1876; 2nd revision 1936

Edited: March 2000