Beechwood

The site was previously the lands of the Priory of St. Giles in the Wood (Benedictine Nuns) founded around 1120 and suppressed 1537 (the buildings of which stood some 100m to the east of of the present house). In 1538 the manor was given to Sir Richard Page by Henry VIII. The first house was probably built for Page (d.1598) and extended and remodelled over the years. Thomas Saunders bought it in 1628. In around 1702, Sir Edward Sebright had extended the 17th-century house but there is no evidence of changes to the landscape at this time. The grounds, in a ‘late-geometric style' are shown on the Brown survey of 1753 with extensive woodland cut through with rides, regular blocks of woodland and a double avenue leading to a rond-point, possibly laid out in the 1702s and 30s, the whole amounting to 190 acres, with gardens of 6 acres.

In 1754 Lancelot Brown was commissioned by Sir John Sebright to supply designs for the property. Here the thick woods were thinned, rather than extensive extra planting, as confirmed by his plan of 1754 (preceded by the 1753 survey). The small rectangular, bastioned formal gardens were to be removed and a tree-studded lawn laid out to the south surrounded by a belt of existing trees. The formal wilderness paths and blocks of woodland were to be removed or softened, woodland to the north to be thinned to give open areas of wood-pasture and dense clumps formed from existing trees. Serpentine edges were to be given to woodlands although the avenue and rond-point were not affected. The plan includes a ‘barn with ornamental front' on the eastern fringes of the park at a kilometre's distance, where the perimeter belt was replaced with a ha-ha. Other plans for house alterations, an ice-house and a small bath-house in the gothic style are attributed to him. An ice-house exists but there is no evidence for the bath-house having been built.

Further to the south-east a farmhouse, Hill Farm on the crest of the hill was built as an eyecatcher by Sir Thomas Sebright with a Gothic façade, and the dower house, Cheverells, on the hill to the north was also given a Brownian landscape. (Debois, 2000). Cheverells had two main phase of landscape development, 18th century which utilised the sweeping views from the top of the hill and the visual connections to Beechwood and its parkland, and the early-20th century which largely turned the views away from Beechwood.

The 1766 Dury and Andrews map shows the old path pattern still extant in the Beechwood southern wilderness and the earlier bastioned ha-ha had not been removed by that date. Undated estate maps and the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map suggest that some Brownian clumps were planted along the northern boundary. In the second half of the 18th century, Sebright paid the nurseryman, John Davenport several amounts,varying from £12 to £38 over the period 1772 - 84, although it is not known what was purchased. In 1804 Arthur Young comments that he had:

'Rarely seen finer trees than at . . . Beechwood: it has the name in strict propriety, for the number of stately beeches is great; but the soil agrees with all sorts of trees; the cedars are immense; the oaks very large; the ash straight and beautiful; the larch, spruce and Scots fir equally fine, but the beech uncommon.'

In the 19th century formality came in the form of a Rosarium of 1857 with a circular arrangement of dwarf, miniature climbing and standard roses enclosed by Aucuba hedges with yews at each of the four corners. The terraced gardens beneath the west front of the house were probably introduced in the 1860s but there is no evidence for the planting of the rosarium, although a 19th-century photograph does show formal parterres surrounded by a pierced balustrade with clipped shrubs. In 1924 a census by the Forestry Commission recorded that one of the few remaining plantations of pure beech was situated at Beechwood Park.

Much of the estate was sold in 1935; the Sebrights moved to Cheverells, and Beechwood was rented out. By 1938 the parterres were grassed over but some paths and steps remain, with some terracotta runs, stamped J.M.BLASHFIELD/MILLWALL & PADDINGTON/LONDON. During the Second World War an airstrip was laid out for the Air Transport Auxiliary which continued in use until March 1946.

By 1961 it had been sold, to become Beechwood Park School in 1964. Much of the park has been returned to arable and many trees lost.

Detailed text last edited 05/10/2013

Type

Park

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Education

Survival

Part: standing remains

Hectares

24.2

Civil Parish

Markyate