Introduction
In the late-18th and 19th centuries, there was an extensive landscape park attached to Church Stretton Rectory. The rectory is now a luxury bed and breakfast, and the grounds are a woodland park open to the public.
In Mainwaring's first improvements of 1775, part of Townbrook Hollow, which lay to the west of the house, was laid out with walks. It was also provided with an artificial pool and a small cascade, which was overlooked by a Gothick summer-house. At that time, or perhaps a little later, an ice-house was built near the pool.
After Coleman's remodeling of the rectory in the early 19th century, the house was afforded a better view of the intricately folded, well planted flanks of the Long Mynd. Across this view, about 130 metres south of the house, a new drive was made to run west from a lodge in Back Lane. After turning north, it swung around to the west front, where a new neo-classical entrance had been constructed.
After Pemberton took over the rectory, a high brick boundary wall was built in 1834, in order to seclude the rectory, glebe, and private estate from the town. He bought up several additional tracts of land, so that eventually his property comprised virtually all the land between the town and the Mynd, as well as a wide tract of hill and dale as far as the township boundary. Near World's End, a lodge marked the beginning of a carriage drive from the highway through Pemberton's new plantations.
- History
Mainwaring began a great programme of improvement on the grounds in the 1770s. County society visited the rectory throughout the decade, including Capability Brown, and around 1775 Mainwaring began redesigning the glebe lands surrounding the house.
T.B. Coleman, who was the rector from 1807 to 1818, undertook a remodelling of the house. This change shifted the main entrance of the house to the west. This in turn meant that the principal rooms could be located on the south of the house, so that they commanded a fine prospect of the park. After the remodelling, the town of Church Stretton did not intrude upon the distant view of Ragleth Hill, and the view over the planted Long Mynd was improved as well.
The 19th-century rectors lived in a gentlemanly style. Coleman was lord of the manor and patron as well as parson. His successor R.N. Pemberton (1818-48) bought the patronage and also much land in the parish. Pemberton was not always resident in Church Stretton, however. He inherited the Millichope estate in Munslow in 1832, and he built Millichope Park there, where he lived from 1841.
In the 20th century, the Old Rectory at Church Stretton has become a luxury bed and breakfast, and the attached park, now known as Old Rectory Wood, is open to the public.
Period
18th Century
- Associated People
- Features & Designations
Features
- Walk
- Description: There were walks laid out in 1775 in Townbrook Hollow.
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- Cascade
- Description: An artificial pool and cascade were constructed in Townbrook Hollow.
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- Pool
- Description: An artificial pool and cascade were constructed in Townbrook Hollow.
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- Summerhouse
- Description: A summerhouse in the Gothick style was built to overlook the pool and cascade.
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- Icehouse
- Description: In 1775 or a little later, an ice-house was built near the pool.
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- Hunting Lodge
- Description: In Coleman's early-19th-century redesign, a lodge was built at the top of the drive, in Back Lane.
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- Drive
- Description: In Coleman's early 19th century redesign, a new drive ran west from the lodge in Back lane, turned north, and approached the west front of the rectory.
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- Boundary Wall
- Description: Coleman built a brick boundary wall to enclose the rectory, glebe, and estate from the town.
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- Drive
- Description: A new carriage drive was constructed by Pemberton, starting from a lodge near World's End. It ran from the highway to the house through the new plantations.
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- Hunting Lodge
- Description: Pemberton's new drive began at a lodge located near World's End.
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- Key Information
Type
Park
Purpose
Recreational/sport
Principal Building
Commercial
Period
18th Century
Survival
Extant
Hectares
6.5
Open to the public
Yes
Civil Parish
Church Stretton
- References
References
- Stamper, P.A. {Historic Parks and Gardens of Shropshire}, (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Books, 1996): 54 Historic Parks and Gardens of Shropshire