Introduction
Several of the original garden features are now lost. However, the site has a complex of house, walled garden and stabling, and the parkland retains significant 19th century planting.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
- History
High Hall was built around 1666. It was originally attached to the Bankes' estate, and was linked visually to Kingston Lacy by a tree-lined avenue, the remains of which can be seen today. There are substantial archaeological survivals of the late-17th and early-18th century landscaping, including evidence of a T-shaped canal.
Edward Gibbon, visiting in 1762, refers to a cascade. Nicholas Pearson Associates comment in July 1995 that 'the reference to a cascade is curious.....the 1742 map in the Banks' collection appears to show fields almost enclosing High hall and no obvious waterworks or water course other than the River Allen itself.' It is therefore likely that the cascade in the garden referred to by Gibbon was either a feature associated with the formal canal, now lost, or more probably part of a fountain structure.
- Features & Designations
Features
- House (featured building)
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Tree Avenue
- Stable Block
- Gardens
- Parkland
- Planting
- Walled Garden
- wa
- Key Information
Type
Park
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Survival
Part: standing remains
Open to the public
Yes
Civil Parish
Cranborne
- References
References
- Hutchins, John {The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Volume III} (1870) 235 The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, Volume III
- Newman, J and Pevsner, N {The Buildings of England: Dorset} (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972) 311 The Buildings of England: Dorset
- Nicholas Pearson Associates {High Hall Historic Landscape Survey/Restoration Plan} (1995) High Hall Historic Landscape Survey/Restoration Plan