Norman Court (also known as Norman Court Preparatory School)

The manor consisting only of about 120 acres in the 13th century was gradually enlarged over time. By the 14th century it was owned by Roger Norman, hence the name Norman Court. The Whitehead family were the owners in the 15th century and later Celia Fiennes'grandfather, a Roundhead officer, lived there. The ancient manor house was pulled down about 1752 (Notes to the Prosser Engraving). A new house consisting of a modest centre block with courtyards on the north-east and north-west corners, with stables and a coach-house, was built on a more elevated site. Taylor's map of 1759 shows an avenue of trees due north of the house and Milne's map, 1791, shows the park enclosed by a fence of vertical pales.

Sales particulars of 1806 describe 212 acres of ‘Gardens, pleasure grounds, Park and Lands, of which house, offices, gardens, paddocks and park pasture comprises 142 acres.' There was also a walled kitchen garden on the southern edge of the park. Charles Wall bought the estate and had an extensive survey drawn showing extensive parkland. There is no sign of the northern avenue of trees but there is possibly a vista cut through trees. The house was flanked by two large courtyards with simple formal gardens symmetrically east and west, south of the two courtyards. Each garden had a central path with linear beds on either side.

Plans prepared by Charles Dance and Humphry and John Repton for Charles Wall were probably not implemented, and Wall died in 1815. His son, Charles Baring Wall, carried out improvements between 1818 and 1820 using Henry Harrison as architect. The central block was extended east and west and the main entrance moved to the eastern side of the house. A conservatory was built west of the house connected to it by a glazed passage. These features are all shown on the Prosser engraving, which also shows lawns interrupted by informal beds but with a still natural landform. The parkland would have been grazed and the animals kept out of the gardens probably by a sunken fence to maintain the views. An account by William Sanders, in ‘Gardens in England 1832', describes ‘some very romantic walks leading through the woods'. The woodland was probably planted at the time of the re-modelling by Charles Baring Wall to provide shelter for the ornamental gardens and the conservatory.

Estate accounts of the 1840s give glimpses of the development of the gardens: chain fence, gates, building walls, Portland stone, an icehouse, a boiler to heat the conservatory passage, supplies of fruit trees and so on. The principal entrance was probably returned to the north around this time. Charles Baring Wall died in 1853 and the estate passed to a relative, Thomas Baring, and thence in 1873 to his cousin William Henry Baring. The 1870 1st edition Ordnance Surbey map shows a belt of trees and shrubs to the north, blocking views. There was also woodland to the west, and open parkland with substantial tree clumps to the south.

Gardening World, 1884, describes the eastern garden as principal flower garden and an extensive kitchen garden. In 1906, Francis Baring sold the estate to Washington Singer, the Sewing Machine magnate. A lawn tennis ground is named in the Sales Particulars and the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey map, 1909, suggests that the east flower garden might have been sacrificed for it. Between 1925 and 1946, Singer made significant changes replacing the conservatory with an enlarged Winter Garden, possibly built in 1908. He added wide terraces with balustrades. Grant Singer, the next owner, died in 1942 and in 1946 the estate was put up for sale in 55 lots. The house was sold with 260 acres and sold again in 1949 with only 48 acres. The Sales details of 1946 refer to a sunken garden, which would have been the chalk pit of earlier maps to the south-west.

Type

Park

Purpose

Ornamental

Principal Building

Education

Survival

Extant

Hectares

11.2

Open to the public

Yes

Civil Parish

West Tytherley