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The Rocks, Marshfield

Introduction

The Rocks has the fragmented remains of an 18th-century landscape park and a 19th-century Romantic rock valley garden. This record was checked with South Gloucestershire Historic Monument Records Officer - June 2010.

Terrain

Flat land overlooking a deep valley.

The park of the Rocks occupies an area that can usefully be divided into two sections. To the east of the house is an area of fairly level downland, now used for pasture farming. Immediately to the west of the house is a sheer rock face and beyond that a deep valley, now heavily wooded. This dramatic rock face and steep valley provided the picturesque setting for the 19th century garden at the Rocks. A pond was sited under the brow of the rock face, and natural issues of water were channelled through down the slope. This area is now covered with dense vegetation, and the garden features are almost hidden beneath the undergrowth.

Some of the former outbuildings of the Rocks are now being restored. They are surrounded by grassland.

The former park of the Rocks is now split into several different occupancies, and much of the land is now used for different purposes. The main house was demolished in 1957, and its site is marked by the presence of a large group of ruinous remains and outbuildings. Some of these are now being restored. Any garden features which did exist in the immediate vicinity of the house have been destroyed.

A large area of the park is now used for commercial forestry, and is covered in dense plantations of young conifers. These are interspersed with surviving native trees. This area includes several of the 19th century garden features, all very much decayed and overgrown.

The rest of the former parkland at the Rocks is now used for pasture farming. Isolated features still survive in a more or less decayed state. An avenue of limes that flanked the main entrance to the house still exist in vestigial form, and the gates to the park still stand.

History

There seems to be no foundation in fact for the idea that a ‘castle' existed at the Rocks in medieval times. The earliest documentary record of buildings there dates to 1686. Presumably the first landscaping activity there dates from the same period. There was more landscaping in the mid-18th century, when the avenue of limes flanking the main entrance was planted, and the wall along the Fosse Way was built. It is not unreasonable to suppose that a typical 18th century park was laid out around the Rocks at this time.

An extensive garden was laid out on the slopes of the valley to the west of the house. This probably took place in the early-19th century. A kind of grotto was created in the rock face, and a pond with a statue was built. Paths led through the woods to an ornamental footbridge, and a long staircase of stone led down to the bottom of the valley. This whole area is now so overgrown that it is difficult to reconstruct the scene there in the 19th century.

The main house at the Rocks was demolished in 1957, and the estate was divided. Since then, the park and garden have reverted to farmland and forest.

Features & Designations

Designations

  • The National Heritage List for England: Listed Building

  • Reference: The Rocks house, now demolished
  • Grade: II

Plant Environment

  • Environment
  • Rock Garden

Features

  • Specimen Tree
  • Grotto
  • Description: A natural fissure in the rock was utilised to create a small grotto, with a tiny pond and cascade. This area is now overgrown.
  • Waterfall
  • Pond
  • Description: This pond, now much decayed, is at the heart of the 19th century garden at the Rocks. A small statue originally stood at the centre of the pond.
  • Statue
  • Tunnel
  • Description: A deep natural fissure in the rock face was exploited to create a tunnel which linked the house with the garden area under the rock face.
  • Ornamental Bridge
  • Description: There is a three-arched footbridge, which constituted a 'picturesque' feature of the 19th century garden. It is now surrounded by trees and rather redundant. Presumably it once carried a path through the woodland.
  • Earliest Date:
  • Latest Date:
  • Steps
  • Description: There is a stone staircase to the bottom of the valley. This long serpentine staircase was an unusual feature of the 19th century garden at the Rocks. It led up from the valley bottom past jumbled rocks to the picturesque site of the pond.
  • Mansion House (featured building)
  • Description: The 17th-century mansion house was gothicised in the 19th century. The house was demolished in 1957.
  • Earliest Date:
  • Latest Date:
Key Information

Type

Garden

Purpose

Ornamental

Plant Environment

Environment

Principal Building

Domestic / Residential

Survival

Part: standing remains

Hectares

32

Civil Parish

Marshfield

References

References

Contributors

  • Avon Gardens Trust

  • E.T. Thacker