Introduction
Swynnerton Hall has parkland with pleasure gardens and fishponds. Originally there was a kitchen garden, though this has now been lost.
Swynnerton Hall itself is a 'Grade I' listed building. The associated chapel is listed as Grade II*. The hall overlooks the terrace and ha-ha, with distinctive parkland to the south. This includes large belts and groves of trees. There are also extensive pleasure grounds, with mixed deciduous and conifer planting. Fishponds lie to the north, south and east. The kitchen garden has been built over.
The gardens make up part of a 3000 acre estate, much of which is still farmed.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
Owners
Lord Stafford
- History
The medieval manor on which these gardens stand was owned by the Swynnerton family for several centuries, before it came to the Fitzherberts by marriage in 1562. The hall and estate have been owned by the Fitzherbert family ever since.
The Fitzherberts were Royalist sympathisers during the civil wars of the 17th century. The result of this was vandalism and destruction of the house at the hands of Parliamentarian forces. In the 1720s, the manor was eventually rebuilt in the Georgian style, by architect Francis Smith of Warwick. The new house had three storeys, and a nine-bayed frontage. This house still stands today. In 1868, Gilbert Blount built a private chapel next to the hall.
The park was laid out by Lancelot Brown in 1758, though major alterations were made by James Trubshaw in 1810.
- Associated People
- Features & Designations
Designations
The National Heritage List for England: Listed Building
- Reference: Chapel
- Grade: II*
The National Heritage List for England: Listed Building
- Reference: Gate piers, forecourt wall, outbuildings
- Grade: II
The National Heritage List for England: Listed Building
- Reference: Hall
- Grade: I
Features
- Terrace
- Fishpond
- Ha-ha
- Mansion House (featured building)
- Earliest Date:
- Latest Date:
- Chapel
- Tree Belt
- Gate Piers
- Key Information
Type
Country Estate
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Mansion House
Survival
Part: standing remains
Civil Parish
Swynnerton
- References
References
- Stroud, D {Capability Brown} (London: Faber, 1975) p147, 241.
- Pevsner, N. {The Buildings of England: Staffordshire} (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974) p.273.
- Plot, R. {The Natural History of Staffordshire, Volume 4}, (Oxford: the Theatre, 1686) p347
- {Fitzherbert Family Papers}
- {Lancelot Brown plan of Swynnerton Hall, in Fitzherbert Family Papers}
- {Estimate for Building Underground passage to gardens at Swynnerton Hall}
- {Ground plan with garden details, Swynnerton Hall} (1826)