Richings Park
Location/Address
None recorded
Type
Description
Early eighteenth century formal gardens and park at Richings Park
The park and pleasure ground for a nabob’s villa of the 1790s, further developed in the mid-C19. It incorporates remnant features from a renowned and influential early-mid-C18 ferme ornée, most notably Lord Bathurst’s extensive canal. The site and previous house (demolished 1780s) had strong connections with the C17 royal court, and early-mid-C18 literati including Alexander Pope who wrote part of his famous translation of the Iliad here c.1717, and associations with the garden designer Stephen Switzer, whose contribution is unclear. The layout, at its most fully developed by the 1920s, survives partly intact, although having lost the 1790s villa (the second in the park), four lodges, the detail of the gardens and pleasure ground, and been overlaid by a golf course and divided at the south end by the M4 motorway.
Detailed description in Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust report.
Statement of Significance
Asset type
Early eighteenth century formal gardens and park at Richings ParkArchitectural and Artistic Interest
Architectural interest: With the loss of the two successive houses and associated lodges, the architectural interest is based upon peripheral buildings, particularly the fine and well preserved C18 and C19 stable block and coach house complex (Home Farm) and associated farmstead structures, and the adjacent kitchen garden brick walls (probably C18). In addition, a fine ashlar three‐arched bridge (c.1790s) straddles the canal in the north park, an ice house lies in the south park, and a flint bridge which carries the former south drive from Colnbrook, stands in woodland south of the M4. Artistic interest: The late C18 park and pleasure grounds for a nabob’s villa (gone), modified in the mid‐C19 with terraces and a ha‐ha below the villa, extended pleasure grounds leading to the canal and a new drive, Main Drive. This incorporated elements of the formerly renowned ferme ornée for Lord Bathurst of the 1710s‐30s, associated with the designer Stephen Switzer, which was developed for Lady Hertford in the 1740s, but was largely lost by the late C18. The main element of this early phase, the extensive canal, was incorporated and extended northwards when the road was moved c.1790s to its present position along the north boundary. A number of mature trees survive, including lime and hornbeam in Old Wood, a yew and holly walk, veteran park specimens, further yew, conifers, planes, horse chestnuts and two Turkey Oak avenues, but the design has become blurred with the golf course planting in the 1990s. Despite the villa and lodges having gone the layout can still be traced and the site of the villa survives as the focus of the design (covered in scrub and trees).Historic Interest
Richings was the setting for regular gatherings in the early C18 (at the first house) of influential political, philosophical and literary circles of the early C18, all friends of Lord Bathurst’s, many of whom were also noted garden‐makers or writers about gardening, including Swift, Pope, Gay, Dr Arbuthnot, Congreve, Prior, Bolingbroke, and Addison as well as of garden‐makers and arbiters of taste within Bathurst’s wider circle of friends and relations. In particular the site has close associations with Alexander Pope, the great early C18 writer and arbiter of landscape design taste. Here he advised Lord Bathurst on landscape and wrote part of his renowned translation of Homer’s Iliad. Richings was the country home in the 1740s‐50s of Frances Hertford, poet, letter writer and patron of notable literary men of the following generation including James Thomson, Stephen Duck and William Shenstone, many of whom she entertained here in the 1740s.Archaeological Interest
Various finds were made during the construction of the golf course in the 1990s indicating prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and Medieval occupation. High potential exists for lost C19 features relating to the second house (built 1790s, demolished 1950), and the grounds and lost structures related to them, including four lodges, several summerhouses, garden terraces, bridges, drives and paths, also for the canal and a lost boathouse. The abandoned Edwardian water garden beside the canal has considerable archaeological potential for paths and structures. Lesser potential exists for earlier structures and features, particularly the first house, possibly with medieval origins, demolished in the 1780s, and its gardens, including the early‐mid‐C18 ferme ornée features, and for the medieval St Leonard’s Chapel, possibly sited in the pleasure grounds.Images and Documents
Date Listed
12 Jan 2023
Last Updated
12 Jan 2023