ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SURVEY. November 2000

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1 ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SURVEY November

2 Archaeological Field Survey Introduction The following notes are a record of a field survey carried out by Nick Owen of Debois Landscape Survey Group in September The notes should be read with the accompanying plan `Earthworks and other historic features, where each feature is identified with the letter F followed by its individual number. The features are described in the field notes below. We have mapped the principal earthworks as well as those aspects of the topography that seem to have influenced the design of the landscape. The numbers are not consecutive and so will allow additional features to be included. Documentary sources referred to in the notes The following plans and sketches are referred to in the notes below; A Map of Bramham Parke The Seat of The R t Honble Robert Benson c1710; this is the earliest plan we have seen of Bramham. It is referred to in the notes as the `1710 plan'. It shows very little planting in the parkland and in our report we have assumed that there was none at this date. However it is as likely that this was consciously omitted. Therefore our post-1710 dates for much of the parkland though reasonable cannot be regarded as safe. The Plan of Bramham Park, in the County of York the Seat of the R t. Hon ble the Lord Bingley, WYAS Leeds LF 117/25. This is referred to as the Wood plan and has been dated to Like the 1710 plan we regard this as a record of the estate in 1728, rather than a proposal for its improvement. However we are aware that elements of it, particularly the clumps shown in the parkland, are only approximately located. Plan of 1817 Plan of 1845 Plan of 1847; this hangs in the old kitchen at Bramham Hall; it shows Black Fen in great detail. Ordnance Survey, 25":1 mile, 1 st edition (1893) Sketches of c1825; watercolours hanging in a bedroom at Bramham Hall, the `bedroom sketches. It is always very difficult to date drives from maps. They were usually grassed and therefore not recorded by cartographers. Even the Ordnance Survey omitted them. At Bramham there is good field evidence for an extensive system of drives, but we have seldom been able to do more than guess at their date. 2

3 Methodology The conditions for surveying were difficult and a winter survey, when the undergrowth has died down and the leaves are off the trees and hedges, would probably reveal more of the 18 th century layout. The earthworks in the Gardens were plotted by measuring from the centres of the allees or other fixed points. Earthworks elsewhere were measured as offsets from ad hoc base lines set out between points fixed by the Ordnance Survey. A sample of 18 th and 19 th century trees was girthed and recorded to inform our dating of the design. These have been incorporated into Andrew Bowman-Shaw s tree survey. Significant 18 th century trees are located on the plan `Earthworks and other historic features. None of the measurements taken and used in this report are safe all should be used with an understanding of the level of accuracy that can be achieved with such simple surveying methods used at a difficult time of year. Definitions An `allee might be made up of several components: a central gravel walk with grass verges on both sides, and borders of shrubs and flowers beyond them, leading up to belts of forest trees, or the existing woodland that was cut through to make the allee. If the existing woodland had been coppiced, then one might expect an avenue to have been planted in place of the borders, as Bridgeman designed for Hackwood. Any number of variants of such basic elements may be imagined and no doubt has been employed somewhere in England. An `approach is the route to the house from outside the landscape. An `avenue is distinguished from an `allee by having trees planted at 4regular intervals on each side of it. A `drive is a route around an ornamental landscape, suitable for carriages. A `ride, as we have used the term here, is a linear feature that might include along its length avenues or allees. A `sight-line indicates that two structures are intervisible - the most obvious of these runs between the Chapel and the Round Temple. A `view-point is a place from which the landscape was intended to be seen; generally, these are 18 th century. They include the leads of the house, the various buildings, and the bastion, which gave a panorama over most of the landscape south of the Gardens. We would expect tree-planting and all landscaping to have been influenced by the composition of views from the view-points. A `vista, in this report, is a confined view to a distant object along an avenue or allee. The object does not have to be exactly in line with the avenue, as with the relationship between the Thatched House and the `Thatched House Ride. Trees While the earthworks in the Gardens suggest a long period of change and development in the fifty years after about 1685 when Robert Benson acquired the land, we cannot readily distinguish phases within this period. However trees planted before 1710 may include a few lines of Beech and occasional Yews (in compartment 4) in the Gardens, together with Beeches with girths in excess of 400cms. outside the Gardens, including two in the Broadwalk and a few more in Black Fen, and the Limes in the East Drive. 3

4 Between 1710 and his death, Benson seems to have adopted a more `natural' style. The rides through the parkland, and allees in Black Fen indicate the continuing development of the conspicuously formal layout of the early 18 th century, however these were framed by clumps rather than avenues where they cross the parkland. A third phase began in Harriet s time, from the 1740 s. During this phase trees were added and removed to soften the effects of the earlier layout (as in the North Avenue, around the Round Temple and the Thatched House and associated with the north approach). A significant number of Oak, Beech, Horse Chestnut, Sycamore, Ash, Lime and Scots Pine throughout the landscape probably date to this period. A fourth phase of planting took place in the mid-19 th century. This is most obviously seen in the almost total replanting of Black Fen (as shown on the plan of 1847). It is possible that this burst of enthusiasm was extended to other areas of the landscape and both the Gardens and the Black Fen Ride in Whittle Car may have been partially replanted in the same phase. A fifth phase of planting began around 1900, when the house was repaired and the family moved back to Bramham. This saw the replanting of the East Drive and the planting of the Beech hedges in the Gardens. Finally, the Gardens have been almost completely replanted within the last 50 years. A comparison between the 1893 Ordnance Survey and the current tree cover shows that Bramham has lost many trees over the last 100 years, particularly in the park to the north-east of Black Fen. Notes on the design Early History The boundary of the Gardens seems to have been influenced both by the surrounding topography - they sit on a plateau almost encircled by three valleys - and by the line of the parish boundary. Hackwood, Hampshire, is a landscape of similar quality and of the same date and there too there is a mediaeval deer park and the wooded pleasure ground (Spring Wood) is partly determined by the parish boundary. In that case, and probably also at Bramham, it seems that Hackwood (a hunting lodge for Basing House) was built in the deer park, near an existing wood, which would therefore have been sufficiently old to have been adopted for the Saxon period parish boundary. Bridgeman then established the pleasure ground within the woodland. A similar development may be posited for Bramham, where the parish boundary, still survived by a conspicuous bank, seems to have determined the west and north boundaries of the garden, the position of the Open Temple and the ride from the Four Faces to the entrance at the south-east corner of Black Fen. This bank continues around the north side of the Gardens (F.8 and F.7), moving away from the parish boundary, and, with its scale and line, offering further evidence that while it may first have been thrown up as a wood bank, it became a boundary of the mediaeval deer park. Such a deer park boundary would make the site of Bramham Hall itself perfect for the location of a late mediaeval lodge, as Gervase Markham described it in his 1616 interpolations into the Maison Rustique: 4

5 `In the most convenient laund of the parke, which is most spacious and fruitfull, and which hath the greatest prospect into the parke, and where the deere take greatest delight to feed, there you shall build the lodge or house for the Keeper to dwell in, and it shall by all meanes stand cleane, and open everie way, so as there may bee no secret approch made unto the same, but such as the Keeper may easily behold from his windows: and it shall stand so faire in the view of the laund, that from thence a man may see everie way round about the same, and some part up into the high woods, and other most secret parts of the parke (p ). If the gardens were developed in an existing wood and that wood predates the establishment of parish boundaries in Yorkshire then the gardens may be a very important habitat, particularly for invertebrates. Developments before 1710 The earthworks give some evidence for two pieces of ornamentation that had been superceded by The first of these is a parallel pair of clearings running across the landscape from NW-SE, the South and Parish Rides (see F.12 and F.18). These are each approximately 130 wide and 800 apart. A further step of 800 to the NE reaches the middle of the house. Because = 400 /3 we see this as ornamentation to a matrix based on 400 units. Its early date is testified to by the Parish Ride which survives as an earthwork but is not shown on any plan. The second piece also uses a 400 unit and may therefore be contemporary, though it has no relationship with the first. This is the space west of the house (compartments B.1 and B.4) which appear to have been set out as 400 plats, with 10 paths. The Stone Nymph and Open Temple allees are divergent and not symmetrical about the Cascade (F.1). However each is 400 from the line of the Cascade at Both now bend at the Cross Allee and it is their middle sections, west of the Cross Allee that seem to have the oldest line. We would therefore regard at least the sections of the Cross Allee and the Chapel Ride immediately west of the house as contemporary. Since Bramham was, so far as we know, the first house on the site and there was no earlier lodge, it would be reasonable to assume that this layout was developed at the time when the house was first considered, in about It is always reasonable to suppose not only that the gardens closest to a house will be developed first, but also that they will be developed more intensively. These hypotheses are supported by both the 1710 and the Wood plans, which show open areas and incomplete boundaries on the western and southern edges of the Gardens, rather in Switzer s ferme ornee style. The 1710 plan may be read as showing the intention to link the Gardens and Black Fen, though only the Chapel Ride had been built. But there is no evidence for any links to Whittle Car, and in fact the creation of the Sandpit Allee militated against the idea. Sandpit Allee ran up to the North Terrace, providing it seems a look out to the north from the junction. It had been largely replaced by the Four Faces Ride before The earthworks in the Gardens suggest an early 18 th century layout of bordered allees (particularly on the South Ride, see F.24), in a style similar to that we have recorded at the contemporary Hale Park, Hants. and the plan of 1710 shows allees of varying widths and with a variety of associated planting. If we are right to read the 1710 plan as showing the Gardens immediately west of the house as laid out with paths twining in rococo fashion through shrubberies, then this is a very early example of the `arti-natural style, first suggested on some of Stephen 5

6 Switzer s plans (see The Nobleman, Gentleman and Gardener s Recreation, 1715) and adopted wholeheartedly in Batty Langley s New Principles of Gardening (1728). but seldom found before about Our experience of these highly serpentine paths at Wanstead and Hackwood is that they are not necessarily discernible by archaeology. Where we have successfully investigated one (in Bridgeman s design for the Grove at Gunton) it proved to be a sand path. Sand is the local substrate of the Cromer area of North Norfolk and therefore we found it only because the area was exceptionally well-preserved and had never been reworked. Since sand is also the substrate at Bramham, and sand-pits survive in the Gardens there is every likelihood that this was used for the paths. The 1710 plan shows a rectangular canal (F.42) in Cascade Valley (which was then very much more part of the garden than it is today). This was made square to the line of the Chapel Ride and had a further long, narrow canal on its west side. Both features are survived by earthworks (see F.101). The allees and rides in Black Fen today have a width of 30 however we cannot say if that is an 18 th century dimension. Developments from One would expect a landscape as complex as Bramham to have been developed continually through Benson s lifetime, particularly because once one has assembled the estate staff to carry out such works it is easier to continue with an annual programme than to stop it. The development that is likely immediately to have followed the production of 1710 plan is the Cross T Ride, the Black Fen end of which is shown on it. The earthworks here have the same dimensions as those for the South Ride (see F.20). This however was only one of the rides that bound the landscape together by In any less sophisticated contemporary one would have expected these, after the example of Switzer, to have been planted with avenues. However it is clear that at Bramham they were defined by carefully placed clumps. The delight in the construction of allees and rides, survived even to the middle of the century, and is illustrated in the advice of William Hanbury and Richard Hurd: `The grand capital ridings being marked out, other inferior or narrower ones should be set out, in such a manner as to divide the whole wood into quarters, of not more than four or five acres. But this rule is not to be observed too strictly: The eye should be cast around, to see what distant objects present themselves; and those smaller ridings which lead from the capital ones should be so contrived, if possible, as to exhibit the view of a church, castle, windmill, or some agreeable object, which will at once equally please and strike the imagination William Hanbury A Complete Body of Planting and Gardening, London 1769 p.56. `This Gothic method of design in poetry [Spenser] may be, in some sort, illustrated by what is called the Gothic method of design in Gardening. A wood or grove cut out into many separate avenues or glades was amongst the most favourite of the works of art, which our father attempted in the species of cultivation. These walks were distinct from each other, had, each, their several destination and terminated on their own proper objects. Yet the whole was brought together and considered under one view by the relations which these various openings had not to each other, but to their common and concurrent center. You and I are, perhaps, agreed, that this sort of gardening, is not of so true a taste as that which Kent and nature have brought us acquainted with; where the supreme art of the Designer 6

7 consists in disposing his ground and objects in an entire landskip; and grouping them, if I may use the term, in so easy a manner, that the careless observer, tho' he be taken with the symmetry of the whole, discovers no art in the combination... This, I say, may be the truest taste in gardening, because the simplest: Yet there is a manifest regard to unity in the other method; which has had it's admirers, as it may have again, and is certainly not without it's design and beauty.' Richard Hurd Letters on Chivalry and Romance (1762). p.67. Benson s exuberant pleasure is exemplified by the creation of the New and Quarry Allees in Black Fen, neither of which were to survive the 19 th century replanting and both of which seem to have been laid out to take advantage of serendipitous junctions between existing rides. To this period fall also the grand waterworks in the gardens, together therefore with the Thatched House Ride. The Wood plan shows that in addition to the Cascade and the T Pond, there was a third feature to balance the Thatched House Ride in views from the house. We do not know what this was, but a fragment of the allee that ran to it (the North-West Allee) survives. This is immensely useful evidence for the dimensions and planting of the allees and rides in the Gardens. Today it is less than 20 wide, while the Thatched House Ride is over 100 : our conclusion is that as John James and John Laurence (inter alia) advised, the width of an avenue should be proportionate to its length. The surviving 18 th century trees along the line of the North-West Allee also suggest that it was tapered to form a view that took in the whole front of the house from the junction of the Stone Nymph and Cross T Allees. I suspect that there is a similar sophistication in the slight bends in the North Terrace, Stone Nymph and Open Temple Allees, and that these are also Benson s. Robert Benson died in 1731 but the Wood plan shows that he had already changed his mind about some of the 1710 plan (especially the Four Faces Ride). In addition the surviving earthworks suggest that at least two other canals (F.43, F.44) were developed in Cascade Valley, as shown on the Wood plan, together with a seat (F.37) on the dam at the west end of the western canal (a building is shown here on the 1817 plan). At the same time (viz. between 1710 and 1728) the woodland shown falling to the valley floor south of the South Terrace on the 1710 plan was removed or turned into clumps in the parkland. Indeed this period is marked by the enrichment of the parkland that had been established around the Gardens, improvement was moving out in waves from the house. Developments from 1731 At some time after Robert Benson s death a new burst of building works was set in train. It was common 18 th century practice for buildings to post-date the landscaping and planting designed to receive them. This was what happened at Painshill, Surrey, in the mid-18 th century and we should not regard his daughter s work as at odds with his. Thus at some time between 1728 and 1817, probably c1740, the South Terrace was constructed to take better advantage of the newly cleared valley. This was made parallel to, but south of, the earlier allee (F.51), and its construction presumably coincided with that of the West and Link Allees. Probably at the same time, because it relates to the same area of the garden, the quarters between the Thatched House Ride and Chapel Ride (B.8 and D) were reworked, particularly to set off the Gothic Seat with bowling greens, and we see here too (F.15) the serendipitous walk led off from the oval (F.30) to the Stone Nymph. 7

8 The Gardens were increasingly retreating from Cascade Valley, and the canals had been drained, or reduced to a string of small, round pools, by However we cannot guess at the date for that. Developments after 1817 A ring-count from an Ash stump in compartment 3 gave a planting date of c1820. The girths of many of the Ash, Sycamore, Oak and Beech in the Gardens also point to an extensive re-planting at some time around the 1830 s. This follows a pattern of revivalism that we have recorded widely elsewhere around England, springing from the increasingly pure historicism of Humphry Repton (after 1800), Uvedale Price and Payne Knight, the protagonists of the `Picturesque Controversy. Other examples of this phenomenon include Blickling, Castle Bromwich, Hale Park, Hall Barn, Holkham, Inkpen, St Paul s Walden, Wrest. 20 th Century Developments The Gardens were further reworked in about 1910, during the second great phase of revivalism, prompted partly by Reginald Blomfield s The formal garden in England (1892). At the same time the house was reworked, both commissions being undertaken by Detmar Blow. He may therefore have been responsible for planting the Beech hedging that survives on some of the allees. Some compartments (9 and 10) were felled in the late 1940s and considerable damage was sustained in storms in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the Gardens have therefore been replanted within the last 100 years and the maintenance of the tree stock will be more a matter of felling than planting. The Cascade Valley was felled in the late 1940s and replanted. Field notes and analysis Parterre & cascade (A) F.1 - Bank c0.25m high by 1.50m wide; presumably surviving from earthworks left when the cascade was abandoned. It is clearly shown on the Wood plan and may have been constructed in the 1720 s as part of the introduction of water-works into the Gardens. It is not shown on the 1817 plan, but that is not sufficiently clear to be reliable. However it is definitely absent from the 1845 plan and must be presumed to have been abandoned by then. Wilderness Quarters (B) Wilderness Quarters (B.1) F.3 This cambered bank runs down the centre of the Thatched House Ride. The camber (10 wide from memory) is typical of a drive or walk. This is the only allee with a pronounced camber and though we could not date the earthwork, its existence suggests that the other allees did not have gravelled drives on them. F.4 - Bank; presumably surviving from formal walks and flowerbeds associated with the early 18 th century layout shown on the 1710 plan and the Wood plan. 8

9 Wilderness Quarters (B.2) F.6 - Pile of rubble, probably brought in and dumped here, but perhaps the site of a building. F.7 - Bank c0.50m high and ditch; the 1710 plan shows this as the northern boundary of the gardens (in particular the kink shown on that plan is repeated in the line of this feature). We presume that this kink had survived from the wood/deer park boundary that pre-dated the Gardens. The Wood plan of 1728 shows this kink straightened out and the existing boundary established. Wilderness Quarters (B.3) F.8 The continuation of F.7 to the west. This large bank is not shown on the 1710 plan, and therefore provides excellent evidence for whatever was on the site before the house was built. The scale of the feature suggests a deer park or wood bank. Wilderness Quarters (B.4) F.10 - The 1710 plan shows a series of cabinets linked by straight and winding walks and the same design is shown on the Wood plan, with few modifications. The 1817 plan, though it records little detail in the gardens, does distinguish between two different densities of planting here, together with a few remnants of the walks. Earthworks from these layouts survive here, in association with 18 th century Yews and Limes. However the earthworks proved too complex and inaccessible to map in the summer and a winter survey should be carried out before detailed proposals are made. Wilderness Quarters (B.5) F.12 - Bank c0.25m high. This marked the western edge of the South Ride, giving it a total width of about 130. By 1710 the South Ride had a band of planting along it, immediately west of this line. The planting had been absorbed into a larger piece of woodland by 1728, however this bank seems to have been retained as a boundary and is shown as such on the Wood plan. See F.24. Wilderness Quarters (B.6) F.14 A pair of slight and damaged depressions. The easternmost might be a continuation of the middle of the three banks that make up F.24. The other has the character of a walk. Wilderness Quarters (B.8) F.15 - A slight ditch and bank with old Lime regrowth; perhaps a path or garden boundary in the 18 th century layout. Though it is not shown on any plans, this feature appears to be related to the layout surrounding the Gothic Temple and is presumably contemporary with that building (c1740 s). It appears to run parallel to the house and links the Gothic Temple with the Stone Nymph and the junction between the Thatched House and South Rides. 9

10 Wilderness Quarters (B.9) F.17 - Two parallel banks, approximately 130 apart. The southern one is shown on O.S. plans as the parish boundary, the northern bank is presumably associated with it (see F.18 below). Neither bank is shown as part of the ornamental design on any plan. Wilderness Quarters (B.10) F.18 - Two parallel banks, approximately 130 apart (as F.17); the southern bank (the parish boundary) runs through the Open Temple and is aligned on the Round Temple in Black Fen. It seems to us likely that these mark the width of a clearing made through ancient woodland in the late 17 th century, and later refined to the vista to the Round Temple. The northern of these two banks is shown on the Wood plan as the boundary of an area of dense planting. The line of the parish boundary here is shown on the 1817 and subsequent plans.. F.20 - Bank c0.25m high and running parallel to the Cross T Ride, giving a total width of approximately 130. This is embedded in woodland on the Wood plan, which suggests a similar history to the South Ride (see F.12). F.21 An old sand-pit, one of three (see F.27), west of the Cross T Ride, probably dug before the west end was fully incorporated into the Gardens. Wilderness Quarters (B.11) F.24 This area was very difficult to survey through the undergrowth and the earthworks here are complex. However we did plot three parallel banks approximately 40 apart and apparently associated with the South Ride. The band that they comprise is shown on the 1710 plan, but the design here had been changed by These banks therefore give us good data for the dimensions of the pre-1710 layout that it was decimal, and may have used multiples of 4, thus validating (i.e. 400 /3) as an early unit. F.25 - Pit or quarry, with associated earthworks. This quarry cuts into the earthworks of F.24 and for that reason is likely to have been abandoned at some time after The whole area of earthworks lay in a field in However the linear banks here run parallel with the Cross T Ride and mark a planting shown by Wood. These still have Yews associated with them. While a winter survey may throw more light on the design, a first conclusion will be that the quarry had not been abandoned by 1728 and the Yews were planted to screen it. These banks are approximately 50 apart and thus provide a possible model for this section of the Cross T Ride approximately as follows: 50 belt of forest trees, 30 shrub and flower border, then a 20 grass verge on each side of a 30 sanded central walk. Wilderness Quarters (B.12) F.26 This bank is clearly related to F.24 and shows that the belt of woodland extended to the Sandpit Allee as shown on the 1710 plan.. F.27 - Pit or quarry. This must have been dug after 1710 as it is on the line of the Sandpit Allee as shown on the 1710 plan. It is marked as a sandpit on the 1 st ed. Ordnance Survey. 10

11 T Pond (C ) The line of the long arm of the T pond runs to the south-west corner of the 18 th century park (it is not clear whether the boundary would have been visible). The Thatched House was built in the vista at approximately 45 metres east of the centre line. The long arm of the T Pond gave a view from the west front of the house to the Thatched House. In the view from the house the water in the pond, and the valley and hillside west of the Gardens, are not seen and the Thatched House appears to stand at the end of the Gardens. The short arm of the pond is aligned on the Lead Lads in Black Fen (and on Wothersome Farm to the north, though it is not known whether this would have been visible). The pond is first shown on the Wood plan of Gothic Temple (D) The temple was built on open ground after c1740, and is first shown with its square and oval lawns on the 1817 plan. Later plans suggest that these have remained largely free of planting since. Two of the watercolour sketches in the house show the temple in its setting, with Reptonian flower borders and baskets. The Gothic Temple Allee has been through a number of changes and we believe that it was re-orientated when the Temple itself was built (probably in the 1740 s). See F.74. F.30 - Bank 0.15m high marking a design shown on the 1817 and later plans up to the 1893 Ordnance Survey. We believe that this was part of a design contemporary with the Gothic Temple. Obelisk Pond (E) A pond had been built here by 1728, however it had been remodelled into three reservoirs (its present state) by We suggest that it was first constructed in the 1720 s and remodelled in the 1740 s. Cascade valley (F) F.33 - A slight ditch; the boundary to the west and south (as far as the South Ride) appears to have been a sunk wall or sunk fence. F.34 - A slight scarp perhaps marking the line of a path or drive. F.35 - A scarp probably marking the northern bank of the canal shown on the 1710 plan. F.36 - A drive; this is not shown on any plan. Its date of construction is therefore not known. It is cut into the scarp where we believe the mediaeval deer park boundary ran. F.37 - Two mounds c2.50m high (apparently a single feature recently cut through by an access track); the feature was probably the dam of the lake shown on the 1710 plan (see F.101) and a building is shown here on the 1817 plan. F.39 - A drive; as F.36 above. F.40 - A drive; this is shown on the Wood plan, the plan of 1817 and the 1893 O.S.; it crosses the line of the South Ride in a cutting. F.42 - Site of a canal shown on the 1710 plan and on the Wood plan. F.43 - Site of a canal shown on the Wood plan; the 1817 plan shows a series of small ponds here. F.44 - Site of a canal shown on the Wood plan. F.45 - A pit or quarry; the icehouse (first shown on the 1845 plan) lies just to the west of this feature and its construction may have taken advantage of an existing pit. 11

12 Terrace walls (J) With the exception noted below, the boundary of the Gardens consists of straight lengths of either a ha-ha (retaining wall with ditch) or, at the bastion and immediately to the east and west of it, a retaining wall without a ditch, both constructions allowing uninterrupted views out of the Gardens. The presence or absence of ditch may be a response to the topography - the falling ground south of the boundary near the bastion may have made a ditch unnecessary. The construction of the retaining walls suggests that they were built in a single phase of work. Terrace walls (J.2- West) The western boundary is curved rather than straight and a stone wall rather than a retaining wall. Its line can be explained by the parish boundary, which the boundary of the Gardens still follows, it may be that this wall was retained because it does not have a terrace walk along it. Terrace walls (J.3-South) We believe that the South Terrace, with its semi-circular bastion was built added to the Gardens after 1728, by which time the woodland in the valley south of the Gardens had been clumped and cleared. F.50 - Bastion; this is shown squared on the Wood plan. F.51 - Bank marking the course of a drive, 10 feet wide. This is the allee shown on the 1710 and Wood plans. A The Park Overlooked from the entrance front of the house, almost all the views from the house ran into and across the North Park. The best evidence for the 18 th century planting of North Park is the bedroom sketch (c1825) of the view from the front door. In this the park is divided into at least two enclosures with a fence running along the north side of the approach. As would be expected the view is dominated by the North Avenue. The even scatter of single Beech trees to the north of the North Avenue was probably planted in c1825 (the trees are probably absent from the 1825 watercolour) and were planted on old field boundary banks or possibly on the ridges of earlier ridge and furrow. The high ground in the north-east of the park was also planted with a scatter of trees (a few Oak survive) and a `shade' (cattle shed, sometimes ornamental) was built here. South of the avenue, the 1845 plan and the O.S. show the trees concentrated in the west of the park - where they would not obstruct views across the park from the house - and the remainder of the park visible from the house was left almost entirely treeless; a cricket pitch was made on the level ground in the early 20 th century. F.55 - Field boundary shown on the 1710 plan; this was the park boundary in 1728, as the Wood plan shows. It is sunk and not visible from the house. The pursuit of mediaeval deer park boundaries is always contentious, but in this case it looks plausible to suppose that this earthwork is a continuation of F.8 and F.7 and thus a continuation of the mediaeval boundary. F.56 - Banks 0.15m high by 1.50m wide; probably old field boundary banks dating from the agricultural fields removed to create parkland after c1700. The westernmost survived to be mapped on the Wood plan and seems still then to have marked a division within the parkland. It seems possible that this was the boundary of the formal planting shown off the east front of the house on the 1710 plan. 12

13 F.57 - Parallel banks apparently marking the course of a drive at the early 18 th century (and perhaps mediaeval) park boundary shown on the 1710 and Wood plans. See F.55, F.66, F.68 and F.148. The drive at the park boundary was common enough in 16 th century parks: it can be traced at Theobalds and is referred to by Gervase Markham: `you shall by no means alongst your pale walke plant fruit trees, black-thorne, or bullies, for they are the occasion of much hurt and destruction to your pale, under colour of gathering the fruit, (op. cit. p.670). F.59 - The North Approach; this was an early-18 th century construction (it is first shown on the Wood plan), providing an ornamental approach to the house, passing through a cutting in the rock, crossing the stream on a bridge and giving at least two views of the house - from the North Lodge (c1750) and from the point at which the approach emerged from the Beech clump at the east end of the North Avenue. F.60 - A scarp; on the line of the 1710 park boundary and probably therefore the mediaeval park boundary. F.62 - Slight ditch marking the boundary of the Beech clump (first shown on the 1817 plan). F.63 - Slight bank marking the site of a circular clump of Beech. F.64 - Bramham approach (first shown on the 1840 O.S.); this was presumably not made until the ground to the east of the estate had been purchased (it is shown as `Lord Headley's Estate' on the 1817 plan), though the name of a wood in the valley, `Oldroad Plantation', suggests that, as one might expect, there had long been access along the valley. F.66 - Ditch marking the line of a culverted water course. This was probably also a continuation of the drive F.57 and F.68 and the boundary of the park before c1750. F.67 Cutting: the drive runs through a deep cutting here, giving it an easy gradient at just the point where it might have been visible in views between the house and the quarry at F.155. It is first unmistakably shown on the 1817 plan, however the string of trees shown in this location on the Wood plan make it virtually certain that it had been cut by F.68 - Scarps marking the course of a drive shown on both the 1710 and 1817 plans. It presumably was a continuation of F.57. F.69 - Bank c0.50m high by 1.0m wide; probably an old field boundary. The two Oaks here are visible from the house and may be survivors of a larger clump established around a field boundary tree. The uneven ground around the trees may be stump holes or suggest that there was a building here. The trees, but not the field boundary, are shown on the 1845 plan. F.70 - Scarps suggestive of a further pond in the string that at one time or another have been laid out in the Cascade Valley. F.72 - Old field boundary bank; not shown on any plan but presumably contemporary with F.73 (with which it is parallel) F.73 - Bank; probably an old field boundary. F.74 - Bank 0.25m high by 1.0m wide erased at its north end by the manege; the Wood plan shows a hedge in roughly this position, the counterpart to that discussed under F.56. Wood also shows the distinctive curve at its south end, where it turns across the contour to run down into the valley. The promontory immediately east of this linear earthwork has been levelled and the 1710 plan shows a focal point on it at the end of the Gothic Temple Allee (an allee that was to be reoriented to the north of this promontory after the Temple and Obelisk Pond had been constructed). F.75 - The South Approach (first shown on the 1817 plan); where it crosses in view of the Gardens the approach runs slightly below the level of the field to the west so that it is not visible from the Obelisk Pond or the Gothic Temple. 13

14 B East Drive The 1710 plan shows a formal planting of trees on the north-south axis of the house. From their size the cartographer clearly regarded them as important, but they show that the North Avenue had not then been planted. The c1825 bedroom sketch of the view from the entrance front suggests on the other hand that the avenue was an early addition to the layout (the trees are mature) and this observation is supported by the evidence of the surviving Limes which definitely look early 18 th century. It seems to us most likely therefore that the `hedges shown on the Wood plan were in fact the avenue and that the trees were then plashed as a hedge on stilts. By 1825 the northern line of trees had been almost completely removed, apparently to open up views to the high ground to the north-east - the construction of the North Lodge and approach may have prompted this work. The 1845 plan, an apparently reliable guide to tree distribution, supports the 1825 sketch, showing only two or three trees in the northern row. The 1893 O.S. shows an avenue consisting of two single rows of trees approximately 300 feet apart, with more trees mapped in the southern row, showing that the North Avenue was replanted between 1845 and The avenue shown on the O.S. converges (narrows further from the house) and the avenue earthworks (presumably surviving from the early 18 th century avenue) may support this so that the replanted avenue may have followed the early 18 th century design. The Ordnance Survey also shows eight roughly symmetrical small circular conifer clumps planted in the line of the avenue. The largest Limes (5 trees on the south side) suggest a double avenue, the rows closely planted. However the Wood plan shows `kinks in the plashed hedges at the point where these trees stand and they may survive from some more complex piece of design. They are likely to have been planted between 1710 and 1728 and the remaining Limes were planted in the 20 th century in formal blocks. The avenue may have been patched with other species later in the 18 th century (something that ones finds in several Brownian landscapes, such as Cowdray and Patshull). At Bramham, the relation between the earthworks and the Beech and Beech stump (27 on the tree survey) and the Oak on their east side suggests that these trees were added to the avenue planting. The two Beeches would have stood directly on the line of the view from the door to the round building (F.156) and may have been planted as part of the composition of this view. The other large Beech in this compartment (north of the approach - 8 on the tree survey) stands inside the two ditches marking the earlier line of the avenue and may also have been planted in the second half of the 18 th century to soften its formal lines. However a more exact survey will be required to establish the detail of this complex planting. The approach runs on a slight causeway and a terrace approximately 20 metres wide has been cut into the side of the hill to give it an even gradient. The date of its construction is not known, however it is shown on the Wood plan. F.80 - The present approach runs across the front of the house on a slightly raised causeway. F.81 - The causeway and terracing carrying the North Approach. F.82 - A terrace approximately 20 metres wide cut into the hill. It was probably made to provide an easier gradient for the North Approach. F.84 - A slight ditch marking the course of a drain or culvert. 14

15 F.86 - The west end of the North Avenue planting is survived by a slight scarp, very largely removed by ploughing. F.87 - Parallel ditches, which we assume to be among the earthworks of the North Avenue; the ditches in the southern row are 25 apart at the east end of the avenue and 25 apart at a similar distance from the house in the northern row. However, to the west of the point at which the drive cuts through the avenue the distance between the ditches is twice this, approximately 54 and further west the northern row has ditches 18 apart. Presumably the surviving ditches are fragmentary remains of the avenue earthworks. On the basis of this evidence one might argue that when first planted, the avenue consisted of at least three rows of trees. C Southern Parkland Only the northern corner of this area of the landscape is visible from the house and its layout and planting were determined by views across it from the Round Temple and from the southern side of the Gardens. The parkland on both sides of the Broadwalk was shown as well clumped and lightly treed on the Wood plan. It seems most significant that all the nine or so clumps shown by Woods straddle rides this strongly suggests that they were planted rather than cut out of some existing woodland. The one that appears not to survives today (no. 23 on the tree survey) and this in fact straddled the Roman Road (F.114) and the parish boundary. On the other hand, the clumps shown on the Wood plan in the valley south-west of the South Terrace must be fragments of the woodland shown on the 1710 plan, and, as we have argued, mediaeval or older in origin. Just from the look of them on the Wood plan, it is tempting to believe that the wisps of woodland running out from the north-east corner of Black Fen were also ancient in origin, but there is no evidence to support this. F.90 - Bank c0.50m high by 1.0m wide; apparently an old field boundary either replaced by the wall to the north or a bank raised and planted with trees to screen the wall when this area was brought into the ornamental landscape sometime after The intention may have been to screen the wall in views north from the Round Temple to the round building (F.156). The wall is first shown on the 1817 plan (but this is the earliest plan to show this part of the park). F.91 - Stone wall; this seems to have been the park boundary on the 1710 and Wood plans, so that the stone-walled field to the north lay outside the park until Harriet s day. This may perhaps explain both the anomaly of the stone-walled field (unexpected in parkland visible from the house) and the screen of trees shown on the line of both walls on the 1845 plan - the trees may have been added after 1731 to screen the walls when they were introduced to the park. It may be significant that the wall at F.91, more widely visible than the wall at F.90, had a line of trees on both sides. F.92 - Knoll; a prominent hilltop shown planted with trees on the Wood and 1845 plans and on the 1893 O.S. Together with the quarry (F.93) it lies on the line of the northern oblique view (at 45 o to the East Avenue) from the Round Temple. See F.128. F.93 - Quarry planted with 18 th century Beech (first shown on the 1817 plan); prominent in views from the Round Temple. F.94 - Two parallel scarps 0.25m high that may mark the course of a path leading to a seat on the edge of this bluff. There are fine views along the valley to the north-east from here. The topography here is strongly marked on the Wood plan, but there is no clear evidence on it of a feature here. F.95 - Drive; this is first shown on the 1845 plan. 15

16 F.96 - Site of a building visible on the c1825 bedroom watercolour showing the view from the Round Temple. The building looks like a `shade' and was taken down in the 20 th century. The surrounding trees hae girths that suggest an early 18 th century date planting date. Since they are not shown on the Wood plan presumably they, and the shade, were put up soon after. F.97 - A natural depression carrying a drive shown on the 1845 plan and on the 1893 O.S.; the low ground would have concealed the drive in views north from the viewpoint at the southern end of Lord Bingley's Walk. An early 18 th century date for the drive is suggested by the bridges across the East Avenue shown on the Wood plan. One would expect it then to have continued across the park along the natural depression that runs towards the quarry (F.93). See F.117. F.99 West Drive (first shown on the 1840 O.S. but running on to the west from F.97); here the drive runs along a ridge of high ground giving views north and south. F The site of the Thatched House; a building is first shown here on the Wood plan. Though not in the middle of the Thatched House Ride, the building must have been visible from the house (a Beech clump was the actual focus of the sight-line). The building was oriented at an angle of 45 o to the Black Fen Ride to the east, at right angles to the drive (F.109) to the north and on the line of the West Drive through Whittle Car. The view from the Thatched House to the house is the most successful composition at Bramham today. The house, standing at an angle of 55 o, is seen at the end of the long arm of the T Pond. F Scarp 0.50m high (much eroded); this may survive from the tree-lined walk along the northern edge of the lake shown on the 1710 plan. The 1845 plan also shows a line of trees here and four trees survived to be recorded on the 1893 O.S. F Bank 0.25m high; perhaps a causeway at the end of the lake. The design is complex here however, at the junction of the woodland of the early 18 th century Gardens, the north end of Lord Bingley s Walk, and the point at which the streams once debouched into the lake. This is an area where archaeological investigation might be helpful. F Scarp (probably natural); however the 1893 O.S. shows a path running along the top of the bank here. The earthwork lies within the woodland area of the Gardens as shown on the 1710 plan, and it might be that it was made a zig-zag to carry the walk up the valley. F Bank 0.25m high marking the course of the leat; clearly not built in 1728 (the Wood plan shows a stream on the valley floor) but shown on the 1817 plan and now culverted; it carried water from springs in Jenny Sober Plantation to the Obelisk Pond and was presumably constructed in the mid-18 th century after the lake had been abandoned. F Scarps 0.25m high marking the site of a pond shown on the 1817 plan. Like F.105 above, this seems to provide evidence for a search for water to supply the waterworks and house and helps explain the short life of the ponds in Cascade Valley. F Bank 0.25m high marking the course of the path to the Thatched House; its north end is shown running through the woodland of the Gardens on the 1710 plan. This north end is aligned on the Stone Nymph, however it is hard to see any significance in this. F Earthworks surviving from a drive shown on the 1 st edition of the O.S. F A depression and a knoll; both appear to be artificial (their dimensions suggest cut and fill) though their date and purpose are not known. They lie on the boundary of the woodland shown in the Gardens on the 1710 plan. The knoll and depression also lie both on the Thatched House Ride and on the 45 o oblique from the Round Temple and one might imagine a structure here to provide access into the parkland across the stream. 16

17 F.112 The earthworks here are degraded and complex, but we are confident that a drive was carried west from Lord Bingley s Walk, falling slowly as it went, if only to provide access to the walk. However nothing is shown here on any plan. F.113 Knoll with a path running up to it from the west and down again into Lord Bingley s Walk to the south. The knoll would have given views down the lake shown on the 1710 plan. It is also prominent in views from the bastion in the South Terrace and from Lord Bingley's Walk and it stands in the same relationship to the 45 o obliques from the Round Temple as the knoll at F.92. F Roman road (first shown on the 1845 plan); other walks seem to run up to and across this feature, and at first sight it was not made much of in the design. However it is clear that a good deal was going on where it crossed Lord Bingley's Walk, and the belllike salient on which it crosses the walk is strongly reminiscent of the devices one finds used elsewhere (eg in the Slips at Godolphin, Corwall) for funnelling deer into a narrow passage. Here as elsewhere, so long as any drives on it were grassed, we would not expect them to be recorded on plans. F The site of the Cocked Hat Plantation; the Wood plan shows a plantation in the form of a Cocked Hat and in roughly the right position, but the wood was first accurately drawn on the 1817 plan. This later formed the backdrop to the composition of the western oblique view through the window in the Round Temple. It had been felled by D - Broadwalk Surviving trees suggest that the Broadwalk was planted with Beech. It is first shown on the 1710 plan and had been almost completely felled by 1845 (the 1845 plan shows only six trees). The earthworks suggest that the drive down the centre of the avenue was a maximum of 20 wide and the total width of the feature was approximately 130 (see our analysis of the South Ride F.12 for a comparison). The avenue was planted on these verges approximately 73 wide (this compares with approximately 74 at the Round Temple) - measured with a tape across the earthworks and from the oldest trees to the centreline. If the true width was as we believe elsewhere, then the drive may have been 13 4 with 60 verges on each side and the avenue may have been set out down the middle of them, to give a true measurement between the rows of At the hachuring on the plan, the avenue is cut into the slight rise in the ground, the depth of the cutting presumably determined by the composition of the view between the Chapel and the Round Temple. The cutting lies approximately halfway between the southern boundary of the Cascade valley and the ha-ha at the north end of the Round Temple enclosure. The topography means that there is a considerable area of dead ground - both to north and south of the cutting as well as the ground lost in the Cascade valley - in the view between the Chapel and the Round Temple. F Scarps marking the dimensions of the Broadwalk (first shown on the 1710 plan). F Scarps marking the course of a drive branching off from the Broadwalk; the drive is not shown on any plan and was presumably grassed. However its existence by 1728 is posited by the Wood plan which shows a `bridge across the East Avenue at this junction. The most straight-forward line for such a drive would be along the contour to the Roman road at the north end of Lord Bingley s Walk. In such a case it would have bounded the strip of woodland shown running along the south side of the valley on the 1710 plan. 17