Grimsthorpe Castle, Bourne, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

An early 16th-century park, with alterations by Lancelot Brown in 1771, forms the setting for a castle rebuilt in the mid-16th century as a country house, surrounded by mid-19th- and 20th-century gardens which contain traces of an early 18th-century layout by Stephen Switzer.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Grimsthorpe Castle occupies a rural setting about 18 kilometres south-east of Grantham, immediately to the west of the village of Grimsthorpe. The roughly 1000 hectare site is some 5.2 kilometres long and 1.8 kilometres wide. Its northern boundary is formed by the A151 while to the west, south, and east the site is bounded by farmland. The Castle is set on a ridge running from north-west to south-east through the site, giving views to east and west.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J Kip and L Knyff, Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne (1715)

S Switzer, Ichnographia rustica I, (1718)

A Young, A Six Month Tour through the North of England (1770), pp 83-6

Country Life, 55 (12 April 1924), pp 572-9; (19 April 1924), pp 614-21; (26 April 1924), pp 650-7; no 21 (21 May 1998)

H Thorold and J Yates, Lincolnshire, A Shell Guide (1965)

P Willis (editor), Furor Hortensis (1974), pp 24-7, plates 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 144, 146-7

N Pevsner et al, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire (2nd edition 1989)

R Pardo, Grimsthorpe Castle, (unpublished dissertation, University of York 1991)

J Chandler, John Leland's Itinerary, Travels in Tudor England (1993), pp 287-8

T Knox, Grimsthorpe Castle, a guidebook, (1996)

R Turner, Capability Brown and the 18th-century English landscape (1999), pp 127-30, 180

Maps

C Saxton, Map of Lincolnshire, 1567

Tycho Wing, Estate map, 1745 (private collection)

J Grundy, A plan of the house, gardens, park , waters, woods and other lands in his Grace's sum and occupation, 1753 (3 ANC 4/35A), (Lincolnshire Archives)

Frederick Wood, Estate map, 1829-30 (private collection)

Archibald Kennedy, Estate map, 1847 (private collection)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1887, published 1888; 2nd edition published 1906

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1886, published 1889; 2nd edition published 1904

Illustrations

Perspective view of the north front of Grimsthorpe House, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Ancaster (3 ANC 4/35A), (Lincolnshire Archives)
 

Description written: October 2000

Redrafted: May 2001

Amended: April 2002

Edited: May 2002