Halswell Park, Goathurst, England

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

Mid- and late-18th-century pleasure grounds and parkland which were developed from early 18th-century formal gardens and parkland by Sir Charles Tynte, with a series of landscape buildings attributed to Thomas Wright.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Halswell Park is situated immediately to the south of the village of Goathurst, some 3 kilometres south-west of Bridgwater. The roughly 179 hectare site comprises of gardens and pleasure grounds around the House, an area of mid-18th-century pleasure grounds in a combe known as Patcombe and Mill Wood around 400 metres north-west of the House, and parkland and ornamental plantations. To the north the site is bounded by the village of Goathurst, and by a minor sunken road which runs east from Huntstile to Goathurst and west to Andersfield. The west boundary is formed by a further minor sunken road which runs south from Andersfield to Hatcombe. To the south and east the site adjoins agricultural land and a late 20th-century commercial plantation which adjoins an 18th-century boundary plantation, The Thickets, south of the House. Halswell Park occupies a north-facing slope of the Quantock Hills, with a deep combe, Huntstile Bottom, running from south to north about 800 metres east of the House, and a wider, shallower valley running north from Patcombe about 750 metres south-west of the House, to Mill Wood about 350 metres west of the House. The site enjoys extensive views north across adjoining agricultural land to the Bristol Channel, Flat Holm, Steep Holm, and the South Wales coast. There are significant designed views north across the park, pleasure grounds, and surrounding land towards the Keymes’ property in South Wales from Robin Hood’s Hut which stands on the ridge of high ground about 400 metres south of the House. Ornamental clumps of trees and other planting on land to the south of The Thickets and to the north of the minor road which passes through Rooks Castle Farm about one kilometre south of the House are significant for the setting of the site, but are excluded from the site here registered.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

T Wright, Arbours and Grottoes (1755-8, reprinted 1979)

A Young, A Farmer’s Tour through the East of England IV, (1771), pp 14-21

J Collinson, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset I, (1791, reprinted 1983), p 81

Illustrated London News, (1 October 1853)

L B Burke, A Visitation of the Seats..., I, (1855), pp 110-11

Kelly, Directory of Somerset (1902, 1919)

W H P Gresswell, Forests and Deer Parks of Somerset (1905)

Country Life, 24 (21 November 1908), pp 702-10; 183 (9 February 1989), pp 82-7

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset (1958), pp 188-9

B Jones, Follies & Grottoes (2nd edition 1974), pp 384-5

Garden History 5, no 3 (1977), pp 27-32

J Harris, The Artist and the Country House (1979), p 282

R W Dunning, Some Somerset Country Houses (1991)

Victoria History of the County of Somerset VI, (1992), pp 45-9

Halswell Park Historic Landscape Survey and Management Plan, (Nicholas Pearson Associates 1995)

P White, A Gentleman of Fine Taste: The Watercolours of Coplestone Warre Bampfylde (1720-1791) (1995), pp 10-11

J Bond, Somerset Parks and Gardens (1998), pp 69, 86-7, 94, 97, 118, 120, 152-5

Maps

J J de Wilstar, A Plan of the Halswell Estate, 1756 [copy on EH file]

C and J Greenwood, Somersetshire Delineated, 1822

Tithe map for Broomfield parish, 1838 (Somerset Record Office)

Tithe map for Chilton Trinity parish, 1840 (Somerset Record Office)

Tithe map for Goathurst parish, 1846 (Somerset Record Office)

OS Surveyor's Drawing, 1802 (British Library Maps)

OS Old Series 1" to 1 mile, published 1809

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1887, published 1890; 2nd edition published 1904

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1888, published 1889

Illustrations

Oil painting, The parterre, pavilion and vista seen from the north-east corner of Halswell House, around 1710 (private collection)

Oil painting, Halswell House and pleasure grounds from the north, around 1750 (private collection)

Henry Keene, design for Robin Hood’s Hut, around 1765 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

John Inigo Richards, Halswell House and pleasure grounds from the north-east, around 1770 (private collection)

W Watts after J I Richards, Halswell, in Somersetshire, the seat of Sir Charles Kemeys Tynte, Bart, 1779 (Somerset Record Office)

Bonner, Halswell Park from the north-east showing the rotunda, canal and rockwork screen, 1791 (Somerset Record Office)

A Aglis, Halswell House and pleasure grounds from the north-east, around 1820 (Local History Library, Taunton)

J P Neale, Halswell House from the north-west, 1829 (Somerset Record Office)

E Noyce, Halswell House from the north-west, around 1830 (Somerset Record Office)

Engraving, View from the High Ground Halswell, around 1850 (Somerset Record Office)

J Buckler, Halswell House from the north-east, 1863

Archival items

The Tynte family archive, including Sir Charles Keymes Tynte's correspondence and diary for 1756 with references to work in Mill Wood and visitors to the gardens, is held at the Somerset Record Office (DID/X/ELS)

R Escott, Memorandum to Sir Charles Tynte, with description of landscape work undertaken during Escott’s period as estate steward, 1753-81 (DID/X/EMY 1), (Somerset Record Office)

Survey of the Halswell Estate, 1597 (DID/X/ELS 1), (Somerset Record Office)

Survey of the Estate of Sir John Tynte, 1708 (DID/X/ELS 1), (Somerset Record Office)
 

Description written: October 1999

Edited: February 2005