Ashridge, Chiltern Hills, England

Site is open to the public. Opening may be limited, please check Visitor Information for any restrictions.

Brief description of site

A park, woodland and agricultural estate of about 1400 hectares, originating in the Medieval period with later design by Lancelot Brown. There is a central landscape park of 36 hectares, including 19th-century ornamental gardens occupying about 6 hectares to the south of the house.

Brief history of site

The site was a monastic college, founded in 1283, which came into private ownership after 1539. A new house was built in the 1760s, and Lnacelot Brown was employed to improve the parkland from 1759 to 1768. Another new house was built in 1808 and the previous house was demolished. In 1813 Humphry Repton produced a Red Book of suggestions for the gardens and pleasure grounds immediately around the house, his designs being laid out piecemeal over the following decades. The estate was sold up in the 1920s, the house and garden becoming a training centre for Conservative Party workers, the park and woodland being largely acquired by the National Trust and peripheral plots being sold for housing. The house became the Ashridge Management College in 1959, in which use it and the gardens remain.

Location information:

OS Landranger Map Sheet Number:	166	Grid Ref:	SP990124
Latitude:	51.80149	Longitude:	-0.565666

Key information:

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