Ashridge, Chiltern Hills, England

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

An early 19th-century country house with gardens, laid out largely 1810s-1830s to suggestions made by Humphry Repton (Red Book 1813) towards the end of his career, surrounded by an extensive park and woodland. Lancelot Brown worked on the park from 1759 to 1768.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Ashridge House lies about 5 kilometres north of Berkhamstead, on the western boundary of Hertfordshire with Buckinghamshire. The roughly 200 hectare site is bounded to the west by the Ringshall to Berkhamstead lane, to the north-east by the village of Little Gaddesden, and to the south by Berkhamstead Common. The estate lies in the northern half of the Chiltern Hills, close to the south-west-facing scarp. The house and gardens lie on a plateau surrounded by the woodland and park, which overlie shallow valleys. The setting is rural and largely wooded, with the villages of Ringshall, Little Gaddesden and Nettleden extending along the north-east boundary.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Country Life, 4 (5 November 1898), pp 560-3; (12 November 1898), pp 592-6; 50 (6 August 1921), pp 160-6; (13 August 1921), pp 192-8; 58 (7 November 1925), pp 687-9

D Stroud, Humphry Repton (1962), pp 101, 215

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975 edition), pp 160, 165

A Wainwright, Ashridge Park Survey, (draft report for National Trust, 1989)

M Thompson, The Gardens at Ashridge, a study of the gardens and plan for their conservation, (Architectural Association Diploma dissertation 1996)

Ashridge, guidebook, (Ashridge Management College 1998)

Maps

Grey, Estate plan of Ashridge, 1762 [reproduced in Wainwright 1989]

Dury and Andrews, A topographical Map of Hartford-shire, 1766

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1883/4; 2nd edition 1901; 3rd edition 1922

Archival items

H Repton, Red Book for Ashridge, 1813 (private collection)

Description written: December 1998

Amended: August 2000

Edited: November 2000