Ashwell Bury, Baldock, England

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

Gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll to plans dated 1907-8, surrounding a country house remodelled 1922-3 by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Ashwell Bury lies on the northern edge of the village of Ashwell, 7 kilometres north of Baldock. The roughly 6 hectare site is bounded to the south by Gardiner's Lane, and to the west by an extension northwards of the same. To the north it is bounded by the River Rhee and beyond this by Elbrook House and its surrounding parkland. To the east lies Mill Street and the adjacent former brewery buildings which were associated with the site during the 19th and early 20th century. The ground is largely level. The setting is rural, with agricultural land and parkland to the north, west and south-west, and the village lying to the south and east. The brewery yard and buildings lying adjacent to the north-east have been converted to domestic use.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Country Life, 101 (2 May 1947), pp 810-13

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), p 100

Maps

Enclosure map for Ashwell parish, 1863 (Hertfordshire Record Office)OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1882; 2nd edition 1899; 3rd edition 1925

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1897

Archival items

Copies of Jekyll's planting plans (item 70, 1908, 1909) are held on microfiche at the National Monuments Record (originals held at Reef Point, USA). 

Description written: March 1999

Edited: October 2000