Hestercombe, Taunton, England

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

A mid- and late 18th-century landscaped garden created by Coplestone Warre Bampfylde and early 20th-century formal gardens designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with planting by Gertrude Jekyll, set within wider parkland developed in part from the mid-18th century.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Hestercombe is situated some 3.5 kilometres north-north-east of Taunton, and about 1 kilometre north of the village of Cheddon Fitzpaine. The roughly 120 hectare site comprises some 3 hectares of formal gardens and pleasure grounds around the House, about 2 hectares of walled gardens, some 15 hectares of mid- and late 18th century pleasure grounds, and roughly 100 hectares of parkland and ornamental woodland. The site is bounded to the west by a minor road, Pitcher’s Hill, while to the south the boundary is formed by Hestercombe Road. To the north-west, north, north-east, and east the site adjoins agricultural land and is enclosed by hedges and stone walls. The site slopes from north to south, with a steep-sided combe, Hester Combe, running about 800 metres north-north-east from the House. A further, smaller combe, West Combe, extends north from the principal drive at a point some 300 metres west of the House. There are extensive views south across the Vale of Taunton to the Blackdown Hills from the terraces south of the House, and from the higher walks in the 18th-century pleasure grounds north of the House. The towers of the Taunton churches, and Creech Barrow, a prominent tumulus north-east of Taunton, are significant features in the longer views from the site, while agricultural land north of Taunton forms a foreground to the extended views.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

A Young, The Farmer’s Tour through the East of England IV, (1771), pp 2-10

R Graves, Columella or the Distressed Anchoret, a Colloquial Tale (1779)

J Collinson, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset (1791)

Country Life, 24 (10 October 1908), pp 486-94; (17 October 1908), pp 522-31; 61 (16 April 1927), pp 598-605; (23 April 1927), pp 638-45; no 44 (31 October 1991), pp 80-3; no 2 (8 January 1998), pp 44-7

L Weaver, Houses and Gardens by E L Lutyens (1913, repr 1981), pp 140-57

G Jekyll, Garden Ornament (1918), pp 71, 189, 307, 339, 348, 391, 433

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset (1958), p 194

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), pp 15, 78, 83-5, 179, 184, 186

The Combe, Hestercombe Manor A survey of the landscape, (Debois Landscape Survey Group 1994)

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

Hestercombe Gardens Restoration Plan, (Nicholas Pearson Associates 1998)

Hestercombe Gardens An Illustrated History and Guide, guidebook, (Hestercombe Gardens Project Ltd 1999)

Maps

Colonel Dansey, Hestercombe Lawn, around 1788 [plan of park and kitchen garden south of the house] (DD/SAS C/795 FA89), (Somerset Record Office)

Tithe map for Kingston St Mary parish, 1838 (Somerset Record Office)

A Plan of Estates at Hestercombe, 1839 (DD/SAS C/212), (Somerset Record Office)

Tithe map for West Monkton parish, 1840 (Somerset Record Office)

Sale particulars with plan, 1872 (Somerset Record Office)

OS Surveyor’s Drawing 3" to 1 mile, surveyed 1802 (British Library Maps)

OS Old Series 1" to 1 mile, published 1809

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1886, published 1887; 2nd edition revised 1903, published 1904

OS 25" to 1mile: 1st edition surveyed 1887, published 1888/9; 2nd edition revised 1903, published 1904; 1930 edition

Illustrations

View of Hestercombe, around 1700 (reproduced in Pearson Assocs 1998)

J Wootton, Portrait of C W Bampfylde in front of Hestercombe House, around 1740 (private collection)

John Inigo Richards, The cascade at Hestercombe, 1769 (National Trust collection at Stourhead)

Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, three drawings of Hestercombe, around 1770 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, paintings and drawings of Hestercombe, around 1780 (Witt Library, Courtauld Institute)

Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, View of the Pear Pond, Hestercombe, no date (Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester)

Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, drawings of Hestercombe, no date (private collection)

Archival items

Hestercombe accounts, 1696-1703, including references to the park at Hestercombe (DD/SAS c/795; PR70, PR71), (Somerset Record Office)

Hestercombe accounts, 1751-8 (DD/SAS c/795 FA103), (Somerset Record Office)

Abstract of title, 1755, referring to late 17th-century park at Hestercombe (DD/PR 54), (Somerset Record Office)

Edward Knight’s notebook, including description of Hestercombe, 1761 (099: 310 BA 10470/2), (Hereford and Worcester Record Office)

Diary of a Tour in the West of England made by the second Viscount Palmerston, 1787 (Broadlands MSS 27M60), (Hampshire Record Office)

G Jekyll, planting plans for the gardens at Hestercombe, 1904-07 (File IV, folder 77), (copies held on microfilm at the National Monuments Record and at Somerset Record Office: originals held at Reef Point, USA)

Photographs of the formal gardens, early 20th century (Country Life Picture Library)

Personal communication from Jane Brown; Russell Lillford; Philip White
 

Description written: July 1999

Amended: October 2000

Edited: September 2004