Kelston Park, Bath, England

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

An 18th century park laid out by Lancelot Brown around a country house. 

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Kelston Park (about 75 hectares) is located about 6.5 kilometres west of Bath in the last remaining area of open countryside between the Bath and Bristol conurbations. The parkland extends in a gentle sweep to the Avon Valley for about 1.2 kilometres along the south-west side of the A431, Upper Bristol Road, which forms its north-east boundary. The parkland descends a steep escarpment towards the River Avon to the south. The south-east and south-west boundaries run through the steep banks of Fir Wood, Summerhouse Wood, and Tennant's Wood. The western part of this boundary is marked by the Bristol to Bath Cycleway, formerly the London Midland Railway's route between the cities which closed to rail traffic in the 1970s. The short east boundary is marked by a fence line and small stream which runs south down an incised coombe to join the River Avon. The north-west boundary is marked by a fence line connecting Tennant's Wood to Manor Farm and by the boundary walls of Kelston church and other properties in Kelston village about 800 metres to the north.

The park is on a gently north-west to south-east sloping plateau which ends in steep slopes down to the Avon Valley to the south and east. To the north and north-east, beyond the A431, the land climbs steeply to Kelston Round Hill, a landmark hilltop crowned with a group of beech trees and visible for many miles around. To the north of Kelston Park is Kelston village which contains Manor Farm, close to the site of the former manor house, Kelston church, and a fine collection of historic vernacular buildings.

REFERENCES

J Collinson, History of Somersetshire 1, (1791), p 128

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), p 230

Bristol Archaeology Research Group Journal 2, (1981), pp 66-72

S Harding and D Lambert, Parks and Gardens of Avon (1994), pp 18, 43, 54, 110, 121

Avon Gardens Trust Newsletter, 14 (1994), pp 37-42; 22 (2000), pp 11-13

Kelston Park Historic Landscape Survey Restoration Plan, (Nicholas Pearson Associates 1994)

Maps

Saxton, Map of the County of Somersetshire, 1575Speede, County of Somersetshire, 1610