Knebworth, Stevenage, England

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

Gardens, including a mid-19th-century formal scheme, surrounding an early 16th-century country house altered in the early and mid-19th century, set within a former mid-17th-century deer park and woodland, landscaped in the early 19th century. The garden was remodelled by Edwin Lutyens in 1908, alongside his contemporary work on the interior of the house.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Knebworth lies 3 kilometres south-west of the centre of Stevenage, on the north-west edge of the village of Old Knebworth. The roughly 180 hectare site is bounded to the south-east by Old Knebworth Lane which leads south-west into the village street of Old Knebworth, to the south-west largely by the lane from Old Knebworth to Gaffridge Wood, and on the other sides largely by agricultural land and woodlands. The House and gardens stand on high ground skirted to the north-west and north-east by a valley which runs through the park and holds a stream, a series of lakes and a swallow hole. Woodland and parkland extend north from the valley bottom. The setting is largely rural, with long views north-west and north-east from the House and adjacent parkland. The view north-east is interrupted in the middle distance by Stevenage's late 20th-century industrial developments.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire (1700), p 353

Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, (19 November 1874), pp 451-3; (15 August 1889), pp 137-8

Gardeners' Chronicle, (4 July 1891), pp 7-8

Victoria History of the County of Hertfordshire 3, (1912), pp 111-15

Country Life, 1 (26 June 1897), pp 694-6; 19 (7 April 1906), pp 486-93

B Jones, Follies & Grottoes (1974), p 344

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire (1977), pp 221-2

R Bisgrove, The Gardens of Britain 3, (1978), pp 107-8

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), pp 64-5, 168

J Preston, Knebworth, the Story of a Village (1982), p 33

Knebworth House, guidebook, (no date, 1990s)

Maps

Plan of the Manor of Knebworth, 1731 (original in Knebworth House Collection, copy at Hertfordshire Record Office)

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

OS Surveyor's Drawing, 1810

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition 1884; 2nd edition 1899

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition 1898; 3rd edition 1924 

Description written: June 1999

Amended: April 2000

Edited: October 2000