Longford Castle, Bodenham, England

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

An early 19th-century formal parterre garden evoking former 17th-century gardens at Longford Castle, and a mid- to late 18th-century pleasure ground and park improved by Lancelot Brown after 1778.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Longford Castle, a site of roughly 160 hectares, is situated in a rural area east of the A338 road from Salisbury, which forms the western boundary of the site. Immediately south of the site lies the village of Bodenham. To the north the site is bounded by the flood plains of the River Avon, engineered during the 17th century. The River Avon runs north to south through the centre of the site and in the south corner it meets up with the River Ebble, which runs from west to east along the southern boundary of the site. To the east the site is bounded by farmland, with Alderbury village beyond it. The land within the site immediately east and west of the River Avon is level, the parkland to the north-west sloping gently upwards in a north-westerly direction.
 

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Country Life, 4 (13 August 1898), pp 176-9; 70 (12 December 1931), pp 648-55; (19 December 1931), pp 696-702; (26 December 1931), pp 724-30; 136 (10 September 1964), pp 608-11

The Studio (1907-08), pls LXXXVIII, LXXXIX

R Critchley, The layout of formal gardens around irregular building plans with particular reference to Longford Castle, (1972) [copy on EH file]

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (2nd edn 1975), pp 303-08

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), p 233

A Hills, Elysian Gardens (1979), p 33

A Forsyth, Yesterday's Gardens (1983), pl 14

D Stuart, The Garden Triumphant: A Victorian Legacy (1988), pp 144-5

G Jekyll, Garden Ornament (5th edn 1990), p 108

J Harris, The Artist and the Country House (Exhibition Catalogue 1996), p 156 

R Turner, Capability Brown and the Eighteenth-century English Landscape (2nd edn 1999), p 183
 

Maps

Maps
Andrews and Drury, Map of Wiltshire, 1773 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

C Greenwood, Map of Wiltshire, 1820 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

Tithe map for Britford parish, 1840 (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886/8

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1901; 1925 edition

Illustrations

R Thacker, Eleven engravings of the formal gardens at Longford Castle, c 1680 (Courtauld Institute of Art)

Archival items

Plan of Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds, Longford Castle, scale of 50 links to an inch, June 1852 (1946/H10), (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)

Plan of Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds, Longford, Wilts, scale of 1200 links to an inch, mid 19th century (1946/H12), (Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office)