Longford Castle, Bodenham, England

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

The Longford estate was bought by Sir Thomas Gorges in 1574. In about 1578-91 he built Longford Castle to an unusual triangular design by the architect John Thorpe, and formal gardens were laid out to its south and east fronts. Following damage caused during the Civil War, the gardens were restored around 1654 for Lord Coleraine, who had bought Longford from the Gorges family in 1641. The artist Robert Thacker made a series of detailed engravings of the gardens at Longford in about 1680, which show a flower garden with a central fountain to the south of the Castle and an arbour walk alongside a formal pond near the riverside to the south-east. 

Longford Castle remained in the ownership of the Coleraine family until 1717, when the estate was sold to Sir Edward des Bouveries. In 1736 he was succeeded by his brother Jacob, who during the mid-18th century significantly altered the house and grounds. In about 1740-50, William Privett of Chilmark, who also worked at Stourhead, was employed to create various garden buildings and structures, including a balustrade, an obelisk, a summerhouse called the Flintery, a loggia, and various unspecified piers. Also during this period, the sculptor Robert Parsons of Bath made two vases for the pleasure grounds (Country Life 1931). By 1773 (Andrews and Drury) Longford Castle was surrounded by a formal park laid out with avenues and rides.

After Sir Jacob des Bouveries' death in 1761, his son William inherited the estate, and in 1765 he became the first Earl of Radnor. The latter employed Lancelot Brown (1716-83), who visited Longford Castle twice in 1777. A year later, in 1778, his assistant Spyers made a survey at a cost of £50 (Turner 1999). In that same year, the son of the first Earl inherited Longford Castle. The latter had plans to extend the Castle, but these were only partly executed and not until 1802-17. The full extent of Lancelot Brown's work at Longford is not known but the 17th-century formal gardens had either already been removed or were removed during the late 18th century, when the layout of the mid-18th-century pleasure grounds and park was deformalised (Country Life 1964; Turner 1999). By 1820 (Greenwood), the park had been extended eastwards to include Alderbury Meadow.  

After the death of the second Earl in 1828, his son, the third Earl of Radnor inherited the estate. In 1832 the latter created a new formal garden to the south of the Castle (Garden plan, 1852), which was meant to evoke the 17th-century gardens as depicted by Thacker (Country Life 1964). Its style and layout has subsequently been associated with the work of the painter and garden designer W A Nesfield (1793-1881). In the 1870s, under the fourth Earl of Radnor, the architect Anthony Salvin (1799-1881) was employed to alter and extend Longford Castle and the early 19th-century formal gardens were probably also modified as part of this work (Country Life 1898).

Longford Castle remains (2003) in private ownership.