Mells Park, Frome, England

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

An 18th/19th-century park, incorporating a 17th-century deer park, with early 20th-century gardens by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll around a country house.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Mells Park is located 5 kilometres west of Frome and covers an area of roughly 140 hectares. The park is on an upland plateau approached from the east by the slopes of Berry Hill. To the south it is enclosed by the steep-sided Finger Valley and the woods of Hare Warren, and bounded by minor roads which meet at the southernmost point, Park Corner. The eastern boundary follows the top of the bank above Finger Valley and the steep-sided Snatch Bottom. To the north the park slopes down to the Mells River and is enclosed by the rising ground of the opposite bank on which stand Lily Batch Wood and Bilboa Plantation to the north-east, the top of the bank forming the north and north-east boundaries. The western boundary follows the western edge of Serpentine Plantation, the perimeter stone wall of Melcombe Wood, and a fence and ditch between the north edge of Melcombe Wood and the village of Vobster, about 1 kilometre north-west of the House.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J Collinson, History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset II, (1791), p 464

H Repton, Sketches and Hints of Landscape Gardening (1794)

Country Life, 42 (10 November 1917), p 254; 131 (24 May 1962), pp 1254-8

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (1958), p 226

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), p 174

M McGarvie, 'Notes towards a history of Mells Park' in Frome Society Year Book 4, 1990-1992 (1992), pp 31-40

S Piebenga, William Sawrey Gilpin (1762-1843), (English Heritage Designer Theme Study 1994)

Maps

Manorial map of Mells Park, 1682 (Collection of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith) [reproduced in McGarvie 1992]

J Rice, Map of Mells Park, 1764 (private collection)

Samuel Donne, Estate map, 1779 (Collection of the Earl of Oxford and Asquith) [reproduced in McGarvie 1992]

Sale map of Mells Estate, 1923 (copy on EH file)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1885, published 1891; 2nd edition revised 1902, published 1904; 3rd edition revised 1929, published 1931

Illustrations

E Lutyens, Drawings for Mells Park (RIBA Drawings Collection)

Archival items

Thomas Horner’s accounts from the 18th century are held at the Mells Estate Office.

Mells Park, July 25 1926, Photocopy of drawing annotated with 'This is the garden plan by Gertrude Jekyll' (copy on EH file)

Copies of Jekyll’s planting plans (film 201) are held on microfilm at the National Monuments Record (originals held at Reef Point, USA).
 

Description written: November 2002

Edited: May 2004