Mentmore Towers, Leighton Buzzard, England

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

A mid-19th century park and garden surrounding a contemporary country house, all by Sir Joseph Paxton, with 1870s-1880s additions to park and gardens.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Mentmore lies 10 kilometres north-east of Aylesbury and 5 kilometres south of Leighton Buzzard, in the Vale of Aylesbury, 5 kilometres north-west of the Chiltern scarp. The 200 hectare site is bounded by agricultural land, with part of the north boundary defined by the Mentmore to Wing lane and the village of Mentmore. The house stands at the highest point of the site, 30 metres above the surrounding Vale of Aylesbury, on the top of a low hill, with largely flat parkland surrounding it to the west, south and east, and the pleasure grounds on a spine of land east of the main drive to the house. The setting, much of which was part of the 70 hectare 19th century park (now returned to agricultural usage) surrounded by nine miles of iron fencing, is agricultural with the contemporary Arts and Crafts-style estate village of Mentmore sited at the main entrance, running along the east side of the village green. Distant views from north-east to south-east are dominated by the long scarp of the Chiltern Hills, with the modern Pitstone cement works chimney standing needle-like in the Pitstone gap in the hills to the south-east. Within the wider setting Mentmore Towers is one of seven Rothschild country estates within a 10 kilometres radius of Aylesbury, bought, and usually furnished with a new house (of which this is one of the grandest), during the second half of the 19th century. It is said that the other six houses could all be seen from Mentmore.

REFERENCES

Mentmore: A survey of the landscape, (Debois Landscape Survey Group 1992)

N Pevsner and E Williamson, The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (1994), pp 472-476

Maps

The following items are part of the Mentmore Estate papers held at Buckinghamshire Record Office:

Mentmore estate map, 1878 (D/RO/4/6/R)

Rothschild estate map, nd (D/RO/4/3+4/R)

Plan of Mentmore estate showing proposed new trees and plantations, late C19 (D/RO/4/2/R)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1885

    2nd edition published 1900

1926 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1881-1882

    2nd edition published 1899

Archival items

The extensive collection of Mentmore Estate (Rosebery) papers (C19,C20) are held at the Buckinghamshire Record Office (D/RO).

Description written: 1997

Edited: October 1999