Mount Edgcumbe, Torpoint, England

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

An early 16th-century park which was landscaped in the 18th and early 19th centuries, together with 18th and early 19th century gardens and pleasure grounds which were partly developed from late 17th century formal gardens. Extensive late 18th and early 19th century coastal rides leading to Penlee Point incorporate a series of picturesque features and structures.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Mount Edgcumbe is situated on a headland to the west of Plymouth Sound and to the south of the Hamoaze. The site, about 205 hectares, comprises some 40 hectares of gardens and pleasure grounds, about 162 hectares of parkland, ornamental plantations, and coastal rides, and about 3 hectares of kitchen gardens and home farm buildings. To the east and south the site is bounded by Plymouth Sound and Cawsand Bay, while to the north and north-west the site is bounded by the B3247 road which leads west from Cremyll Quay to Millbrook. The coastal ride extending west from the park and pleasure grounds along the coast to Penlee Point is adjoined to the north and west by agricultural land, while the kitchen garden to the north-west of the house extends down a combe to a small harbour, Empacombe, on the Hamoaze. The site is undulating, rising to a summit about 530 metres south-south-west of the house, with precipitous drops to the coast to the east and south. Several steep-sided valleys descend from the park on the high ground south of the house to the coast, while to the north of the house a more gentle slope descends towards Cremyll Quay. There are extensive coastal views from many points within the site, and there are also significant views north up the Hamoaze and River Tamar from the upper levels of the park and from the pleasure grounds. The views to and from Mount Edgcumbe were widely celebrated and painted in the 18th and 19th centuries (Gaskell Brown 2000).

REFERENCES

T Badeslade and J Roque, Vitruvius Britannicus IV, (1739), pls 94, 95

R Pococke, Travels through England ... during 1750 I, (1888(9), pp 107-108

W Gilpin, Observations of the Western Parts of England (2nd edn 1808), pp 215-219

C S Gilbert, History of Cornwall ii, (1820), pp 374-380

Gardener's Magazine 18, (1842), pp 547-548

Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (1882), pp 7, 17, 39

Country Life, 2 (4 September 1897), p 238; 11 (8 March 1902), pp 317-319; 119 (12 April 1956), p 746; 128 (22 December 1960), pp 1550-1553; (29 December 1960), pp 1598-1601; no 34 (14 September 1989), pp 214-217

Architect Hist 7, (1964), pp 32, 77-78

N Pevsner and E Radcliffe, The Buildings of England: Cornwall (2nd edn 1970), pp 123-124

The Garden of Mount Edgcumbe, A Report, (M Batey and Garden History Society, 1985)

Mount Edgcumbe Country Park, A Report of the Survey 1983(4 (Manpower Services Commission) [copy on EH file]

M Batey and D Lambert, The English Garden Tour (1990), pp 236-241

C Gaskell Brown and R W Humphries, The English Garden House, Mount Edgcumbe: Excavation and Survey (Mount Edgcumbe Park 1993)

T Gray, The Garden History of Devon An Illustrated Guide to Sources (1995), pp 156-160

D E Pett, The Parks and Gardens of Cornwall (1998), pp 229-231

C Gaskell Brown, Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park: A Guide, (Mount Edgcumbe Park 1998)

C Gaskell Brown, Images of Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall (Mount Edgcumbe Park 2000)

Maps

Map of the South-West of England, c 1540 (British Library)

Estate plan, 1729 (DD/ME2402), (Cornwall Record Office)

S Elliott, Plan of Mount Edgcumbe and Pleasure Grounds, 1819 (Cornwall Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1859-1860

2nd edition revised 1912, published 1919

Illustrations

W du Busc, Mount Edgcumbe and Plymouth, c 1680 (Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery Collection)

G van Edema, Mount Edgcumbe from Stonehouse, 1686 (Mount Edgcumbe Collection)

T Badeslade, The Garden House in the Wilderness, 1735 (Mount Edgcumbe Collection)

T Badeslade, Four engraved views published in Vitruvius Britannicus (1739)

W Tomkins, Mount Edgcumbe from the east, 1769 (Mount Edgcumbe Collection)

N M Condy, Twelve watercolour views of Mount Edgcumbe, dated 1849 (Western Morning News collection; published in Gaskell Brown 2000)

Archival items

The Edgcumbe family papers, including the early C16 licence to impark, building accounts, garden accounts, and estate records are held in the Cornwall Record Office (DD/ME).

Photographs, mid and late C19 (private collection)

Description written: February 2001

Amended: July 2001

Edited: October 2001