Shobdon, Leominster, England

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

Elements of formal gardens of around 1700 associated with a country house of the same date (main house demolished), and landscape park developed in the mid-18th century about the time the celebrated Rococo-Gothick church was built immediately north of the house.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Shobdon Court lies one kilometre north of the village of Shobdon, which stands on the B4362 Ludlow to Presteigne road 9 kilometres west of Leominster. The park falls gently from north (190 metres) to south (140 metres); north of the park the ground continues to rise to Shobdon Hill 2 kilometres to the north-west, while to the south it continues to fall to the River Arrow 4 kilometres away. To the south, east and north the park boundary largely follows local roads, and is generally defined by a low stone wall. Elsewhere it follows field edges. The registered area is around 185 hectares.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Anon, The Churches of Shobdon and their Builders (no date), [reproducing Harris' view]

Country Life, 20 (10 November 1906), pp 666-74

Journal of British Archaeological Association 146, (1993), pp 87-92

S Daniels and C Watkins, The Picturesque Landscape: Visions of Georgian Herefordshire (1994), pp 20-1

I Pfuell, A History of Shobdon (1994)

Maps

Plan of Shobdon, 1774 (G39, box 66), (Herefordshire Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: Herefordshire sheet 11 NE, 1st edition 1889

OS 25" to 1 mile: Herefordshire sheet 11.7, 2nd edition 1903

Archival items

Estate accounts, plans and other drawings (G39), (Herefordshire Record Office)

Description written: 1997

Edited: September 1999