Stoneleigh Abbey, Kenilworth, England

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

Early 19th-century gardens and park for which Humphry Repton produced a Red Book in 1809, together with a 17th-century detached deer park which was also landscaped in the early 19th century.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Stoneleigh Abbey is situated about 5.5km north of Royal Leamington Spa and about 2.5km east of Kenilworth. The A444 road passes from south to north through the site separating the Deer Park from the Abbey and New Park to the west. The roughly 365 hectare site comprises some seven hectares of gardens and pleasure grounds adjacent to the Abbey, about 213 hectares of parkland and ornamental plantations, and about 145 hectares in the Deer Park to the north-east of the A444 road. The New Park to the west of the A444 road is bounded to the north by the National Agricultural Centre and to the north-west by the B4115 road. The west boundary is formed by the late 20th-century A46 road, while to the south the New Park adjoins agricultural land and to the south-east the boundary is formed by the A444 road. The ornamental landscape formerly extended west to Glasshouse Spinney about 350 metres west of the mid-20th-century A46 road but this land (outside the site here registered) has been developed with late 20th-century playing fields. The Deer Park is bounded to the south by a minor road, Stareton Lane, and by domestic properties in the hamlet of Stareton, while to the east and north the boundary is formed by Coventry Road. This road is carried across the River Avon on the early 19th-century Cloud Bridge (listed grade II), which features in views from within the park. The west boundary is formed by the A444 Stoneleigh Road. The east, north and north-west boundaries of the Deer Park are marked by late 20th-century timber pales which replace earlier park paling and traces of boundary ditches also survive. The River Avon flows in an S-shaped course from east to south through the New Park, while the River Sowe enters the site from the north, joining the River Avon about 1.3km north-east of the Abbey. The New Park is generally level adjoining the Avon, but to the south of the river the ground rises steeply within woodland known as The Grove. There are significant views north from The Grove across the park to the Abbey, the bridge and the west or Grecian lodges which were refined by Repton in the early 19th century. There are also views to the south-east and south from a shrubbery at the south-east end of The Grove, which encompass agricultural land south of The Grove and ornamental woodland, Bericote Wood, to the south-east of the site. The River Avon flows from north-east to south-west through the Deer Park, with areas of level ground to the east and south-east, and wooded slopes to the north and south-west.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

W Dugdale, The Antiquities of Warwickshire (2nd edition 1730)

F L Colvile, Stoneleigh Abbey (1850)

J Horticulture and Cottage Gardener 48, (1872), pp 347-8, 365-6; NS 37, (1898), pp 228-30

Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (1890), p 328; ii (1898), pp 320-1, 323

Country Life, 1 (20 February 1897), pp 186-8; 6 (28 October 1899), pp 528-34; 19 (5 May 1906), pp 630-7; 160 (30 December 1976), pp 1974-5; 176 (13 December 1984), pp 1844-8; (20 December 1984), pp 1934-7

The Garden 60, (1901), pp 205-7

G Jekyll, Garden Ornament (1918), pp 70, 245, 342

Garden Design, (1935), pp 73-8

Victoria History of the County of Warwickshire VI, (1951), pp 229-36

N Pevsner and A Wedgewood, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire (1966), pp 407-10

Garden History V, no 1 (1977), pp 21-9

M Batey and D Lambert, The English Garden Tour A View to the Past (1990), pp 247-52

G Tyack, Warwickshire Country Houses (1994), pp 178-85

M Batey, Jane Austen and the English Landscape (1996), pp 80-93

Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, Historic Landscape Appraisal, (Parklands Consortium 1997)

Maps

J Godwin, Plan of the Stoneleigh Estate, 1597 (DR18/10/103/9 1640), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

H Beighton, A Map of Knightlow Hundred, surveyed 1725, published 1730

W Wilks, Survey of Stoneleigh Abbey, 1749 (Z1410/4 1749), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

M Baker, Survey of Stoneleigh Abbey, 1766 (DR671/31 1766), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

W Yates and Sons, Map of Warwickshire, surveyed 1787-9, published 1793

H Repton, A Map of the Grounds & Water & Roads near the Abbey of Stoneleigh, 1808 (DR671/769 1809), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

OS Old Series 1" to 1 mile, published 1834

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886; 2nd edition published 1906; 3rd edition published 1926

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886; 2nd edition published 1905; 3rd edition published 1925

Illustrations

W Wilks, A South-West Prospect of Stoneleigh Abbey, 1749 (estate plan Z1410/4 1749), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

West facade and park, Stoneleigh Abbey; East wing; Cloud Bridge; Stare Bridge, around 1800, Aylesford Collection (Birmingham Reference Library Archive)

Archival items

Leigh family papers 16th-19th century, including estate accounts, correspondence, and material relating to Repton's work at Stoneleigh (DR18, DR671, DR823), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

H Repton, Red Book for Stoneleigh Abbey, 1809 (DR671/769 1809), (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office)

Description written: June 2000

Amended: July 2000

Edited: January 2001