Warwick Castle, Warwick, England

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

Mid-18th-century park and pleasure grounds landscaped by Lancelot Brown, with late 18th-century picturesque additions, together with mid-19th-century gardens designed by Robert Marnock and an early 20th-century garden by Harold Peto, associated with a medieval fortress.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Warwick Castle is situated about 250 metres south-east of the centre of Warwick, to the north-west of the River Avon. The roughly 280 hectare site comprises some 23 hectares of gardens and pleasure grounds, and about 257 hectares of parkland. The site is bounded to the north-west by Castle Lane from which it is separated by a late 18th-century stone wall (listed grade II) about three metres high, and by domestic premises in Castle Close. To the north-north-east the boundary is formed by a late 18th-century stone wall (listed grade II*) which separates the grounds from domestic properties on the west side of Mill Street, and by the river frontage of properties on the east side of Mill Street up to and including the late 18th-century Castle Bridge (listed grade II*). The north-east boundary is marked by Park House, Greville House, and other properties on the west side of Bridge End, while the east boundary is formed by the A425 Banbury Road, from which the park is separated by timber fences. To the south-east the site is bounded by the B4462 road which leads south-west to Barford, and to the south the boundary is formed by a late 20th-century cutting accommodating the A452 and M40 roads. The south-west boundary adjoins agricultural land, while to the west the site adjoins agricultural land, light industrial premises, and mid-20th-century domestic properties to the east of the A429 Stratford Road, Leyfields Crescent, and Temple Grove. The River Avon flows in a serpentine course through the site from north to south-west, while the Tach or Ram Brook enters the site from the east and flows to its confluence with the River Avon about 1.2km south-south-east of the Castle; the Tach Brook is dammed to form a lake, the New Waters, which extends east to the Banbury Road. To the west and north-east of the River Avon the site is generally level and forms the flood plain of the river. To the north the ground rises steeply above the river to the Castle, while Temple Hill rises about 530 metres south-east of the Castle and about 400 metres east of the river. Temple Hill is separated from further rising ground at the south-east corner of the site by New Waters, while to the south of the river, about 1.5km south of the Castle, the ground rises steeply to a level plateau which extends to the south and south-east boundary of the site. There is a complex system of vistas within the site with particularly significant reciprocal views of the Castle from Spiers Lodge and Temple Hill. There are also important views of the town from Spiers Lodge; this view was painted by Paul Sandby in 1776 (WCRO). From Castle Bridge on Banbury Road there are significant designed views south-west down the river to the Castle and the ruins of the medieval bridge which are framed by gardens attached to properties in Mill Street and Bridge End; there is a reciprocal view of the river, gardens, and bridges from within the Castle. From the walls and towers of the Castle there are extensive views in all directions, and particularly across the Castle Park to surrounding agricultural land and late 20th-century commercial development at Heathcote.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

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

Country Life, 1 (30 January 1897), pp 112-14; (6 February 1897), pp 126-8; 35 (30 May 1914), pp 792-800; (6 June 1914), pp 842-51; 165 (22 February 1979), pp 474-6; 180 (7 August 1986), p 426

L Toulmin-Smith (editor), J Leland, Itinerary Through England and Wales 1535-43 (1907-10)

E M Butler (editor), A Regency Visitor (1927), pp 119-28

N Pevsner and A Wedgewood, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire (1966), pp 452-6

Victoria History of the County of Warwickshire VIII, (1969), pp 452-75

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 33, 47, 221-2

D Jacques, Georgian Gardens (1983), p 68

Warwick Castle, guidebook, (Warwick Castle 1990)

Warwick Castle Grounds & Gardens, guidebook, (Warwick Castle 1991)

G Tyack, Warwickshire Country Houses (1994), pp 200-8

Warwickshire Gardens Trust, Lancelot (Capability) Brown: Warwickshire Commissions (1994), pp 4-8

Warwick Castle, guidebook, (Warwick Castle 1997)

Maps [all held at the Warwickshire County Record Office]

J Fish, A Survey of the Leafields, Temple Grounds, Spiers Lodg ... being the Lands of the Right honble Fulke Ld Brooke Baron of Beauchamp's Court, 1690 (CR1886/M6)

J Fish and C Bridgeman, Plan of the Gardens at Warwick Castle, 1711 (CR1886/M26/2(2))

W Sutton, A Survey and Plot of the Right Hand Temple's ... belonging to the Rt Honble Francis Lord Brook, 1743 (CR1886/M279)

G Salmon, Plan of the Lordship of Barford, 1760 (CR1886/M18)

M Baker, Plan of the Borough of Warwick, 1788 (CR1886/M24)

E Sale, Castle Park, 1791 (CR1886/M22)

W James, Plan of Castle Park, 1806 (CR1886/M34A)

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

J Bateman, Plan of the Lawns Pleasure Grounds Shrubberies Garden and Plantations Belonging to Warwick Castle ..., 1845 (CR1886/M343)

W Broderick Thomas, Plan of proposed garden, 1865 (CR1886/M813)

R Marnock, Plan of Castle gardens, 1868 (CR1886/M286)

R Marnock, Plan of parterre garden, 1868 (CR1886/M626)

J Backhouse and Sons, Plans for rockwork in the garden and conservatory, 1900 (CR1886/M50)

H Peto, Plans for gardens at Spiers Lodge, around 1905 (CR1886/M327)

OS Maps

OS Old Series 1" to 1 mile, published 1834

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886-7; 2nd edition published 1905-6; 3rd edition published 1926; 1938 edition

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

Illlustrations

Engraving, A View of Warwick Castle [from the south-east], around 1745 (PV War Cas 45), (Warwickshire County Record Office)

A Canaletto, Warwick Castle from the south-east, around 1749 (Paul Mellon Collection)

F Harding, Warwick Castle from the south-east, around 1764 (National Gallery of Ireland)

P Sandby, Warwick Castle from the Lodge Hill, 1776 (351/633A), (Warwickshire County Record Office)

Watercolour views, Warwick Castle from the Park; Inner Court Warwick Castle; Remains of Warwick Bridge as it appears from the Great Hall in the Castle, around 1800 (Aylesford Collection), (Birmingham Reference Library Archive)

J D Harding, Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, c 1840 (PV War Cas 36), (Warwickshire County Record Office)

C Holme, Gardens of England in the Midland and Eastern Counties (1908), pl 123

Photographs of Castle Park, Spiers Lodge and pleasure grounds, around 1900 (PH143), (Warwickshire County Record Office)

Aerial photograph, Warwick from the south-east, 1949 (reproduced in VCH)

Photograph, summerhouse by Harold Peto near Spiers Lodge, Castle Park, 1995 (private collection)

Archival items

The Warwick Castle and Greville family archive, which includes estate accounts, plans, private accounts, and correspondence, is held at the Warwickshire County Record Office (CR1886).

Amended: September 2000, May 2001

Edited: May 2001