Woodhall Park, Hertford, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The Boteler family acquired the manor of Watton in the 14th century, and later erected the brick building that was to remain the principal seat of the family until 1774. Philip Boteler (died 1592) obtained a license to create a park around the house, that park being increased in size during the early and late 17th century (Debois 1985). During the latter period the gardens around the house were redesigned, and a grand formal approach created (The Avenue), 660 yards long and 100 feet wide. By the mid-18th century (Dury and Andrews, 1766), when the estate was owned by John Boteler (1684-1774), the square, enclosed garden was laid out in formal enclosures around the house.

Sir Thomas Rumbold bought the estate, around 1777, from John Boteler's grandson, also John, for £85,000. Rumbold, who worked for the East India Company, demolished the remains of the house which had partly burnt out in 1771, building a new one designed by Thomas Leverton by around 1780, at some distance to the north. In 1782-3, when Rumbold returned from several years abroad, an extensive planting programme was put in hand, with plants supplied by the firm of William Malcolm and Son, Royal Nurserymen and 'Surveyors, Nursery and Seedsmen' of Stockwell, together with the construction of the walled kitchen gardens, also designed by this firm (Debois 1985). Malcolm probably laid out the landscape park which was developed at about this time, when the Broad Water lake was formed with ornamental features at both ends, but there is no direct evidence for this. A ha-ha enclosed the new house, taking in a roughly 3 hectare pleasure ground which was planted with oaks and shrubs, with a walk through a pleasure ground to the new kitchen garden to the east.

Rumbold sold the estate to Paul Benfield in 1794, who sold it on to Samuel Smith (died 1834) in 1801. Joseph Paxton (1803-65) was an apprentice gardener for him at Woodhall, briefly, from 1818. By the 1820s (Bryant, 1822) the park had taken on much of its present form, with a wooded pleasure ground linking the house and kitchen garden, containing a regular network of rides. Upon Smith's death his son Abel Smith inherited the estate, which continued in the family into the 20th century. The house has been occupied by Heathmount School since the 1930s, and playing fields and school buildings overlie part of the pleasure grounds.