Wotton House, Dorking, England

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

Mid-17th-century gardens by John Evelyn and George Evelyn, with early to late 19th-century alterations.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Wotton House and its surrounding grounds of about 20 hectares as here registered, is located in the valley of the River Tillingbourne, four kilometres west of Dorking, in the county of Surrey. The site is bounded by open land and Manor Farm to the north and north-west, Damphurst Wood and Bushy Wood to the east, Millpond Copse to the south, and Mundies Plantation and Whitings Wood to the west. The ground at Wotton slopes generally from the west and east into the central valley bottom, and from the south towards the north, before rising again to the north of the house (outside the area here registered). There are good views from the artificially made higher ground in the centre of the gardens, to the west and east over the pleasure grounds, and north towards the House. The boundaries are marked by a mixture of walls and fences.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

O Manning and W Bray, History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey 2, (1809), p 145

E W Brayley and J Britton, Topographical History of Surrey 5, (1848), pp 33-6

W Keane, Beauties of Surrey (1849), pp 143-5

Country Life, 4 (22 October 1898), pp 496-9; 10 (26 October 1901), pp 522-3
E S de Beer (editor), The Diary of John Evelyn (1955), 1, p 55; 2, p 81; 3, pp 60-1

N Pevsner et al, The Buildings of England: Surrey (1971), pp 543-4

Landscape Design, 124 (1978), pp 36-8

Wotton House: Historic Landscape Survey, (Colson Stone Partnership 1997)

Maps

John Rocque, Map of Surrey, surveyed around 1762, published 1768

I Landsell, Estate Survey, 1818 (in Colson Stone 1997)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1869?70, published 1873

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1870, published 1873; 2nd edition published 1896; 3rd edition published 1914

Illustrations

J Evelyn, Drawings, 1640, around 1652, 1653 (in Colson Stone 1997, figures 2-4, 6)

John Aubrey, Watercolour, late 17th century (in Colson Stone 1997, figure 7)

George Lambert, Painting, 1739 (in Colson Stone 1997, figure 5)
 

Description written: February 2000

Amended: July 2001