Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England

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

A country mansion surrounded by an extensive and complex park and pleasure grounds, created from the medieval royal hunting park of Woodstock. Main phases early and mid-18th century and early 20th century, with early-18th-century work by Henry Wise and John Vanbrugh, mid-18th-century work by Lancelot Brown and early 20th-century work by Achille Duchene.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Blenheim lies about 12 kilometres north-west of Oxford, adjacent to the south-west side of the village of Woodstock, within the confines of the medieval Forest of Wychwood. The roughly 100 hectare site is bounded largely by a roughly 14 kilometre long stone park wall (masons William Townesend and Bartholemew Peisley Junior, around the 1720s, listed grade II), apart from a stretch along the south boundary west of Bladon, with to the east the A44 Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon road and to the south the A4095 road to Witney. The village of Bladon straddles the valley adjacent to the south boundary, the parish church tower being prominent in views from the south front of the house. The park lies at the foot of the Cotswold dip slope, the Great Park in the north half being situated on a high plateau, dropping down to the undulating Lower Park to the south, with the flooded Glyme valley separating the two. The setting is largely rural and agricultural, with the 18th-century town of Woodstock against the east park wall, its church tower prominent from various points in the park. Numerous other views extend beyond the park from within.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Note: There is a wealth of material about this site. The key references are cited below.

N Pevsner and J Sherwood, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (1974), pp 459-75

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 111, 218; pls 27-30

Victoria History of the County of Oxfordshire 12, (1990), pp 430-70

Blenheim Palace, guidebook, (1996)

J Bond and K Tiller, Blenheim, Landscape for a Palace (revised edition 1997)

Maps

R Davis, A New Map of the County of Oxford ..., 1797

A Bryant, Map of the County of Oxford ..., surveyed 1823

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1878-80; 2nd edition published 1900

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1876
 

Description written: March 1998

Amended: March 1999; April 1999

Edited: January 2000