Bramham Park, Wetherby, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The site was enclosed by Robert Benson senior in the mid-17th century. His son Robert inherited in 1677. After a grand tour in France and Italy he laid out the grounds at Bramham during the period 1698-1731. John Wood the Elder (1704-54) was employed during the period around 1725-8 to map the layout and probably to help with the water features. Politician, courtier to Queen Anne and ambassador to Spain, Benson was created Lord Bingley in 1713 and died in 1731. His daughter Harriet married George Fox (later Fox Lane after inheriting Irish land in 1751), who became the second Lord Bingley in 1762. They employed James Paine in about 1753 to embellish the stable block and to design the principal garden building (probably the Orangery, now the Chapel). Other garden buildings and statuary were introduced during the period 1732-73. Bramham was inherited by a nephew, James Fox (later Lane Fox), but garden ornaments were removed and an oak wood felled before he moved there in 1791. The layout of pleasure grounds and parkland was maintained, with minor alterations after that time. A storm in 1962 toppled 400 mature trees in the garden woodland alone, severely damaging the beech hedges, but subsequent replanting has restored the original layout. The estate remains in private ownership (1999).