Brightling Park, East Sussex, England

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

Landscape park originally laid out as a deer park in the 1740s, and considerably extended and enhanced in the early 19th century, with advice from Humphry Repton and a series of landscape follies designed by Sir Robert Smirke (1780-1867), situated within the park as well as outside as eyecatchers in prominent positions.

SITE DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Brightling Park lies immediately to the south-west of the village of Brightling, 15 kilometres east of Heathfield and 10 kilometres to the north-west of Battle, and 3 kilometres west of the Darwell reservoir, in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The park lies on the south-facing slope of a ridge that rises up to 195 metres at The Observatory, where there are extensive views west, and south to the sea. To the north the ridge falls away to the Duddon valley and further to the south the land falls down to the Darwell Stream before rising up to the sandstone ridge that extends between Heathfield through Dallington to Battle and beyond. This landscape is typically Wealden, with wide views, enclosed valleys and a settlement pattern of scattered farms, hamlets and small villages.

The 212 hectare park, laid out initially in about 1745-1750 and thereafter progressively extended up to the early 19th century, is enclosed by a stone boundary wall built in about 1825, except along its southern edge which is marked by a wide belt of woodland, Mansbrook Wood and Coblye Wood. Along the eastern boundary a tree belt lines the wall.

REFERENCES used by English Heritage:

Printed material

Rape of Hastings Architectural Survey, Brightling-Rosehill [P8/49], (1993)

E Shanes, Turner's England 1810-1838 (1990)

S. Farrant, 'The Development of Landscape Parks and Gardens in Eastern Sussex c.1700 to 1820 - A Guide and Gazetteer' Garden History, Vol.17, no.2 (1989)

G Carter et al, Humphry Repton (1982), p 163

J Harris, The Artist and the Country House (1979), p 352

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), p 204

Sussex Archaeological Collections, 104, (1966), pp 61-88; 106, (1968), pp 73-88; 107, (1969), p 14-24

I Nairn and N Pevsner, Buildings of England: Sussex (1965), p 425

Anon, Historical Development of Brightling Park (East Sussex County Council Planning Department, undated).

Sussex County Magazine 29, (1955), pp 463-469

Maps

W Gardner and T Gream, A Survey of the Acual County of Sussex, 1" to 1 mile, 1795

Russell & Gream, A Survey & Plan of Rose Hill Park the Seat of John Fuller Esq. Surveyed and drawn by Russell & Gream, 1797

OS Surveyor's Notebook Map 2" to 1 mile, 1807

OS Old Series, 1" to 1 mile, published 1813

Tithe Map for Brightling Parish, 1839 (East Sussex County Record Office)

Tithe Map for Dallington Parish, 1842 (East Sussex County Record Office)

Sales Particulars. Map of 1879

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1878

    2nd edition surveyed 1910

    2nd edition revised 1932

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition surveyed 1909

Illustrations

Drawing of Rosehill Park, 1784 (The Burrell Collection of Engravings, BL Add MSS 5670/65

Archival items

Rosehill in Sussex. A Seat of John Fuller Esq MP for that County by Humphry Repton 1806. (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

Fuller Papers in the care of Sussex Archaeological Trust 2/133 (East Sussex Record Office)

Attested Copy of Conveyance of Brightling Park Estate, 1879 (East Sussex Record Office, RAF/F2/17/1-2)

Description written : October 1992

Revised: July 2000

Amended (owner comments): January 2001