Broadlands, Romsey, England

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

A house and garden of 16th- and 17th-century origin with work possibly by William Kent, remodelled in the late 18th century as part of a comprehensive new landscape of pleasure grounds and parkland by Lancelot Brown, which was additionally planted by the third Viscount Palmerston in the early to mid-19th century.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Broadlands is situated on the southern edge of Romsey, between the A31 and the A27 and some 6 kilometres north of Southampton. The registered site comprises 186 hectares, of which some 16 hectares are formal and walled gardens and pleasure grounds and around 170 hectares parkland and farmland, part of the latter being used as a showground. The site occupies the floor of the Test Valley, the ground rising up a slight bank east of the course of the river to form a level plateau. The northern and eastern boundaries are partly walled, from the adjacent Romsey bypass and town buildings to the north and from the A27 and open farmland to the east, the latter boundary enclosed by the Mile Wall, erected in the mid-19th century. An early 19th-century milestone (listed grade II) stands at the foot of the wall some 1.5 kilometres south of the junction of the A31 and A27. To the south, the parkland is enclosed by a minor lane (Spaniard’s Lane) from flat arable farmland beyond, while to the west, the southern half of the park is bordered by the tree-fringed Test and the northern half by meadowland, beyond which the west side of the valley rises steeply to wooded ridges.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Victoria History of the County of Hampshire IV, (1911), pp 452-4

Country Life, 53 (31 March 1923), pp 434-41; (7 April 1923), pp 466-73; 168 (11 December 1980), pp 2247-50; (18 December 1980), pp 2334-7

N Pevsner and D Lloyd, The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (1967), p 145

Broadlands, guidebook, (no date, early 1980s)

J Riley, Broadlands Park, Hampshire, Landscape Report (1991)

J Riley, The Restoration of Broadlands Park (1993)

Maps

Survey of Broadlands estate, 1747 (Broadlands archive, University of Southampton)

Survey of Broadlands estate, mid-18th century (Broadlands archive, Univ Southampton)

Randall, Survey of Broadlands, 1767 (Broadlands archive, Univ Southampton)

Randall, Survey of Broadlands, 1785 (Broadlands archive, Univ Southampton)

Randall, Survey of Broadlands, 1787 (Broadlands archive, Univ Southampton)

William Tubb, Survey, 1811 (Broadlands archive, Univ Southampton)

Draft of OS 1st edition, around 1856 (Test Valley Archaeological Trust)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1866; 2nd edition published 1897; 3rd edition published 1911; 1938 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition revised 1896; 3rd edition revised 1908; 1941 edition

Achival items

The Broadlands achive, with material dating from 1736, is held by the University of Southampton. 

Description written: September 1998

Amended: May 2000

Edited: January 2004