Aldenham Park, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England

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

Eighteenth- and 19th-century gardens and pleasure grounds designed in part by W. A. Nesfield, with a 17th-century avenue.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Aldenham Park is situated about 4 kilometres west-north-west of the town of Bridgnorth and about 1 kilometres north of the village of Morville, to the north-east of the A458 road. The site comprises some 12 hectares of gardens and pleasure grounds.

To the south-south-west the site is bounded by the A458, Bridgnorth to Shrewsbury road, while to the east, north, and west it adjoins agricultural land. Land to the west and north-west of the site lay within the early 18th-century park, Park Farm about 1.3 kilometres west-north-west of the house corresponding to the site of the lodge shown by Burton on his survey of 1722.

The house stands on a ridge of high ground extending from north-west to south-east through the site, with the avenue falling gently away to the south-south-west. The gardens and pleasure grounds occupy a level site on the summit of the ridge.

There are significant views south and south-west from the house and pleasure grounds to woodland and agricultural land on a north-facing escarpment about 2 kilometres south of the house, while there are further easterly views from the south-east terrace.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

F Calvert, Picturesque Views (1831), p 126

Country Life, 161 (23 June 1977), pp 1734-7; (30 June 1977), pp 1802-05; (7 July 1977), pp 18-21

J Harris, The Artist and the Country House (1979), pp 209, 340

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire (1979), pp 57-8

M J Tooley (editor), William Andrews Nesfield 1794-1881 (1994), p 27

P Stamper, Historic Parks and Gardens of Shropshire (1996), pp 28-9, 32

Maps

T Burton, A Mapp of the Demesne Lands and Parke of Aldenham, 1722 (1093/160), (Shropshire Record Office)

C and J Greenwood, Map of Salop, 1827

OS Surveyor’s Drawing, 2" to 1 mile, 1817 (British Library Maps)

OS Old Series 1" to 1 mile, published 1833

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1882, published 1892; 2nd edition revised 1901, published 1903

Illustrations

E Hotchkiss, The old Mansion House of Aldenham, Drawn from a Plan taken 1625 (private collection) [reproduced in Country Life 1977 and Harris 1979, plate 219]

W Daniell (?), Aldenham Park from the west, around 1820 (private collection) [reproduced in CL 1977 and Harris 1979, plate 386]

Watercolour, the chapel at Aldenham Park, around 1820 (private collection) [reproduced in CL 1977]

Photographs of Aldenham Park including south-east terrace, gates, and chapel, around 1939 (Shropshire Local Studies Library)

Photographs of Aldenham Park, mid-20th century (NMR, Swindon)

Archival items

Acton family papers (1093), (Shropshire Record Office)