Berwick Park, (also known as Berwick House), Shrewsbury, England

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

18th-century park, surrounding a house of 1731, improved in the late-19th century.  

LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES AND AREA

Berwick lies approximately 3 kilometres north-west of the centre of Shrewsbury in a loop in the Severn which defines the west and south boundaries of the park. The park lies on level land, which slopes gently down to the river, with the house located to the north-west of the site. The park is bounded to the east by the main Shrewsbury - Baschurch road (B5067) and narrows at its top end, so it is roughly triangular. The park is bounded at its top end by The Grove, a woodland belt, with the settlement of Upper Berwick to the north of this. The park is located within a rural setting; to the south beyond the registered area  is low-lying agricultural land, to the west beyond the river the land rises steeply and is a mixture of woodland and agricultural land. The home farm to the north-east of the house is not included within the registered area; the area registered extends to approximately 115 hectares.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The main drive to the house enters the east side of the park, from the Shrewsbury -Baschurch Road. The entrance has large iron gates flanked by a pair of late-18th-century grey sandstone ashlar lodges (listed Grade II). The lodges are possibly by Robert Mylne, who carried out alterations to the house in 1780. They were originally single storey and raised to two storeys in around 1878, probably by Stevens of Birmingham. From the lodges, the drive gently curves due east across the former park, now farmland, past both almshouses and chapel towards the south-east front of the house.

A further drive, the Shady Walk, runs in a straight line from the main road (its entrance to the north of the main entrance) south-west to the almshouses. This drive, present as at least a track on a plan of the park of 1802, is lined with Spanish chestnut, these having replaced elms in the 1970s. The track loops around the almshouses and on to the Home Farm.

The area of the park is bounded to the north by a belt of woodland, The Grove. To the north, through this, a drive runs to the Shrewsbury - Baschurch road. In the 19th century a drive branched off this northward to Upper Berwick.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

Berwick House (listed Grade II*) stands in the north-west part of the site with the river to its rear. It is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and of three storeys and basement. The `fine, festive' (Pevsner) south-east front is of nine bays and looks across the Italianate garden. The south-west elevation was modified in 1878 and looks across a set of terraces leading down to the river. Adjoining the north-east elevation of the service range is a gateway by Robert Mylne and the remains of the around 1730 dovecot (listed Grade II).

Beyond the house, to the north east is a large stable range of 1878, built on the site of what in 1760 was the northern compartment of the kitchen gardens, with a hot house and green house. The around 1730 Home Farmhouse is to the north-east of this (both listed Grade II).

ORNAMENTAL GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

South-east of the house is a shallow forecourt bounded by railings and gates of around 1878 (listed Grade II). Beyond this is a slightly sunken Italianate garden of playing card shape. This garden is probably contemporary with the 1878 alterations to the house. It was reputedly laid out under the direction of Mrs. Watson following a visit by the Watsons (who were married in 1856) to Italy. It is enclosed by low brick walls with apsidal projections for seats midway along the sides, and is divided internally into an edged parterre with a central sundial encircled by yew trees. This late-19th-century garden covers the ground occupied in 1760 by a formal garden enclosed by an elaborate heraldic iron screen, probably by the Davies Brothers of Wrexham, and containing a central circular`canal'. It may also encompass the site of a shallower outer court with statues of Mars, Mercury and Venus. The statues do not survive. However, the screen was taken by the Earl of Denbigh upon the sale of Berwick in 1875 and moved to his estate at Newnham Paddox, Warks where they remain (listed Grade I, within a Grade II Registered Landscape). In 1890 the Italianate garden was planted up with alpines and herbaceous shrubs and with some of the beds as rockeries (Gardener's Chronicle).

South-west of the house are four steep grass terraces, descended via a central flight of steps, which drop down to the Severn. The lowest terrace is the largest with symmetrical shaped hedges and traces of circular parterres. A red brick colonnade built around the lowest terrace was there by 1890 and this part of the garden too was probably created or modified in the 1870s, on the site of gardens and walks of 1760. North of the terraces and on the river is a boathouse (not inspected). To the south of the terraces is a further, concave terraced slope, known as the amphitheatre, facing west. Walks lead past this and in to a wooded area on top of the Severn bank, described since 1760 as `The Wilderness'. The wooded area extends to the south as an elongated teardrop and is encircled by a brick-built ha-ha. It contains the kitchen gardens, present in 1802, at its southern end as well as a garden seat seemingly assembled from random pieces of worked masonry and brick and of late-19th century date.

PARK

The park lies to the south, east and north-east of the house. The northern and eastern parts remain as pasture scattered with numerous mature deciduous and 19th-century coniferous and specimen trees. Further away from the house, to the south and west some fields are under arable cultivation. Along the southern border of the registered area is a rectangular tree-belt called Powys Coppice.

The chapel (listed Grade II*) stands approximately 250 metres east of the house within a small, square churchyard. The chapel is not easily visible from the house, masked by trees, but is a focal point particularly from the north and eastern parts of the park. East of the chapel the almshouses (also listed Grade II*) are ranged around three sides of a courtyard, open to the south. 300 metres due north of the almshouses is a rectangular pond, surrounded by young trees, this is marked as fish ponds on the 1847 Tithe map. A further irregular-shaped pond, marked as The Great Pool on the Tithe map, lies 300 metres to the west of this within The Grove.

About 500 metres south-east of Berwick House on a rise in the park is an eye-catcher (listed Grade II), probably of the late-18th century or early-19th century (the building itself present by 1802), in the form of gothicized farm buildings. The remains of the farm buildings are now masked by young trees and scrub.

KITCHEN GARDEN

The kitchen garden lies approximately 300 metres south of the house and is square on plan, enclosed by brick walls. A range of late-19th-century glasshouses stands along the north wall of the garden and the gardener's cottage stands to the other side of this. The cottage is of two storeys, built of red brick with a gabled front elevation and faces north onto a courtyard containing various brick 19th-century outhouses and glasshouses. A square kitchen garden is depicted on this site on the 1802 plan and the cottage, although now much altered, and walled garden may thus be of late-18th-century origin.

REFERENCES USED BY ENGLISH HERITAGE

Blakeway, J.B. History of Shrewsbury Hundred or Liberties (1897) 368-9

Colvin, H. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840

Gotch, C. A Shropshire Vogue: Notes and Correspondence Relating to Robert Mylne' Typescript c 1972, copy in Shrews. Local Studies Libr.

Jacques, D. Rural Gardening on the Sugnall Demesne. Garden History Vol 9 No. 1. 26-39

Stamper, P. Historic Parks and Gardens of Shropshire. 1996.

Pevsner, N and Newman, J. Buildings of England: Shropshire 2006. 144

The Gardener's Chronicle 7 June 1890, 709

MAPS

Thomas Ansell. A Map of Berwick, the Seat of Tho Powis Esq. with the Gardens and Yard Adjacent. 1760 (copy in Stamper, pg 28)

Rough reduced map of Berwick Estate, the property of Thos. Jelf Powys Esq. 1802. Shrops record office ref: 731/5/3/91

Parish Tithe Map 1847

Ordnance Survey 1st Edition (1881)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION

Berwick Park is included on the Register at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is a representative example of a C18 park, improved in the late C19, which has survived well.

* Although now overlain, there is clear documentary evidence of the presence of an early-C18 formal garden, possibly associated with Stephen Switzer, which substantially increases the park's historic interest 

* The Italianate Garden of c 1878 survives well and this alongside other later C19 improvements to the park enhances the interest of the whole

* Most phases of development are contemporary with existing buildings, many of which are listed and as such there is good group value