Chevening Park, Sevenoaks, England

From the north-west facade there is a grand vista towards the North Downs, terminating in a visual key hole cut through the woodland which is still maintained.

Much was devastated by the storm on October 16th 1987. A new double avenue of 100 lime trees has been planted on the northern front. A walled garden to the west of the house has unique double hexagon brick walls 10 feet high, in reasonable condition but now used as a vegetable garden. The glasshouses have been demolished.

The Parterre just west of the house is of box in-filled with golden Lonicera nitida, Senecio greyii, cotton lavender and sage. A yew maze four feet high is in good shape. South of the house are two double avenues of fastigate hornbeam. Yew, privet and rhododendron border the long lake.

East of the lake are more scattered tree groups and a stream with a cascade. A new avenue of lime trees has been planted (1989) in this area. A rustic wooden bridge of the last century has been demolished.

To the west side of the lake are scattered lofty mature limes and sycamores. The imprint of the old early-17th century design is now being established with hornbeams (‘Cuarinilles') as part of the restoration programme. These were planted in 1979 (see photos and engraving in the County Planning Department's reference material). Also here are Roman tombstones in a rustic thatched canopy presented to General James Stanhope (1st Earl) by the municipality of Tarragona, (about 1708). Beyond this a deep curving ha-ha separates the grounds from the park beyond.

Mature cedars are west of the house with a group of fine mature 30 metre limes, underplanted with spring bulbs. The service buildings are clustered near the main house. The church (1262) in the village contains Stanhope Lennard and Cranmer memorials.

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

Gardens, pleasure grounds, and a park surrounding a 17th-century country house, first remodelled in the early 18th century, then reworked in the 1770s and added to during the first half of the 19th century.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Chevening is situated about 4 kilometres to the north-west of Sevenoaks, in a rural location on the west side of the estate village of Chevening. The roughly 176 hectare park is bounded to the south and west by Ovenden Road, to the east by a minor country road through Chevening village, and to the north by farmland. The House stands close to the centre of the eastern boundary, overlooking the Darent valley, on the south face of the North Downs.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J Harris, The History of Kent (1719), p 74

J Kip, Supplement de Nouveau theatre de la Grande Bretagne (1728), plate 1

T Badeslade, Thirty six different views of noblemen and gentlemen's seats in the county of Kent (1750s), plate 8

R Ackerman, Repository 12, (1828), plate 31

G Virtue, Picturesque beauties of Great Britain: Kent (1829), p 103

W W J Gendall, Views 1, (1830), p 123

W H Ireland, History of Kent 4, (1830), p 579

Gardeners' Chronicle, ii (1880), pp 390-1

M Macartney, English houses and gardens (1908), plate 18

Country Life, 47 (17 April 1920), pp 512-20; (24 April 1920), pp 586-93; 143 (18 January 1968), pp 102-4; 166 (20 September 1979), pp 850-2

R Dutton, The English Garden (1937), plate 52

M Binney and A Hills, Elysian Gardens (1979), p 19

Chevening, Historical Appraisal, (Elizabeth Banks Associates 1988) [copy on EH file]

Chevening, guidebook, (no date)

Maps

F Hull, Catalogue of estate maps 1590-1840 (1973), p 85 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)

R Browne, Survey of the Chevening estate, 1679 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)

Chevening Estate survey, around 1720 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)

Michell, Survey of the Chevening estate, 1747 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)

W Woodward, Survey of the Chevening estate, 1775 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone)
 

Description rewritten: March 2001

Amended: May 2001; February 2004

Edited: November 2003