Ammerdown House, Bath, England

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

Early 20th-century formal gardens designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, surrounding a late 18th-century mansion by James Wyatt set in a late 18th-century park.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Ammerdown is situated about 1 kilometre east of Kilmersdon, to the south-east of the B3139 road and to the west of the A362 road. The site, of around 180 hectares, comprises about 6 hectares of formal gardens and pleasure grounds, and about 174 hectares of parkland, ornamental plantations, and lakes. With the exception of the north-west corner, where it is adjoined by Gagman Coppice, the site is bounded on each side by public roads: to the north-west the B3139 road, to the north-east and east the A362 road, to the south a minor road known as New Road, and to the west a further, unnamed minor road. The site is enclosed by a variety of fences and hedges. The landform is undulating, with a valley falling away to the south-west of the House. The ground rises towards the eastern boundary, with boundary plantations screening the adjacent road forming a backdrop to the park. There are extensive westerly views from the eastern park across the surrounding country, and towards the park associated with Babington House (see description of this site elsewhere in the Register), about 1.5 kilometres south-west of Ammerdown.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

C Holme, Gardens of England in Southern and Western Counties (1907), plates 5-8

Country Life, 65 (16 February 1929), pp 216-23; (2 March 1929), pp 292-8; (9 March 1929), pp 330-5

A S G Butler, The Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens ii, (1950), p 12, plates 15-25

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (1958), pp 78-9

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), pp 79-81

J Bond, Somerset Parks and Gardens (1998), pp 92-7, 119-22, 135

Maps

Tithe map for Kilmersdon parish, 1839 (M5221/1), (Somerset Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 2nd edition revised 1902, published 1904

Illustrations

Engraving of the cold bath and bath house, 1824 (private collection)
 

Description written: February 2003

Amended: March 2003, July 2003

Edited: May 2004