Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Corsham was owned by the Crown during the medieval period and there was a park at that time, the earliest reference to which is in the Calender of Close Rolls of 1246 (Pearson Assocs 1997). Corsham is also briefly described in Leland's Itinerary for England and Wales 1535-1543 (same reference as above). In 1575 the Corsham estate was leased to Thomas Smythe (1522-91), Collector of the Customs of London; work on the present house began in 1582. In 1602 Corsham was sold to Sir Edward Hungerford, and the estate remained in his family until 1684. From that date the estate passed through several ownerships until it was bought by Robert Neal of Corsham in about 1746, on behalf of Paul Methuen (1723-95). A plan of 1745, probably made in connection with the sale, shows the house with a forecourt to its south and an enclosed garden to its north, surrounded by a park with three radiating avenues and two ponds in its eastern part. In 1749 Paul Methuen decided to improve the estate, and the north front of the house was refaced in a classical manner, possibly to designs by Ireson, who also built Stourhead (please see site entry elsewhere) (same reference as above). Around the same time he consulted `Greening', possibly the royal gardener Thomas Greening, who produced a plan for the pleasure garden c 1747-9 (same reference as above). Around 1750 Paul Methuen consulted another designer, called Oram; the latter also produced a plan including proposals for the park (about 1750). It is not known to what extent, if at all, the proposals as shown on the plans by Greening and Oram were implemented.

A decade later, Paul Methuen commissioned Lancelot Brown (1716-83) to work at Corsham Court (then known as Corsham House), both as architect and landscape gardener, which he did from 1760 to 1780. In 1761 Brown produced a plan of the park which shows both existing and proposed features. It is not certain which of Brown's proposals were executed, but his invoices for works undertaken at Corsham in 1761-2, and related correspondence between him and Paul Methuen, suggest that the north and south avenues were retained, a small lake was created from the existing ponds to the east of the house, a ha-ha or sunk fence was built around the pleasure ground, and a series of walks and rides was created around the park (Andrews and Drury, 1773).

After Paul Methuen's death in 1795, his son Paul Cobb Methuen inherited Corsham Court, and in the same year he commissioned Humphry Repton (1752-1818) to undertake landscape works, and John Nash (1752-1835) to alter and extend the house. Repton visited Corsham first in 1795, three times in 1796, and a further visit was undertaken by him in 1797. In that year, 1797, a Red Book for Corsham was produced at a cost of £42 (Pearson Assocs 1997). The location of the Red Book for Corsham is not known and it may not have survived but in his Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening published in 1803, Repton quotes from this Red Book. The alterations to the park following Repton's recommendations continued at least until 1801, and various contemporary prints, engravings, and a map of 1806 (Map of the Manor of Corsham for Paul Cobb Methuen), give an indication of the works carried out by Repton. These mainly included the laying out of a new approach drive, the removal of Brown's lake in order to create a larger one further from the house, and a programme of clearing, felling, and planting.

In 1816, after Paul Cobb Methuen's death, the Corsham estate passed to his son Paul (1779-1849). Under his ownership the layout of the park seems to have remained largely unaltered (Corsham Parish Plan, 1820), but in 1844 he commissioned Bellamy to replace John Nash's north front of the house. In 1849 the estate passed to Frederick Methuen (1818-91); under his ownership three new lodges were introduced and the park was extended to the north of the A4 (OS 1889). By the early to mid-20th century this newly added piece of parkland north of the A4 had been returned to farmland (not included in the area here registered).

Corsham Court remains (2000) in private ownership.