Shotover Park

Last updated
Shotover Park
Aerial View of Shotover House (geograph 4217497).jpg
Aerial view of Shotover Park, with the two large ponds in the foreground
Oxfordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Oxfordshire
General information
Type Country house
Architectural style Georgian
Location Wheatley, Oxfordshire
Coordinates 51°45′22″N1°09′18″W / 51.756071°N 1.155129°W / 51.756071; -1.155129
Current tenants Alexander James Sinnott Stanier
Completedc. 1714-20
Renovated1855
Client James Tyrrell, Gen. James Tyrrell
Design and construction
Architect(s)William Townsend (possibly)
Renovating team
Architect(s)Joshua Sims
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated18 July 1963
Reference no.1284986

Shotover Park (also called Shotover House) is an 18th-century country house and park near Wheatley, Oxfordshire, England. The house, garden and parkland are Grade I-listed with English Heritage, and 18 additional structures on the property are also listed. Shotover House, its gardens, parkland and the wider estate (known as Shotover Estate) are privately owned by the Shotover Trust. Shotover Park [1] [2] which lies on the north and east slopes of Shotover hill should not be confused with the more recently named Shotover Country Park, which is a public park and nature reserve on the southwest slopes of Shotover hill managed by Oxford City Council. [3]

Contents

Toponymy

The source of the name Shotover is uncertain. One suggestion is that it comes from Château Vert ("Green Castle"), a French Norman Royal hunting lodge on the site. Novelist Robert Graves was a proponent of this theory, mentioning it in his classic book A Wife for Mr Milton . [4]

Another alternative is the Old English Scoet Ofer ("upper spur"). Shotover Hill is located 3 miles (4.8 km) to the east of Oxford, which rises to 557 feet (170 m) above sea level. [5] In the Domesday Book of 1068, the location was identified as Scotorne. Up through the 13th century, patent rolls of King John and Henry III refer to Shotover variously as Scotore, Shotore, Shothore, and Shottovere. [6]

History

Shotover Lodge

The land encompassing Shotover Park was part of the Wychwood royal forest as far back as the Domesday Book. [4] There was an "ancient" house on the site, celebrated as the location that Queen Elizabeth I selected for her reception to close her visit to Oxford in 1566. Oxford orator Roger Marbeck delivered a speech about Oxford University and the queen's valuable support for the university. The queen is recorded as saying upon her departure from Shotover, "Farewell the learned University of Oxford, farewell my good subjects there, farewell my dear scholars; and pray God prosper your studies." [6]

John Locke was a frequent visitor to Shotover in the late 1670s to the early 1680s, and he stored papers and books there for safekeeping when he was forced to flee to Holland in 1683. John Locke by Greenhill.jpg
John Locke was a frequent visitor to Shotover in the late 1670s to the early 1680s, and he stored papers and books there for safekeeping when he was forced to flee to Holland in 1683.

Shotover came into the possession of the Tyrrell family after a freak hunting accident early in the 17th century. The story is that Timothy Tyrrell, Master of the Royal Buckhounds, was holding a dead stag for the teenaged Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James I. According to a chronicle of the unfortunate accident: "By his employment, [Tyrrell] held the Buck's head for the Prince to cut it off, in doing which His Highness cut the Master of the Buckhounds across the hand, which disabled him of the use of it forever." In compensation, the prince granted the rangership of the Forests of Shotover and Stow Wood to Tyrrell. [4]

In 1613, following Prince Henry's death in 1612, King James confirmed the rangership by letters patent for the duration of the lives of Timothy Tyrrell and his two sons, Timothy (Master of the Buckhounds to King Charles I) and William. [6] On 29 August 1624, King James knighted the elder Timothy Tyrrell at Shotover while attending a sporting hunt. He died in 1632. [7]

Originally from Oakley, Buckinghamshire, the Tyrrell family grew extremely powerful in the 17th century. The royal forest in Oxfordshire extended over Headington, Marston, and parts of 10 other parishes. However, ongoing fighting among the local population, as well as trees felled by the Royalists during the English Civil War, caused the forest to fall into such disarray that in 1660 the woodland was disafforested – no longer subject to royal forest laws. [4]

The Tyrrells lived in a house known as Shotover Lodge or Shotover House, although it is unknown if it was the same house visited by Queen Elizabeth or a different building. Historian and political theorist James Tyrrell, grandson of Sir Timothy the elder, grew up at Shotover before moving to Oakley in 1670 after his marriage. Tyrrell divided his time between Oakley and Shotover. Tyrrell was a close friend of John Locke, whom he met at Oxford in 1658. Locke was a frequent guest at Shotover in the late 1670s and early 1680s, and he stored papers and books there for safekeeping when he was forced to flee to Holland in 1683. [8] Tyrrell eventually sold Oakley and moved back to Shotover after James II forced him out of local governance in Buckinghamshire for refusing to sign the Declaration of Indulgence in 1687. [9]

Shotover Park

Shotover engraving by George Bickham the Younger, 1750, showing the house prior to the additional wings added in the 1850s expansion Shotover House and Garden, 1750 engraving.jpg
Shotover engraving by George Bickham the Younger, 1750, showing the house prior to the additional wings added in the 1850s expansion

Sir Timothy the younger died in 1701. The construction of the current Shotover Park began circa 1714–15 under his son James, and was located approximately 200 metres (660 ft) east of the site of the house visited by Queen Elizabeth. In 1717–18, he built a Gothic temple at Shotover. The temple, with corner turrets, arcaded loggia, and battlemented gable, is possibly the first intimation of the Gothic Revival architecture in England. James died the following year and the construction of the building was continued under his son, Lieutenant-General James Tyrrell, an Army officer and MP. [8] [1] [10]

The architect of the new house commissioned by Sir Timothy is uncertain, but Shotover Park is believed to have been designed by William Townsend (or Townesend; 1676–1739), an Oxford architect and mason who worked on many buildings at Oxford University, and who was the son of Mayor of Oxford John Townesend. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner wrote in the Oxfordshire edition of his Buildings of England series that Shotover Park has strong similarities with The Queen's College, Oxford, linking it to Townsend. [4] Construction was likely completed by 1720; the date 1718 does appear on rainwater heads. [1] [11] [12] [13] The design of the elder James Tyrrell's Gothic temple has been attributed to Townsend or to James Gibbs. [10]

Shotover Park was constructed of colour-washed limestone ashlar with a roof made of Westmorland and Welsh slate with stone stacks. The house is built to a double-depth plan, consisting of two storeys, plus a basement and attics. The initial house featured a seven-window front. In 1855, it was extended to 15-windows with two wings added on either side in a renovation by Joshua Sims. The Ionic pedimented porch, the arched front doorway and flanking arched windows are likely from the mid-19th century additions. The windows on the ground and first floors feature floating cornices, moulded architraves and sills supported on consoles. [1]

Octagon temple designed by William Kent, circa 1735 Shotover Park - Octagon temple by William Kent.jpg
Octagon temple designed by William Kent, circa 1735

Early outbuildings and features at Shotover Park included three stables, a coach house, a granary, a barn, dairy, work house, a brewhouse, gardener's cottage, several gardens and nurseries with young trees, and six small fishponds. The formal garden on the site dates to 1718, which includes a Grade I-listed walled kitchen garden. [14]

Map of Shotover from the Ordnance Survey Great Britain County Series, 1898 Shotover map, OS 1898.jpg
Map of Shotover from the Ordnance Survey Great Britain County Series, 1898

In addition to the Gothic temple built for Sir Timothy, the garden includes a large obelisk and another temple designed by William Kent circa 1735. The obelisk was built to honour the visit of Queen Elizabeth and stands on the site of the ancient house she visited. The Kent temple was badly damaged in the 1980s by falling trees, but it was restored in 1988 with assistance from the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission. [4]

James Tyrrell died in 1742 and left the estate to the family of his friend, the Baron Augustus Schütz, a Hanoverian favourite of King George I, who became Master of the Robes to King George II. [2] It passed to his son, George Frederick Schutz, who was Groom of the Bedchamber to King George III, and in turn to his son, Thomas James Schutz. [15]

When Thomas died, Shotover Park passed into the hands of the Drury family through his youngest sister Mary, who married Sir George Vandeput, 2nd Baronet. They left only one heir, a daughter Frances, who married Richard Vere Drury. Shotover passed to their son, George Vandeput Drury, who died without an heir in November 1849. [15]

In 1850, George Gammie (later Gammie-Maitland) bought Shotover, reportedly with the proceeds of the sale of property he owned in Australia. (His business partner, William Gilbert Rees, named Shotover River in New Zealand for Gammie.) [16] Gammie-Maitland went bankrupt in 1871, when the estate was sold to Colonel James Miller. It stayed in the Miller family until 2006, owned by Alfred Douglas Miller and his son Sir John Miller, Crown Equerry and friend of Queen Elizabeth II. The royal family were frequent visitors to the estate; [4] Princess Anne suffered a broken nose falling off a horse while riding at Shotover at age 15. [17]

Today

Shotover Park has been held in a trust since 1964. More recent residents of the house include Major Alexander Alfred Miller (known as Alastair) and later his youngest brother Sir John Miller. Their nephew, Sir Beville Stanier, 3rd Baronet, is one of the trustees and his son, Alexander James Sinnott Stanier, now lives in the house. The park and estate cover 1,767 acres (715 ha).[ citation needed ]

Listed buildings

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Kent</span> English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century

William Kent was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, but his real talent was for design in various media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stourhead</span> Estate, grade I listed garden in England

Stourhead is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate at the source of the River Stour in the southwest of the English county of Wiltshire, extending into Somerset. The estate is about 4 km northwest of the town of Mere and includes a Grade I listed 18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, one of the most famous gardens in the English landscape garden style, farmland, and woodland. Stourhead has been part-owned by the National Trust since 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shotover</span> Hill in the United Kingdom

Shotover is a hill and forest in Oxfordshire, England. The hill is 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Oxford. Its highest point is 557 feet (170 m) above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culham</span> Human settlement in England

Culham is a village and civil parish in a bend of the River Thames, 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The parish includes Culham Science Centre and Europa School UK. The parish is bounded by the Thames to the north, west and south, and by present and former field boundaries to the east. It is low-lying and fairly flat, rising from the Thames floodplain in the south to a north-facing escarpment in the north up to 260 feet (80 m) above sea level. The 2011 Census recorded its population as 453.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toxteth Park Cemetery</span> Graveyard in England

Toxteth Park Cemetery is a graveyard on Smithdown Road, Liverpool, United Kingdom. It was opened on Monday 9 June 1856. It was the responsibility of the Toxteth Park Burial Board, which had been established by at least 1855.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remenham</span> Village and civil parish in England

Remenham is a village and civil parish on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames opposite Henley-on-Thames in southern England. It is particularly well known for the steep approach, known as Remenham Hill or White Hill, into Henley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water Eaton, Oxfordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Water Eaton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Gosford and Water Eaton, between Oxford and Kidlington in Oxfordshire. Water Eaton was a separate civil parish until 1932, when it was merged with its neighbour Gosford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirtlington</span> Human settlement in England

Kirtlington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) west of Bicester. The parish includes the hamlet of Northbrook. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Britwell Salome</span> Human settlement in England

Britwell Salome is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England centred 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) northeast of Wallingford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 204.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanton Harcourt</span> Human settlement in England

Stanton Harcourt is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Witney and about 6 miles (10 km) west of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Sutton, 1⁄2 mile (800 m) north of the village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ditchley Park</span> Grade I listed house in Oxfordshire, England

Ditchley Park is a country house near Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England. The estate was once the site of a Roman villa. Later it became a royal hunting ground, and then the property of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley. The 2nd Earl of Lichfield built the present house, designed by James Gibbs, in 1722. In 1933, the house was bought by an MP, Ronald Tree, whose wife Nancy Lancaster redecorated it in partnership with Sibyl Colefax. During the Second World War Winston Churchill used the house as a weekend retreat, due to concerns that his official country house, Chequers and his private country home, Chartwell, were vulnerable to enemy attack. After the war, Tree sold the house and estate to the 7th Earl of Wilton, who then sold it in 1953 to Sir David Wills of the Wills tobacco family. Wills established the Ditchley Foundation for the promotion of international relations and subsequently donated the house to the governing trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garendon Hall</span> Historic site in Between Shepshed and Loughborough

Garendon Hall was a country home near Shepshed, Leicestershire, England. It was demolished in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brightwell Baldwin</span> Human settlement in England

Brightwell Baldwin is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) northeast of Wallingford. It was historically in the Hundred of Ewelme and is now in the District of South Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 208. The parish is roughly rectangular, about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) long north–south and about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) wide east–west. In 1848 the parish covered an area of 1,569 acres (635 ha). The B4009 road linking Benson and Watlington forms part of the southern boundary of the parish. The B480 road linking Oxford and Watlington forms a small part of its northern boundary. Rumbolds Lane forms much of its western boundary. For the remainder the parish is bounded largely by field boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardwick House, Oxfordshire</span> House in Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

Hardwick House is a Tudor house on the banks of the River Thames on a slight rise at Whitchurch-on-Thames in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall in the book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, although this is also claimed by Mapledurham House, Fowey Hall Hotel, Foxwarren Park and Fawley Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linton Park</span> Grade I listed English country house

Linton Park, formerly Linton Place or Linton Hall, is a large 18th-century country house in Linton, Kent, England. Built by Robert Mann in 1730 to replace a much earlier building called 'Capell's Court', the estate passed through the ownership of several members of Mann's family before coming into the Cornwallis family. The house was enlarged to its current size in 1825.

Lieutenant-General James Tyrrell of Shotover, Oxfordshire, was a British Army officer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1742.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marston Bigot Park</span> Historic site in Somerset, England

Marston Bigot Park encompasses approximately 222 hectares (2,220,000 m2) and includes Marston House, Marston Pond and the remains of the medieval shrunken village of Lower Marston. It is in the village of Marston Bigot within the English county of Somerset, England. The house is a Grade II* listed building.

Sir Timothy Tyrrell was an Englishman who served as Master of the Buckhounds to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales and King Charles I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamhead House</span> House in Mamhead, Devon

Mamhead House, Mamhead, Devon, is a country house dating from 1827. Its origins are older but the present building was constructed for Robert William Newman, an Exeter merchant, in 1827–1833 by Anthony Salvin. The house is Grade I listed as Dawlish College, its function at the time of listing. The parkland is listed at Grade II*.

Bramham cum Oglethorpe is a civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 40 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, nine are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, two are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains the village of Bramham and the surrounding area. In the parish is Bramham Park, a country house, which is listed together with a number of structures in its grounds. The other listed buildings include houses, cottages and associated structures, farmhouses and farm buildings, a church, the remains of a medieval cross, a disused windmill, a former aircraft hangar, and a war memorial.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Historic England. "Shotover Park (Grade I) (1284986)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Shotover (Park and Garden) (Grade I) (1001106)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Shotover Country Park, Oxford City Council
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Koenig, Chris (9 February 2011). "Estate gained in hunting accident". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  5. ↑ Simpson, Alan. "The Round Oxford Walk" (PDF). BBC. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 Davenport, John Marriott; Davenport, Thomas Marriott (1888). Oxfordshire: Lords Lieutenant, High Sheriffs and Members of Parliament, &c. Clarendon Press. p. 98. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  7. ↑ Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes. 1887. p. 51. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  8. 1 2 Goldie, Mark (2004). "Tyrrell, James (1642–1718)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  9. ↑ Rudolph, J. (2002). Revolution by Degrees: James Tyrrell and Whig Political Thought in the Late Seventeenth Century. Springer. p. 27. ISBN   9781403990273 . Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  10. 1 2 Ross, Marion Dean; Potter, Elisabeth Walton (1978). Festschrift, a collection of essays on architectural history. The Society of Architectural Historians Northern Pacific Coast Chapter. p. 3.
  11. ↑ Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. OUP Oxford. p. 2144. ISBN   9780191053856.
  12. ↑ "John Townesend II, Mayor of Oxford". oxfordhistory.org.uk.
  13. ↑ Whyte, William (2006). Oxford Jackson: Architecture, Education, Status, and Style 1835-1924. Clarendon Press. p. 157. ISBN   9780199296583.
  14. ↑ "Shotover House > South Oxfordshire". Oxfordshire Gardens Trust. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  15. 1 2 Burke, John Bernard (1845). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn. p. 1091. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "Shotover in New Zealand". Shotover Preservation Society. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  17. ↑ "Prince Anne's Nose Broken". The Times . 28 April 1966. p. 14.
  18. ↑ Historic England. "Gothic Temple Approximately 600 Metres To East Of Shotover Park (Grade II*) (1047629)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  19. ↑ Historic England. "The Obelisk Approximately 200 Metres to West of Shotover Park (Grade II*) (1181640)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  20. ↑ Historic England. "Octagonal Temple Approximately 250 Metres To South West of Shotover Park (Grade II*) (1047632)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  21. ↑ Historic England. "Oxford Gate Approximately 400 Metres North West of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1047590)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  22. ↑ Historic England. "Oxford Lodge Approximately 400 Metres North West of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1047591)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  23. ↑ Historic England. "Eastern Pier of Gateway (Grade II) (1369237)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  24. ↑ Historic England. "Home Farm, Shotover Park, South Range (Grade II) (1369236)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  25. ↑ Historic England. "Home Farm, Shotover Park, Central Range (Grade II) (1369235)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  26. ↑ Historic England. "Dovecote Approximately 400 Metres to West of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1369216)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  27. ↑ Historic England. "Old Stables Approximately 100 Metres to South of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1369215)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  28. ↑ Historic England. "Steps Approximately 10 Metres to East of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1369214)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  29. ↑ Historic England. "Garden Seat Approximately 20 Metres to South East of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1284992)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  30. ↑ Historic England. "The Grove, Shotover Park (Grade II) (1284906)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  31. ↑ Historic England. "Garden Walls And Gardener's Cottage Approximately 200 Metres South East Of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1181482)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  32. ↑ Historic England. "Ornamental Wellhead Approximately 50 Metres to North West of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1181615)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  33. ↑ Historic England. "Western Pier of Gateway Approximately 1150 Metres South West of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1047592)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  34. ↑ Historic England. "Stable Court Approximately 200 Metres to South of Shotover Park (Grade II) (1047630)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 4 December 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.