Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

This park is the landcape created in association with the old Mote House, built c. 1680 by Sir John Marsham which was demolished c.1800, parts of the park may have been incorporated into the later Mote Park still in existence (2010).

There remains a series of features, earthworks, platforms, banks and ditches along with information from historic maps about the grounds of the old park.

Monument Types

• CASCADE (Post Medieval - 1680 AD to 1800 AD)
• LANDSCAPE PARK (Post Medieval - 1680 AD to 1800 AD)

Full description

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The 17th-18th century park is regularly referred to in the source as a 'pleasure ground', as such there are platforms and banks and ditches relating to the landscaping of this garden and the roads into the park from the east and west. It was developed in conjunction with the house built c.1680. A number of historic maps and engravings are used in the source (1) for the 17th-18th century park; the most notable source is the Kip and Knyff (1718) engraving of the house and its grounds.

A grand cascade water feature is shown on the 'Kip and Knyff' engraving but is no longer visible above ground, the platform relating to this may be shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey (six inch). It is described as three steps down to a basin which was apparently filled with water until the 19th century.

A raised north-south approach road or carriage drive lined by trees was shown on the historic engraving defined by a bank to the left and a ditch to the right. Slight cuttings suggest its presence leading off the 'Old Park road' from the West.

To the west of the site of the old house (TQ 75 SE 339) there is an area known as the long valley which was lined by trees and may have had modifications made to it in the 17th or 18th century. The engraving of 1718 shows a large number of deer in the park which the source (1) describes as largely ornamental. There is a platform on the northern side of the long valley measuring 4 x 5 metres which was probably for viewing purposes.

A large platform to the south west of the 17th century house (TQ 75 SE 339) is interpreted as a viewing platform and may be that shown in an illustration from the volunteer review held in Mote Park in 1799. (Figure 14:1) To the south and east of the house there were formal gardens arranged in the goose foot or Patte de Oie style.

The gardens may have been landscaped in a 'picturesque' style in the later 18th century, ragstone mounds to the south east of the house could have been put up utilising material left over from quarrying in the grounds and planted with trees to create 'incidents' in the landscape. (1)

The northern and eastern boundaries of the park are still extant in the form of rounded banks, the northern of which has a road running along west - east and the eastern is shown in the 1718 Kip and Knyff engraving (figure 10:1) topped with a timber pale skirting the keeper’s cottage.

The boundary shown on the monument polygon is not the same as the one posited in the modern source, it has been adjusted by the compiler to include the area shown on an ordnance survey sketch book drawn c.1797 which was amended in the early 19th century to remove features such as the cascade, old roads within the park and the old house (Figure 15:1). (1)

An estate plan of 1686, so shortly after the construction of the house, shows a similar arrangement to the 18th century plans and engravings, though some additional lines of planting are recorded within the park, evidently removed before the early 18th century. (2)

<1> Maidstone Borough Council, 2008, Mote Park, Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE16008.

<2> Edward Bostock Fuller, 1686, A Survey of certain Lands lying in the Parish of Maidston in the County of Kent, Together with the Capital Message called The Mote, Part of the Possessions of Sir John Marsham Bart (Map). SKE17502.

Sources and further reading

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