Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Squerryes Court is a late-17th- and early-18th-century garden of 80 hectares. It was considerably altered during the 19th century. The layout of the early formal gardens can still be seen and a restoration programme is under way to return the gardens to their original form. The restoration has included the planting of hedges, avenues and a parterre.

Summary from record TQ 45 SW 68:

Late C17/C18 garden and park, with late C19 gardens and lake.

Monument Types

• GAME LARDER (Unknown date)
• BOWLING GREEN (BOWLING GREEN, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• FORMAL GARDEN (FORMAL GARDEN, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• LANDSCAPE PARK (LANDSCAPE PARK, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• LANDSCAPE PARK (LANDSCAPE PARK, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• ORNAMENTAL LAKE (ORNAMENTAL LAKE, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• ORNAMENTAL POND (ORNAMENTAL POND, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• SUNDIAL (SUNDIAL, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• TREE AVENUE (TREE AVENUE, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• GARDEN TERRACE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1681 AD to 2050 AD)
• ORANGERY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1681 AD to 2050 AD)
• DOVECOTE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1700 AD to 2050 AD)
• GAZEBO (Post Medieval to Modern - 1700 AD to 2050 AD)
• LAKE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1700 AD to 2050 AD)
• DAIRY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1837 AD to 2050 AD)
• AVENUE (LANDSCAPE FEATURE) (Modern - 1987 AD to 2050 AD)
• TREE AVENUE (Modern - 1987 AD to 2050 AD)
• PARTERRE (Modern - 1989 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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DESCRIPTION
Mr and Mrs Warde are restoring the formal garden to the east of the house. In 1989 four parterres were planted using box, santolina, lavender and purple sage. The designs for the parterres were taken from Harris' History of Kent of 1719, the Badeslade engraving of Squerryes. A yew hedge, also planted in 1989, now encloses this area. Plans are now in hand to plant a hornbeam hedge in a wineglass shape beyond the formal garden, also an avenue of pleached limes.

The lake in front of the house is fed by natural springs (as is the drinking water supply). Originally circular in shape, it has been enlarged over the years to a less regular shape. It is currently stocked with trout. To the north-east of the house is a yard with a Victorian dairy and interesting octagonal meat and game larder. Nearby is a 17th-century orangery, which has since been used as a laundry and a bakehouse. The owners would like to restore this to its original glory, but are unable to do so through lack of funds.

A circular 18th-century dovecote provided a steady supply of meat throughout the year, but the existence of the birds came to an end during World War 1.

An octagonal 18th-century gazebo (a listed building in its own right) stands on a hill opposite the front of the house, and was possibly built as a shelter from which to watch the training gallops of the racehorses. This was restored with the assistance of Kent County Council and the Kent Gardens Trust in 1993, and was built in the 18th-century from Ragstone.

The gazebo is an important element in the composition of the gardens and landscape, acting as a magnet for the eye, drawing the viewer's gaze from the lake upwards to the crest of the hill. It is likely that the gazebo, which resembles a small classical temple or tomb, may have been inspired by the ‘grand tour', possibly by the Roman wall paintings of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

There are lawned areas with herbaceous borders and shrubberies, and a rhododendron dell, to the rear of the house. Fringing the more ornamental gardens are many fine trees, especially some extremely old sweet chestnuts, although the 1987 storm damage was quite extensive. Many lime trees in the entrance were also lost or damaged. The remaining trees have now had tree surgery and more lime trees have been planted to create the original lime groves in the 1719 print. This restoration was possible with the help of a grant from Task Force Trees.

HISTORY
Although actually built in the reign of Charles II, the house (a Grade I listed building), is a typical William and Mary period manor house. It has associations with General Wolfe, and has been the home of the Warde family since the early 1700s.

The gardens were originally a superb example of the grand style of 17th-century Dutch formal gardens. The original parchment plans show terraces and intricate parterres when the house was built in 1681. However, in the 18th and 19th centuries the grounds were landscaped into rolling vistas and the formal gardens lost to the extent that today only traces of the original terraces remain.

Site timeline
1700 to 1899: In the 18th and 19th centuries the grounds are landscaped into rolling vistas and the formal gardens lost to the extent that today only traces of the original terraces remain.
1987: The garden is greatly damaged in the storm of 1987 which prompts the restoration work to begin.

Features
gazebo
Feature created: 1700 to 1799
An octagonal 18th-century gazebo (a listed building in its own right) stands on a hill opposite the front of the house, and was possibly built as a shelter from which to watch the training gallops of the racehorses.
Designation status: English Heritage Listed Building Designation Grade I
avenue
Feature created: 1987 to 2007
game larder
There is an interesting octagonal meat and game larder.
orangery
Feature created: 1681 to 1699
The orangery has since been used as a laundry and a bakehouse.
lake
The lake in front of the house is fed by natural springs (as is the drinking water supply). Originally circular in shape, it has been enlarged over the years to a less regular shape. It is currently stocked with trout.
garden terrace
Feature created: 1681 to 1700
Only traces of the original terraces remain.
dairy
Feature created: 1837 to 1901
To the north-east of the house is a yard with a Victorian dairy.
dovecote
Feature created: 1700 to 1799
A circular 18th-century dovecote provided a steady supply of meat throughout the year, but the existence of the birds came to an end during World War 1.
herbaceous border
hedge
Feature created: 1989
Yew hedge.
river
River Darent.
lawn
hedge
Plans are now in hand to plant a hornbeam hedge in a wineglass shape beyond the formal garden.
tree avenue
Feature created: 1987 to 2007
parterre
Feature created: 1989
In 1989 four parterres were planted using box, santolina, lavender and purple sage. The designs for the parterres were taken from Harris’ History of Kent of 1719, the Badeslade engraving of Squerryes.
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Description from record TQ 45 SW 68:
[Name TQ 44525304] Squerryes Park[NAT] (1) Late C17/C18 garden and park, c.80ha, with gardens and lake of 9ha. An elaborate formal and geometrical garden scheme was laid out round Squerryes Court late C17. An enclosed forecourt to west, with 2 matching rectangular pools; to east, parterres with bowling green and symmetrical pool. C18 landscaping left the outlines of this formal scheme. [Full topographical description] LISTED GRADE II. Additional references, not consulted. (a)-(e) (2) [For gazebo and dovecote see TQ 45 SW 34]


From the National Heritage List for England:
A late C18, C19, and C20 formal garden, laid out on the surviving structure of an early C18 garden with surviving late C17 features, surrounded by C18 and C19 pleasure grounds and set within an C18 park.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Squerryes was a lesser manor of the manor of Westerham, which was recorded in Domesday Book. It was occupied by a family called de Squerie in the C13 after which it had many owners, becoming Crown property during the reign of Henry VIII and passing through the hands of the Cawarden and Beresford families between the C15 and early C17. It was in the possession of Sir John Strood in 1635 and later was sold to the diarist Sir John Evelyn's son-in-law, William Leech, Evelyn visiting him at Squerryes in 1658. In 1680 it was purchased by Sir Nicholas Crisp who built the present house, his son selling it on in 1700 to Edward Villiers, Earl of Jersey, who was Lord Chamberlain and Queen Mary's Master of the Horse. He probably developed the extensive formal gardens shown on Badeslade's early C18 engraving (Harris 1719). The second Earl's son sold the property in 1731 to his friend John Warde, whose descendants still live at Squerryes. The house, gardens, and estate land remain (1997) in private ownership.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Squerryes Court is situated on the immediate south side of the A25, on the south-west edge of Westerham. The 69ha registered site, which comprises 9ha of formal and ornamental gardens and 60ha of parkland and woodland, lies on the north- and east-facing slopes of a greensand ridge, the land falling from high points on the south and south-west side of the site towards the narrow valley of the upper course of the River Darent which forms the boundary to the north-east and east. The northern boundary, enclosed by fences and lined with hedgerows or narrow fringes of trees, abuts the A25 and, at the east end of the site, the housing of Westerham. Some 2km northwards beyond the A25 and the parallel M25, the horizon is formed by the east to west wooded ridge of the North Downs. To the south-west, post and wire-fenced boundaries abut open farmland and, to the south and south-east (beyond the River Darent), the densely wooded rising slopes of the greensand ridge. The western third of the site is separated from the house and gardens by Goodley Stock Road, a minor lane which runs south from the A25 to the village of Crockham Hill.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The site is entered through timber gates beside a lodge on the east side of Goodley Stock Road, some 80m south of its junction with the A25. A gravelled drive curves gently eastwards and uphill to the forecourt on the principal, west-facing front of the house, from which it then descends south-westwards to exit onto the road, on the north side of Squerryes Home Farm. The present approach is shown established by 1801 (Mudge), the lodge being constructed between 1869 and 1909 (OS). An estate map of 1686 by Arthur Hewes shows the west front of the newly built house approached on its central axis, part of which, on the west side of Goodley Stock Road, is shown lined with a short length of a double avenue, probably remaining from the formal approach to the former house on the site (owner pers comm, 1997). The axial approach appears to have survived into the early C18 (Badeslade, in Harris 1719) but had gone by 1769 (Andrews, Dury and Herbert) and the Goodley Stock Road diverted westwards to accommodate the present lake on the west front.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING Squerryes Court stands centrally within the registered site, on a platform cut into rising ground on the east side of Goodley Stock Road and with extensive views westwards over the lake and parkland to the North Downs. It is a compact, oblong house, of two storeys with red-brick elevations and a steep, hipped slate roof with pedimented gables and dormers. It was built by Sir Nicholas Crisp between 1680 and 1686 on the site of a former manor house. In the early C18, three pavilions were added on the north and south sides of the forecourt, between the west front and the lake, to provide kitchens, larders, and servants' quarters (Badeslade, in Harris 1719). These were removed before 1818 (CL 1968) but in 1852 Charles Warde built a three-storey extension onto the east end of the south front and added the present porch to the west front. During the extensive restoration works after government and military use in both the First and Second World Wars, the mid C19 additions were removed.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The principal, formal gardens lie to the east of the house and are enclosed from the park to the north, east, and south by a wide fringe of wooded pleasure grounds, threaded with a late C19 winding walk, the woodland established by 1769 (Andrews, Dury and Herbert) and damaged in the storm of 1987. Further informal ornamental grounds lie on the west side of the house.

From the terraced west front forecourt, shown established by 1869 (survey date of OS 1st edition), a flight of stone steps leads down a broad, open grassed slope to a lake, its eastern shore flanked by clumps of limes. The trees, some of which were replaced after losses in the storm of 1987, date from both the late C18 and early C19 (ring counts) and are planted on the site of formal rows of limes shown on Badeslade's view (Harris 1719). The west shore of the lake, open to views from the park, is enclosed along its north and south shores by ornamental and native trees of mixed ages and species including (on the north side) a group of large, mid C19 cedars and other conifers (OS 1871-3; Hall 1995). The eastern half of the lake is constructed on the course of a former stream which, by Badeslade's view (Harris 1719), appears widened into a formal canal and in use as a fishpond. By 1735 (painting by John Wootton), the canal had been extended westwards to create a larger but still formal area of water; by 1869 (OS) this had been further enlarged to its present size and informal outline.

On the east, garden front, the house opens onto a gravelled walk and a rectangular level terrace which is enclosed on its north, east, and south sides by clipped yew hedges (planted 1990s) incorporating, at regular intervals, taller drums of late C19, clipped Irish yews. The terrace, which occupies the site of the early C18 bowling green (Badeslade, in Harris 1719), is bisected by a broad, C19 axial gravelled walk (shown on OS 1st edition) flanked by lawns set each side with a pair of square, box-edged parterres, based on designs shown on Badeslade's view and planted in 1989 (guide leaflet 1997). North and south of the parterres, long mixed borders, their positions established by 1869 (OS), run parallel to the enclosing yew hedges.

Eastwards, beyond the bowling-green terrace and a gravelled, north to south cross-walk, a level area of grass occupies the site of an oval water basin (cross-walk and basin both shown on Badeslade's view). East of the basin site, the ground rises in a broad grassed slope, framed with lime trees planted in a semicircular 'wine glass' form and bisected by the central axis which is lined with hornbeam hedging and terminates, some 130m from the house, at a wrought-iron screen and gate, erected in the mid 1990s. The structure of limes (intended for future pleaching) and hornbeam was planted in 1992 on the site of the similar C18 layout shown on Badeslade's view.

On the north and south sides of the hedges enclosing the bowling-green terrace, gravelled walks occupying the site of early C18 raised walks extend eastwards and intersect with the north to south cross-walk. South of the south walk a grass slope, on the site of a terrace shown on the estate map of 1686 and now dotted with a few trees, rises to meet a parallel raised walk, shown on both the 1686 estate map and Badeslade's view and now terminated some 100m east of the house by a sweet chestnut felled by the storm of 1987 and retained as a feature lying across the path. North of the north walk, a tall yew hedge with a wide mixed border at its foot extends c 30m northwards from the corner of the house to the late C19 dairy and octagonal game larder, which are built on the site of the Orangery garden shown on Badeslade's view. The present brick and tile-roofed Orangery, which is also shown in Badeslade's 1719 view and appears to be contemporary with the house (ibid), lies 15m north of the dairy and has an icehouse on its north side. From the east end of the Orangery, a linear Victorian rockery, replanted in 1996 (ibid) and enclosed along the north side by a rock wall topped by C20 topiary, extends c 50m towards the north-east edge of the pleasure grounds.

From the south elevation of the house and beyond a small lawn, a southerly axis leads through a small garden with a central, box-edged roundel surrounded by gravel and enclosed by banked beds of mixed planting, shown established in this form by 1907 (OS) but replanted from the former rhododendron cover in the 1990s. Rising flights of stone steps flanked by rhododendron and yew hedging continue the axis 100m southwards up to the Cenotaph (listed grade II), a stone memorial urn on a pedestal erected in c 1759 (Hall 1995) to commemorate General Wolfe receiving the news of his army commission.

PARK The park, shown established to the extent of the present registered area by 1769 (Andrews, Dury and Herbert), is divided by the north to south Goodley Stock Road. On the west side, it is laid to grazing and largely open in character, the scattered trees shown in 1869 largely gone by 1909 (OS) with the exception of two limes marking the line of an avenue shown on the estate map of 1686. From level ground parallel to the A25, slopes rise steeply southwards to a ridge crowned with several woods, the largest being Lodges Wood which was established by 1686 and replanted after storm damage in 1987. On the crest to the east is a small stone gazebo (listed grade II) with arched, open sides, built c 1735-40 to view racehorses on training gallops (guidebook 1986).

East of Goodley Stock Road, the parkland falls away from the house and gardens on their north, east, and south sides, reaching its greatest extent to the south-east. To the north and north-east, the parkland slopes are grazed and scattered with mature lime and chestnut, a line of mature and replanted (1990s) limes marking the route of a former carriage drive to the house from Park Lodge to the north-east (drive and lodge built between 1898 and 1909, OS). In the north-east corner of the park, running south-eastwards from Park Lodge, a series of former mill ponds, restored in the mid C20, are now (1997) used for trout fishing. To the immediate south and east of the gardens and of Squerryes Home Farm, much of the park is bare of trees and under arable cultivation. Some 45m east of the farm is an C18 circular dovecote with a conical roof (listed grade II). Further south-east, on the crest and south-east slopes, the park contains small areas of woods and large, loose clumps of trees interspersed with open grass, the location of the woods broadly indicated on Andrews, Dury and Herbert's map of 1769. On the south-east boundary, along the course of the River Darent, are two further linear ponds, also shown on the 1769 map.

KITCHEN GARDEN The kitchen garden lies 500m west of Squerryes Home Farm, on the south-facing slope below Lodges Wood, on the west side of Goodley Stock Road. Shown on Andrews, Dury and Herbert's map of 1769, it is a 120m x 65m rectangle with red-brick walls and a small, square, brick and tile-roofed garden house built up from the walls in the south-east corner. The garden is now in equestrian use.

Kent County Council, 1996, The historic parks and gardens of Kent (Kent Gardens Compendium) (Unpublished document). SKE12972.

<1> OS 1:10000 1978 (OS Card Reference). SKE48163.

<2> English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of special historic interest, Part 34 Kent(May 1987) (OS Card Reference). SKE41621.

<3> Country Life (13 Jun 1968) 1580-83 (OS Card Reference). SKE39326.

<4> Country Life (20 Jun 1968) 1682-85 (OS Card Reference). SKE39340.

<5> Country Life (27 Jun 1968) 1752-56 (OS Card Reference). SKE39348.

<6> Country Life (15 Feb 1973) 386 (OS Card Reference). SKE39330.

<6> Parks and Gardens Data Services Limited (PGDS), 2005, Parks and Gardens UK (www.parksandgardens.org) (Website). SKE16061.

<7> Warde J(1986)Squerryes Court (guidebook) (OS Card Reference). SKE51274.

Sources and further reading

Related records