Monument record MDO32945 - Gardens at Duntish Court, Buckland Newton

The gardens at Duntish Court, also known as Castle Hill. The house was designed around 1760 by Sir William Chambers for Fitzwalter Foy, and demolished in 1965, when it was replaced by a bungalow. It is thought that Chambers alos designed the gardens. Surviving features from the eighteenth-century garden include a canal-style lake, a cascade, grotto and garden house.

In his book Historic Gardens of Dorset Timothy Mowl has attributed the eighteenth-century landscape design to Chambers; this clearly makes sense, in view of the fact that he is known to have designed the house. There is no known documentary evidence to substantiate this but the Dorset Gardens Trust regard the stylistic evidence as compelling, particularly as Chambers had a very individual and little-copied style <2>.

According to Hutchins <4> an earlier house stood to the south of the site of the eighteenth-century house. With the possible exception of the Yewery to the south east of the site of the [eighteenth-century] house, no traces of any garden features associated with this earlier house have been identified. It seems probable that any earlier gardens were swept away in the course of the eighteenth-century building and landscaping, particularly as the site of the house itself cannot be identified with confidence. The general position of the former house is indicated on the 1886-87 Ordnance Survey map, and appears to be a little way to the south west of the present house, but its precise location is not marked.

Members of the Dorset Gardens Trust have visited the site at various times between 1996 and 2008 and confirm that the eighteenth-century landscape and pleasure ground survive. Features noted include a canal-style lake, cascade, grotto, and garden house. The Dorset Gardens Trust also suggest that some eighteenth and nineteenth-century tree planting remains, though the owner reports that many significant survivors have died and been replaced in the last twenty years <6>.

The outline of the pleasure ground on the HER map is conjectural, and is intended to indicate the most likely extent of the pleasure ground based on the comments of the Dorset Gardens Trust. The pleasure ground is likely to have been wooded <3>. The canal-style lake appears to have been designed to be approached from the north, and thus intended to be viewed side-on, rather than from one end.

Leading arboriculturalist Alan Mitchell <6> has suggested that the yewery may be a survival from the Elizabethan garden, because of the apparent age of some of the trees. However, an alternative view (put forward by Oliver Rackham) is that this is a Victorian homage to an earlier style. A brick wall adjacent to the yewery appears to be of Victorian brick; according to the Dorset Gardens Trust, it is of similar style and appears to be contemporary with buildings such as the stables and lodge, which were built in the 1870s (3).
There is no evidence (available to the HER at the time of writing) to indicate the actual former extent of any park. The boundary shown on the HER map takes in an area to the north east of the house where examination of maps and recent aerial photographs show a scattering of apparently mature trees, possibly remnants of parkland planting. According to the owners, the original access drive to the house was from the north east (6). The line of the drive cannot be discerned on recent aerial photographs. A drive curves, in a cutting, north of the summer house between the stables and the site of the house. It is to be supposed that this feature is contemporary with the house and consequently of eighteenth century date, but no direct evidence is known (to the HER at the time of writing). The part of the boundary on the HER map which is north of the stables and drive is defined by estate-style iron railings. These railings are not particularly old, according to the owners <6>.
A Victorian ha-ha with bastion to the east of the modern house have been noted as still surviving by members of the Dorset Gardens Trust. Estate papers seen by trust members (in fact a late 1880s Ordnance Survey map, with additions) indicate that the stone-capped brick ha-ha and bastion were built in 1876. An armillary sphere on the bastion is a modern addition (6). Other Victorian additions include the brick walls adjacent to the road; the retaining walls and tunnel under the road are of brick, and similar in style to buildings such as the stables which are known to have been built in the 1870s. The walls of the kitchen garden are also 1870s. The kitchen garden is now in separate ownership, having been sold in 1950. According to the owners, the estate had its own brickworks <6>. A ‘Brick Kiln Coppice’ is shown on Ordnance Survey maps, and may be the site of the brickworks. It cannot be positively identified as such, though the name does of course suggest that it was used for at least the small-scale manufacture of bricks at some point in the past.

The present (2008) owners have, since 1986, added to an arboretum to the south west of the lake <6>. The extent of the arboretum as shown on the HER has been defined through discussions with the Dorset Gardens Trust. Though new planting has taken place, the Dorset Gardens Trust <3> are of the opinion that the arboretum remains essentially eighteenth-century in date, by virtue of surviving specimen trees and a possible family link with Westonbirt at that time (the same family name occurs, but no evidence to substantiate this suggestion is known to the HER at the time of writing).

Setting: Duntish Court is situated on Castle Hill, with long views to the east. To the north west the land rises to Dungeon Hill, but there would not appear to be any particular attempt in the landscaping to contrive views to Dungeon Hill, a prehistoric hill-top enclosure, which might have been of interest as coinciding with antiquarianism, coming into vogue at the time. In fact, the older parts of the landscaping to the south west of the present house, give an impression of self-containment.

Context: The eighteenth-century gardens at Duntish Court are contemporary with the gardens at Wimborne St Giles; they are part of the same trend, though on a much less grand scale.

Significance: The gardens at Duntish Court are a relatively compact and complete example of the work of an influential architect and sometime garden designer (Sir William Chambers, 1723-1796), who also worked at Milton Abbas. The views which play a significant part in the effect of the garden are preserved. The grotto, canal and associated features have considerable group value, and it may be argued that they are of regional significance.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 50-52 (Monograph). SDO146.

‘The mullioned stone windows from a 16th or 17th-century building are reset in the flint wall of a Summer House, 100 yds. W. of the main building. They are chamfered and have plain labels. They probably come from the earlier house, which stood to the S. of the 18th-century building (Hutchins, III, 708); Thomas Barnes repaired it in the 17th century (Coker, 95)’

<2> Mowl, T, 2003, Historic Gardens of Dorset, 11, 74-77 (Monograph). SDO12480.

‘… the grounds are among the most rewarding in the county. Immediately below the bungalow a big grove of wonderfully contorted yews stands at the head of a long weed-grown canal, much overshadowed by superb trees, a sweet chestnut and a plane being outstanding specimens … hanging over the broad grass walk along one side of the canal.’

<4> Hutchins, J, 1868, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. Volume 3. 3rd edition, 708 (Monograph). SDO11486.

<5> 1845, Sale particulars and maps relating to Duntish Court, August 1845 (Cartographic materials). SDO14287.

<6> Dorset Gardens Trust, Oral: Duntish Court (Verbal communication). SDO14285.

Record last edited

Apr 13 2016 3:10PM