Garendon Park 3

Way back in March this year, I was lucky enough to take part in an organised walk around the privately owned Garendon Estate. I say, ‘privately owned’, as much of it is, and as such is not open to the public, although there are a number of footpaths, some of which will be opening soon. [1]

We were invited along initially really to view the heritage of the park - see my earlier post after that first visit for a bit of the history of Garendon. Recently, I was very lucky to be invited along again, this time to view more of the flora and fauna, as well as the stunning obelisk.

At one time, some of the grounds of the estate were laid out as a pleasure park, and evidence of some of the features of was still to be seen, like a ‘canal’ which at one time was at the bottom of the garden, and included a pool – which reminded me a bit of Burleigh Brook Park.  We also saw one of the avenues of trees, along with some giant Wellingtonia trees, hazel, field maple, and oaks, to name but a few!

Surrounding the 'canal'

Around the 'canal'

An avenue of trees

What an avenue of trees on the estate looked like nearly 100 years ago

A Wellingtonia on the estate from nearly 100 years ago

I visited on what was one of the first beautiful sunny days we’d had, and it was so lovely to see everything in full bloom, as we made our way to the obelisk [2], which along with the Temple of Venus and the Triumphal Arch, was one of the follies designed by Ambrose Phillips (1707-1737), who had, apparently, designed many more such structures, but since he died very young, these were never created.

The obelisk

The obelisk

Here are a few more photographs of my visit.

 Not only did we see trees, crops, and grasses, we also saw animals!

 

Hope you've enjoyed this quick visit to Garendon! 

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Notes

[1] For details concerning the re-opening of the park to the public please consult either Charnwood Borough Council, or the housebuilders

[2] I've written so many posts related to obelisks on the blog! Here are a few examples:

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2016/11/obelisks-everywhere.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/06/life-in-locked-down-loughborough.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/04/loughborough-charnwood-college-garendon.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2016/03/william-railtons-bavarian-gates.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/04/garendon-and-marathon.html

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posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Garendon Park Part 3. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/06/garendon-park-3.html [Accessed 18 June 2023]

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Garendon Park Estate Part 2

Following my accompanied walk around the Garendon Estate recently, which I shared with you a while ago, I’ve done a bit of reading up about the park.

Deer parks were very common in mediaeval times, and were a status symbol used by the lord of the manor for hunting. They were spread across England, with Leicestershire having about 46 over a period of time. Although many of these started small – perhaps an enclosure not suitable for hunting, where half a dozen or so deer might be kept – the parks often grew quite large, usually to about 100-200 acres, but could sometimes be much bigger.  

It seems that local historians [1] believe that Garendon was never a mediaeval deer hunting park, despite that deer were kept there until relatively recently.

The origins of the estate begin with the creation of an abbey – Garendon Abbey – the second Cistercian abbey to be formed in this country, sometime after 1129, which lasted until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. The abbey also had lands in Dishley, where deer were kept, but this was for food, rather than for hunting.

The estate passed into private ownership, and a hall was constructed, in what became known as Garendon Park. So, this was not a mediaeval park which would have been uncultivated and wooded, but more of a landscaped park, that were popular in the 1700s. Any deer introduced might have been a feature of the park at this time.

Anyway, the views from the temple of Venus and the triumphal arch were quite extensive. Had I been better at taking photographs I’d be able to show you the stunning views that I saw, but my photos are not that good, so only serve to give you an idea of the area. Also, looking back on them now, I cannot say for certain which direction I am looking in!!!

Looking towards the power station

Looking at the old Fisons R&D site

View of the obelisk

View towards the A512 and the motorway junction

Notes

[1] Squires, A.E. and Humphrey, W. ‘The Medieval Parks of Charnwood Forest’. Wymondham: Sycamore Press, 1986 AND Williams, B.C.J. ‘Garendon’ IN ‘The Bulletin of the Loughborough & District Archaeological Society’, No.7, 1964

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posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Garendon Park Estate Part 2. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/04/garendon-park-estate-part-2.html [Accessed 2 April 2023]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Garendon Park Estate

Last week on the blog, we looked at letters that had been sent to and from Loughborough, which included mention of those sent by Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle of Garendon Park. As I understand it, Garendon Park was an ancient deer park which, before the dissolution of the monasteries, was also the site of a Cistercian Abbey. The estate then passed through the hands of various families before coming to Sir Ambrose Phillipps in the late 1600s, and staying with this family (through various branches) until quite recently.

Garendon Hall itself was re-designed around the late 1700s, and the grounds adorned with a variety of follies. In the mid-1850s, several lodge houses, and the Bavarian Gates - or Red arch - were designed by William Railton, who also designed Nelson's Column.   

During the Second World War, Garendon Hall itself, like many other homes of its type, was used as a base by the army. In the mid-1960s, the house was demolished, and the estate was separated by the M1. Today, the private parkland is being converted for a new housing estate.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be part of a group guided around the estate by the housebuilders. We saw some of the listed structures, like the Temple of Venus and the Triumphal Arch, along with the White Lodge, the Bavarian Arch, and the small buildings once used as the operations HQ in WW2. We also saw the dovecote, the smithy, the listed railings and gateway, the huts from WW2 and a variety of other interesting buildings. Here's a snapshot of the visit ... photos by me, published with permission from the landowner:

Dovecote

WW2 buildings

Smithy

Swithland slate roof

_______________________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog. The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Garendon Park Estate. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/03/garendon-park-estate.html [Accessed: 26 March 2023]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne