Burton Constable Hall - Burton Constable's Grounds and Park

Burton Constable's Grounds and Park

The medieval open field system was used before the deer park was created in 1517. William Senior's 1621 survey indicates that the park was then made up of a series of enclosures with the main entrance to the house from the east, approached by a walk or avenue. The ancient moat stretched around two sides of the hall. Some way to the west, there were three long, narrow fish ponds. In 1715, considerable work was undertaken for William, 4th Viscount Dunbar in levelling land for new gardens. It seems likely that a lawn was created at this time on the west front, and to the north a grove containing a geometrical arrangement of paths. In 1757, William Constable consulted Thomas Knowlton, head gardener of the Londesborough Estate which belonged to the Earl of Burlington. Knowlton proposed a menagerie (still surviving at the north end of the lakes) and a stove garden set close to the house on the west front, which contained a greenhouse 62 m long. Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, who was responsible for landscaping between the years 1772 and 1782, joined the ponds to create the two lakes separated by a dam-cum-bridge, planting clumps of trees, installing sunk fences and the ha-ha. The Elizabethan stable block adjacent to the house was demolished to be replaced in 1768 by Lightoler's Palladian stables. The depression still visible in the east lawns is evidence of Brown's ha-ha which originally ran from the north pond to the Stable Block. Closer to the house, a new Orangery was completed in 1782 to the designs of Thomas Atkinson with artificial stone ornament supplied by Eleanor Coade.