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GREAT HOUSES, GARDENS & PARKS by Jane Croom

The Local Historian, 2023

Regional variation in the distribution of houses and farms with names indicative of manorial stat... more Regional variation in the distribution of houses and farms with names indicative of manorial status was recognised by c. 1600. The terms – Manor, Hall, Court, Place and Bury – had interconnected meanings which related to different aspects of medieval manorial enclosures. The early-nineteenth century incidence of manor-term names in central and southern England was mapped using the Ordnance Surveyors’ drawings and the First Edition One-inch Ordnance Survey maps. There were distinct differences in the density and distribution of each term. Hall was the most widespread and most numerous especially in East Anglia and the north-west midlands. Court was concentrated in the south-west midlands and south-east, Place in East Anglia and the south-east and Bury north of London. An additional term Barton was local to the south-west. Manor was found in central England but was present in surprisingly low numbers. Comparison with the First Edition Six-inch OS maps for a relatively ‘blank’ part of the midlands suggests this was because Manors were more likely to be situated in villages and so were not separately recorded on the smaller-scale maps. The antecedents of the nineteenth-century pattern were discernible by c. 1450, as indicated by the incidence of manors called by manor-term names in mid-thirteenth to mid-fifteenth century inquisitions post mortem. The practice first arose in eastern England with the use of Hall names to differentiate the subdivisions of estates which had been subinfeudated, inherited by coheirs, gifted or sold, and it may have had late Anglo-Saxon origins. The later use elsewhere of names other than Hall may reflect local differences in status or ownership, or regional changes to settlement patterns or field systems.

Warwickshire History, 2023

Medieval deer parks were compact tracts of wood-pasture within a secure perimeter, the primary pu... more Medieval deer parks were compact tracts of wood-pasture within a secure perimeter, the primary purpose of which was the hunting of deer by the lord of the manor. They were an innovation of the Normans, who introduced fallow deer to the British Isles. The peak period for their creation was the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and it has been estimated that there may have been over 3,000 parks in England during the Middle Ages, although not all were in existence at the same time. Owned by the king, great lords, gentry families and new recruits to the landowning classes, they were generally located in well-wooded counties in the south-east and the west midlands. Warwickshire was one such county where 113 parks existed at some point between c. 1120 and 1530. The overwhelming majority were situated in the north-west of the county, making the Arden one of the most densely emparked parts of the country. Nearly three-quarters (eighty-three) were first recorded before 1350, with over forty per cent first occurring between 1250 and 1299. The earls of Warwick had the largest number of parks in the county but the majority of Warwickshire parks were owned by the knightly and gentry families of north Warwickshire. During the later sixteenth century, some medieval parks were disparked and divided into woods and closes, but others remained in use and new ones continued to be created.

Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2018

Andrew Boorde, writing in the 1540s, advised the builder of a new house to choose a site which wa... more Andrew Boorde, writing in the 1540s, advised the builder of a new house to choose a site which was close to supplies of water and wood but also had a good view. He further recommended having a garden and orchard, while a park full of deer and rabbits was ‘a necessary and a pleasant thing to be annexed to a mansion’. Boorde was emphasising the importance of both practical and aesthetic factors in the siting of a great house, and the interplay between these factors also influenced the evolution of houses, their gardens and parks over time. This developmental journey - from medieval manor house in a village to Georgian country house in a landscaped park - forms the subject matter of this important new book.

Drawing on a wide range of source materials - architectural and topographical, written and pictorial - historian Jane Croom explains how new houses were built, existing houses were remodelled and their immediate surroundings were redesigned between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries. The book starts with a thematic overview of great houses and their settings and then examines their development chronologically. Consideration is given to the: layout and appearance of new houses, gardens and parks at different periods; development of houses to become more outward-looking, symmetrical and compact; updating of older houses to be, or appear to be, more modern; changing arrangements and uses of rooms, and the transformation of gardens and parks into appropriate backdrops to houses. Changes to the wider landscape of fields and settlements are also explored, including the consolidation of estates, enclosure of open fields, and creation of parks.

Reference is made to some 100 different case studies and the book is extensively illustrated with over 300 photographs of extant houses and reproductions of paintings, engravings, maps and plans depicting earlier or lost buildings and landscapes. There are also informative appendices, a glossary of terms and a comprehensive bibliography. This work will appeal to anyone with an interest in historic houses or designed landscapes, whether as a scholar, heritage professional, member of the National Trust or English Heritage, or general reader.

The Local Historian, Apr 2014

Medieval and early modern great houses had a three-fold identity as house, garden and farm. The m... more Medieval and early modern great houses had a three-fold identity as house, garden and farm. The manorial curia was made up of enclosures, buildings and rooms with residential, service, agricultural and horticultural functions. The enclosures can be defined by the nature of their perimeter, and by their situation in relation to the hall, which was central to the complex, and the line of approach to it. The layout of houses developed as fashionable new ones were built and older ones were modernised. The number of indoor and outdoor spaces with a specific function increased; houses become more outward-looking, symmetrical and compact, and extensive gardens were laid out. Subsequently the enclosures and low-status buildings surrounding great houses were swept away, leaving the domestic part standing alone, but often leaving little or no trace of their former existence.

Malcolm Ayres (ed.), The Seventeenth Century Great House, 1995

This paper on the setting of the seventeenth-century great house is drawn from a wider study of t... more This paper on the setting of the seventeenth-century great house is drawn from a wider study of the inter-relationship between great houses and the human landscape. Topography has an influence on the siting of houses, and a great house has an impact on its surrounding landscape. My particular concern is considering the transition between two extremes: the medieval manor house in the centre of its village with a deer park at a distance and the later eighteen-century country house set in isolation in a landscape park. This development was achieved not by a sudden revolution but by a gradual process of change and adaptation between the mid sixteenth and the mid eighteenth century, as each new generation modified the landscape of preceding generations according to new needs and requirements. The seventeenth century, which was characterised by the formal house, garden and park in which axial planning prevailed, lies in the middle of this period.

EDINBURGH by Jane Croom

Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, 2023

Major James Weir enjoyed a 30-year career with the Corps of Marines, during the French Revolution... more Major James Weir enjoyed a 30-year career with the Corps of Marines, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He joined the Marines as a 2nd lieutenant in 1778, was commissioned as captain in 1795 and promoted by Nelson to the rank of brevet-major in 1799. He led the marine detachment on board HMS Audacious and saw active service during the assault on Cadiz (1797), the Battle of the Nile (1798), the blockade of Malta (1798-1800) where he raised the Maltese Light Infantry, and the Siege of Portoferraio, Elba (1801). He retired aged 50 in 1807. Weir was also a topographical artist who sketched in and around the Mediterranean ports he visited during the course of his naval duties, including Naples, Portoferraio, Saint-Florent (Corsica), Messina, Palermo and Syracuse (Sicily), and Istanbul. His watercolours include naval scenes, views of Roman ruins and other antiquities, landscapes and scenes of everyday life. He often included notes on the history and significance of these sites, his sketchbook being in effect a travel journal-cum-photo album. Three sets of prints were also produced based on his drawings depicting Portoferraio, the Battle of the Nile and the siege of Valletta (Malta).

Born in Edinburgh in 1757, Major James Weir was the eldest son of James Weir (1727-79), a wright-architect, who built the predecessor to the present St Cuthbert’s church in 1773-5. The Weir family had been established outside the West Port since the early eighteenth century and Weir senior started to develop for housing the former nursery garden at Tollcross which had belonged to his father, James Weir (c. 1695-1728), and grandfather, John Weir (c. 1660-1728), both of whom were also the gardener at Heriot’s Hospital. The Major continued the development of Tollcross but made a more significant contribution to the cityscape with the building on his estate at Drumsheugh of Lynedoch Place, designed by James Milne and completed after Weir’s death in 1820.

LEAMINGTON SPA by Jane Croom

Warwickshire History, 2020

Over 60 acres of land north of the New Town of Leamington Spa, established in 1808, were sold for... more Over 60 acres of land north of the New Town of Leamington Spa, established in 1808, were sold for development by Edward Willes from 1825. The street layout, centred on Beauchamp Square, was designed by Peter Frederick Robinson and land was sold to speculators from London, Birmingham and the local area. The main square failed to take off and the centre of gravity moved west to Clarendon Square, where a local building company and others were quick to build on their landholdings during the 1830s. A bank crash in 1837 brought new building to a halt and much of the northern and eastern parts of the estate remained vacant until the 1860s and 1870s.

Warwickshire History, 2019

A letter to the Warwick Advertiser on 1 August 1807 remarked that Leamington Priors ‘only wants t... more A letter to the Warwick Advertiser on 1 August 1807 remarked that Leamington Priors ‘only wants the erection of buildings on a regular plan, to make it the most desirable as well as the most salutary Spa of the kind in England’. Such a development occurred after 1808 on Bertie Greatheed’s land north of the river Leam, establishing the New Town of Leamington Spa centred on its principal street, the Parade. Greatheed’s New Town, complete with its own spring, baths, assembly room and hotels, was an extension of, but also a successful rival to, the nascent ‘resort’ in Leamington village. The combined efforts of speculators, builders and upholsterers ensured that the Parade frontages were built up and most of the houses were occupied by c. 1838.

Warwickshire History, 2013

The speculative development of the village of Leamington Priors into the town of Royal Leamington... more The speculative development of the village of Leamington Priors into the town of Royal Leamington Spa took place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in conscious imitation of spa towns such as Bath and Cheltenham. Leamington Priors had been renowned since medieval times for the waters of its Old Well situated outside the parish church of All Saints. Following the discovery of a second spring in 1784 local landowners scrambled to find water on their own property south of the river Leam in what is now Old Town and to exploit the nascent spa financially. The sale of a sixty-five acre farm north of the river for building in 1808 by Bertie Greatheed of Guy’s Cliffe, Warwick (1759-1826), led to the development of the New Town. A grid-pattern of streets, of which the Parade is the main thoroughfare, was established by Greatheed between the Leam and Clarendon Avenue. The surrounding land, owned by the Willes family of Newbold Comyn, was developed after 1820. By the mid-1820s the development of Willes’s land was spreading westwards towards the Bins Brook which marked the parish boundary between Leamington and Milverton. This presented an opportunity for landholders in Milverton to profit from the town’s growth. One of the main landowners here was Greatheed whose holdings included a field called Long Close which was bounded by Rugby Road, Guy's Cliffe Road, Warwick Place and the Bins Brook and covered the sites of Albany Terrace, Beauchamp Hill, Heath Terrace, Milverton Crescent West, Strathearn Road and Union Road. Greatheed sold this land in 1824 and 1825 to two speculators who were relative newcomers to the area: George Goodin Barrett, who purchased the eastern half, and Joseph Bradley, who acquired the western.

George Goodin Barrett (1792-1854) was a member of a prominent family of Jamaican sugar planters and slave owners and was a first cousin of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s father, Edward Barrett Moulton (later Barrett). He built Comber House, Milverton Crescent & Strathearn House.

Joseph Bradley (c.1760-1830) was a civil engineer. He possibly lived in Leominster and Bloxwich near Walsall earlier in life, but later resided at Rushwick near Worcester, where he was manager of the Gas Works. By 1824 he was living in Warwickand managing the Gas Works at Saltisford. He developed ‘Bertie Circus’.

Warwickshire History, 2006

The speculative development of Edward Willes' land in north and east Leamington Spa by Joseph Vin... more The speculative development of Edward Willes' land in north and east Leamington Spa by Joseph Vincent Barber (1788-1838), a Birmingham artist.

The towns and cities of Georgian and Victorian England were developed speculatively. Under the speculative building system, the original landowner or ground landlord established the infrastructure of roads and sewers and laid out the building plots which were then leased or sold to speculators. Some speculators were builders who intended to erect the houses themselves but others were developers who purchased large amounts of land as an investment, hoping either to sell at a profit to other speculators or to lease or sell on the land to builders. One such ‘middleman’ between a landowner and builders in Leamington Spa was Joseph Vincent Barber, an artist from Birmingham. This article examines Barber’s role in the development of Leamington, his family background and career as a painter.

The area includes (N) parts of Beauchamp Avenue, Binswood Avenue, Clarendon Square; (NE) Campion Terrace, Lansdowne Circus, Lansdowne Crescent, Victoria House; (SE) Leam Terrace East

NB Since this article was written, the Warwickshire County Record Office has acquired the Willes Family of Newbold Comyn collection (CR4141), which includes Barber's letters to Edward Willes. See also, ‘A Little Wonder of the World in Terraces & Villas: the speculative development of the Beauchamp Square estate in Leamington Spa, 1825-52’, Warwickshire History, XVIII:2, Winter 2020/21, pp. 65-82

ENGLISH PRISONS by Jane Croom

English Heritage, 2002

For most of us, the prison is an unfamiliar institution and life 'inside' is beyond our experienc... more For most of us, the prison is an unfamiliar institution and life 'inside' is beyond our experience. However, more than 60,000 people now live in our gaols, some serving their sentences in buildings with Victorian or more ancient origins, others in prisons dating from the last twenty years.
‘English Prisons: An Architectural History’ is the result of the first systematic written and photographic survey of prisons since the early 20th century. It traces the history of the purpose-built prison and its development over the past 200 years. Over 130 establishments that make up the current prison estate and over 100 former sites that have surviving buildings or extensive documentation have been investigated, institutions ranging from medieval castles and military camps to country houses that have been taken over and adapted for penal use.
The Prison Service granted the project team unprecedented access to all its establishments, allowing the completion of an archive of more than 5,000 images and 250 research files. The team was allowed to go anywhere, photograph anything (except where this could compromise security). A selection of these images from the archive illustrates this book.

English Heritage, 1999

Prisons exert a compelling fascination: what happens inside them is beyond the experience of most... more Prisons exert a compelling fascination: what happens inside them is beyond the experience of most people. Yet every night more than 60,000 men and women are locked up in our prisons. This is equivalent to the population of a medium-sized town. They live in more than 130 sites all over England and Wales, not only in purpose-built prisons, but also in medieval castles, military camps and country houses. Some of the purpose-built prisons are among the grandest public buildings of the last 200 years.

'Behind Bars' offers a glimpse of this hidden world of England's prisons. During the past three years staff of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England have photographed every working prison. The selected group of images presented here shows how prisons have changed during the past 200 years and how these fascinating buildings are used in the life and work of this diverse community.

MEDIEVAL SHROPSHIRE by Jane Croom

Midland History, 1992

W. G. Hoskins' seminal work, The Making of the English Landscape, published in 1955, has inspired... more W. G. Hoskins' seminal work, The Making of the English Landscape, published in 1955, has inspired over three decades of research into the origins and development of the human landscape. Landscape history demands a multi-disciplinary approach, utilizing evidence drawn from a wide variety of source materials, and one area where the advantages of such an approach can be demonstrated is with the study of the origins and growth of medieval towns. A more detailed picture of a town's history during the medieval period can be attained by applying the techniques of topographical analysis to its plan as well as examining documentary sources. Since the two complement each other, topographical analysis can still be undertaken even where the surviving written material is exiguous. Towns for which topographical surveys have already been undertaken include Lichfield and Saffron Walden (where the rural hinterlands of the towns have also been analysed) and Ludlow.

In this article, the methodology for analysing the topography of a town’s plan will be described in detail. The results of such a study will be illustrated with particular reference to two Shropshire towns, Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth. The pre-urban history of the towns and their topographical context will be described. Their urban origins and the successive phases of the development of their plans will be analysed. And the chronology of the additions and changes to their layouts will be discussed, together with an assessment of the factors behind the foundation and expansion of medieval towns.

Much Wenlock: Anglo-Saxon double monastery (St Milburg), Holy Trinity Church & Wenlock Priory, late Saxon or early Norman planned town

Bridgnorth: Anglo-Saxon burh at Quatford (Cwatbrycge), Royal Free Chapel (St Mary Magdalene), c. 1100 Castle, planned town

John Blair (ed.), Minsters and Parish Churches. The Local Church in Transition 950-1200 , 1988

It is now generally agreed that many minster churches were founded in the 7th and 8th centuries, ... more It is now generally agreed that many minster churches were founded in the 7th and 8th centuries, in the secular administrative centres of villae regales or of regiones which were often coterminous with the parochiae of the churches. They were staffed by communities of clergy, who carried out missionary work in the extensive minster parishes. By the time of the ‘Taxation of Pope Nicholas’ of 1291, which provides the earliest systematic survey of the medieval English Church, ecclesiastical provision in England was very different: dioceses were divided into small parishes, each with a single church and priest responsible for one vill or small group of them. In order to understand the transition from the extensive parochiae of collegiate minster churches to the later parochial system of ‘a church and a priest in every village’, it is of immense value to be able to reconstruct the middle Saxon land-units on which the monasteria were established, and to examine the process of their fragmentation into smaller territorial units, and the foundation of local churches in the later Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods. It is possible to undertake such a study even in regions where pre-Conquest documentary material is lacking, and this paper will outline the methodology employed and present the results of work on the reconstruction of the minster parochiae of south-east Shropshire (Cleobury Mortimer, Morville, Much Wenlock, Shifnal and Stottesdon). Following the Norman Conquest, Domesday Book and the more abundant documentation of the 12th and 13th centuries make possible the examination of the changing role and composition of the minster churches of the region at this period. Furthermore, something can be learned of their relations with the local churches founded within the area formerly under their ecclesiastical control, as the latter gained their parochial independence.

Ph D thesis, University of Birmingham, 1989

Using the multi-disciplinary techniques first developed by H P R Finberg and C C Taylor, the earl... more Using the multi-disciplinary techniques first developed by H P R Finberg and C C Taylor, the early medieval administrative geography of south-east Shropshire is investigated, in particular the pattern of Anglo-Saxon land units and settlements. Urban origins in the area and the extent to which the towns’ roles may have developed out of the earlier, estate-based systems of administrative and economic exchange are investigated using the very considerable documentary, toponymic and topographical evidence available. Special attention is paid to the early history of two of the area’s later medieval towns – Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth. Much Wenlock is a planned town, focused on a seventh century royal minster, and possibly a place of pre-medieval importance. Bridgnorth is a twelfth century “new town”, with a royal burh and royal free chapel nearby. The research into the towns’ origins and their relationship to the medieval and pre-medieval landscape includes the detailed topographical analysis of the region using the earliest reliable maps. The towns’ subsequent medieval growth is also studied, particularly in respect of each one’s several sorts of relationship (eg. socio-economic, ecclesiastical) with the area’s rural society and landscape.