STOKE PARK
part Bristol, part South Gloucestershire
C18 landscape park on C16 park on medieval site, by Thomas Wright for Norborne Berkeley, Lord Botetourt: formal gardens depicted 1712 by Kip altered and extended by Wright 1749-1768; parkland laid out and improved by Berkeley and Wright 1740s-1780s; earlier coppices redesigned as ornamental woodland gardens with serpentine walks linked by stone tunnels by Wright 1749-1764, now overgrown. Many garden buildings by Wright; Bladud’s Cell, a root-house (1749); Sands Gate Lodge (1762), all gone; Duchess Pond, a 3a. ornamental lake (1768) infilled 1968 for M32 Parkway.
Dower House, formerly Stoke Park House, (LB II*) c1563 remodelled by Wright for N. Berkeley 1749-52 and 1760-64; terrace and balustrade (LB II) C16; orangery (LB II) c1720 by Sir James Thornhill for John Symes Berkeley; Memorial to 4th Duke of Beaufort (LB II) c1756, restored 1987; obelisk (LB II) 1762; Duchess Gateway (LB II) 1762, formerly Sands Gate, undergoing restoration 1991; two stone tunnels (LB II); cold bath (LB II); all by Wright for N. Berkeley; anti-aircraft gun and camp site (Ancient Monument) 1939-42.
Former Hospital closed 1997. Dower House now in residential use. See Historic England link for boundary of listed site.
Public access by network of public footpaths.
- Text References
Harding S, Lambert D. Parks and Gardens of Avon, 1994. pp 39-41
- Planning History
Stapleton and Frome Valley Conservation Area.