We’ve retold the story of the First World War Auxiliary hospital at Kings Weston before, but a new facet of hospital life has just come into our hands: A smartly designed front cover for the Kings Weston Hospital Magazine.
The front cover of the Kings Weston Hospital Magazine. June 1917
The advert for Lennards Boots and shoes on the inside of the magazine cover.
The magazine would have been published for hospital patients, probably written by the patients as part of their recuperation, and to fend off boredom. There were newspapers published by servicemen in the trenches, camps, and troopships, and others are known from other military hospitals, but this is the first known from Kings Weston. Most were replicated using simple methods, whatever was to hand, and could involve carbon paper, basic duplicating machines, or even written by hand. At Kings Weston it appears that some significant resources were available, with a coloured card cover, embossed and with a professionally produced photograph of the house pasted-on as an eye-catching centrepiece. On the inside cover an advert for Lennards Boot & Shoe Co suggests that they were one of the sponsors of the magazine.
Marked by hand, a date of June 1917 appears on the cover. The house had been turned over for hospital use by Philip Napier Miles and his wife Sybil in 1915 so would have been familiar to recovering servicemen for a couple of years. Was the magazine a one-off, or was it a regular publication? The date suggests it could have been monthly journal, or was it one-off?
There’s one more major puzzle; where is the rest of the magazine, and what did it contain? Frustratingly everything but the front cover is missing, the cover sliced off, perhaps as a souvenir. It would have been fascinating to read the contents, but no other copy is known to exist. If you know different please get in touch!
Injured troops recuperate in the care of Red Cross nurses on the garden front of Kings Weston.
We’ve often mentioned the incredible Kings Weston Book of Drawings (KWBoD), a unique collection of architectural drawings documenting the house and its construction and all dated to the first quarter of the 18th Century. The book is in the collections of the Bristol Archives and we’re reproduced drawings from it in many of our newsletters and on our website. One aspect we’ve never looked into is the internal decoration of the house as built. Many will know that the rooms of Kings Weston were all remodelled in the 1760s and later, and scant remains of the original character remain. However, inspecting the drawings gives us an insight into this lost world.
Undated draft of the chimney and mirror in the Kinsale Chamber (KWBoD)
The drawings also give us a puzzle. Whilst we can be certain about the layout and room names and uses after the 1760s, we are less certain over the earlier arrangement. There are rooms named, the Throwley Chamber, Kinsale Chamber, and Eating Parlour, that can’t be precisely located. We can assume that the Eating Parlour would have been on the principal ground floor, but wouldn’t have been in the same location as the later room that bore that name which was formed from the State Bedchamber. The description of several rooms as chambers implies they are, essentially, bedrooms, and most likely on the first floor.
Both Kinsale and Throwley chambers are named after the Southwell Family estates. Kinsale in southern Ireland was where the Southwell’s’ heralded from before Kings Weston, and Throwley Old Hall in Staffordshire came into the family through the marriage of Edward Southwell, rebuilder of the house, to Lady Elizabeth Cromwell. A further chamber is referred to in a letter from Edward Southwell in Dec 1713 when he writes ” I have almost forgot what I wrote about the two chimney pieces, but if I remember right I desired one according to the wooden model I sent, which being large was to go into the great parlour. The other I desired for a bedchamber of the common chamber size, and of the Italian moulding if you fit, to put it in the room I call Burton”; Burton was the estate of his cousin John Percival to whom the letter was written. The room names then follow a pattern of representing places of importance to the family.
Cornice of the Throwley Chamber, dated Feb 1717
The drawing for the Throwley chamber illustrates a profile of a ceiling cornice. Comparing it with a similar example at Dyrham Park house, a building with close family bonds with kings Weston, we can assume this was intended to be of timberwork. The Kinsale Chamber drawing contains more of interest. It’s a design for a fire surround and chimney breast that would have been the focal point for this bed chamber. The fireplace is 5ft 2in wide and 4ft 1in high and probably wrought in polished stone or marble. Above it are mouldings, again of timber, framing a wide mirror with cushioned edges. By the level of detail it can be assumed that the mirror was already in existence and the designs were drawn with the intention of incorporating it into the new room. Above the mirror were further cornice mouldings and panel work taking things as far as the ceiling. Again, the arrangement isn’t dissimilar from some of the interiors at Dyrham.
One of the anterooms to first floor apartments at Dyrham Park house give a good impression of how Kings Weston’s rooms may have looked.
Two drawings can be more firmly located within the house; these are fireplaces for Mr Southwell’s closet and chamber. Aside from the State Bedchamber on the ground floor this would have been the finest furnished rooms. The principal chamber in later eras was in the southern corner of the house, with an outlook over the garden to the Echo. Reviewing the plan of the house published shortly after completion this is most likely to have been intended as Southwell’s bed chamber and private rooms.
The first floor of the house was laid out as a series of apartments which could be allocated to family members or used by guests. There are three apartments on the first floor connected by common anterooms. In the later 18th Century the central anteroom overlooking the Echo Walk was called the Tapestry Room, and it’s possible this interior, with its old fashioned wall hangings, survived the 1760s refurbishments. A smaller bed chamber occupied the western corner of the house directly off the servants stair, but separate and not identifiable as a part of a suite of rooms; Aside from Mr Southwell’s chamber this is the only room shown where there is a pronounced chimney breast, so might be tentatively identified as the Kinsale chamber. The other two bedchambers on this floor had fireplaces flush with the interior wall.
The first floor layout of apartments at Kings Weston when first complete, with the KWBoD drawings located.
Each apartment consisted of a bedchamber, and two further rooms. The principal of these smaller rooms was equipped with a fireplace, whilst the lesser room was unheated; this was possibly a dressing room. The design for Mr Southwell’s closet is the most decorative of the interior drawings, and this illustrates the status the room enjoyed. The panelling here doesn’t reach the whole height of the room, instead a more intimate character is created by a lower cornice level. The fireplace is shown with ornate decoration, probably carved in wood. The drawing suggests that this incorporates wreathes of foliage framing a central panel, possibly a painting, and a crowning section of more indistinguishable decoration. Either side of this centrepiece candle sconces are fixed. The wall space above the ornamental panelling is reserved for a painting.
Undated drawing of Mr Southwell’s closet fireplace (KWBoD)
The function of the closet was to offer a private retreat for the apartment’s occupant; somewhere they could display their most important treasures and intimate effects. It was a room for display, but only to the most limited of audiences. A good example of this sort of room exists in the Cedar Closet at Tredegar house, Newport, though from about a generation earlier that Edward Southwell’s new house.
The Closet drawing has curious pricked lines on one side of the chimney breast which are not easily explained. They may be an alternative decorative scheme with carved stacked quoins mimicking an architectural detail in stone, or they could intimate shelving concealed behind the panelling.
The Cedar Closet, Tredegar House, Newport dates to around 1670, but gives an impression of the scale and appearance of Mr Southwell’s closet room
Mr Southwell’s Chamber also has its chimneypiece drawn. This Is a fairly straightforward design with timber panelling up the chimney breast and terminating against the ceiling with a boldly projecting cornice. The focus of this feature was likely to be a painting hung over the narrow mantelpiece. Between this and the stone fire surround there’s a wide panel picked out in grey ink, and with four quite substantial fixings; was this for another painting, or could it have been for a carved stone plaque? The vast scale of the proposed chimney breast is only revealed when a figure is added to the same scale, as we’ve illustrated here.
Chimney intended for Mr Southwell’s Chamber with figure added for scale.
The last drawing, or drawings, we’ll look at here are of another fire surround, to be “wrought out of the ash colour marble”. A surround in similar grey marble still exists on the second floor. The two drawings clearly show the same fire surround and one is dated 13th Feb 1718. This shows us that, although Southwell moved in with his new wife in 1716, that there were still significant fitting out works being undertaken on rooms. The same dated drawing describes the drawing as a “coppy of Mrs le Grand’s draught of a chimney piece”.
Mrs Helena Le Grand was Edward Southwell’s older sister. He had delegated the setting up of the house to her before he moved in when she was “fully employed in transposing and setting the furniture, pictures and cheney”. The second drawing showing the fireplace may then be her own drawing from which a second version was taken and annotated. Was she more involved in the design of the house, or its interiors than we’ve previously been aware?
The two drawings for a chimneypiece of ash colored marble, the original on the left with the copy on the right dated Feb 1718.
One thing that this short series of drawings show is that the first floor interiors were very traditional, not having the same architectural drama of Sir John Vanbrugh’s exteriors, Saloon or stair hall. The layout and appearance would not have been unusual in a house from thirty years previous like Tredegar. It’s unlikely we’ll ever know how the State rooms on the ground floor were decorated, but the first floor chambers were not ostentatious and would have relied largely on their furnishings for any display of wealth or status.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Kings Weston house is the unique honey coloured stone from which it’s built. Looking closely at the blockwork you’ll notice a world of variation in its colour and composition, but also the way the original masons finished each stone. This short report hopes to focus attention on this overlooked architectural aspect.
The whole of the Kings Weston ridge is peppered with former quarries. Some are obvious, like the one fenced off below the TV transmitter, or to the north of Penpole Point; these are from the 19th and 20th Centuries and their scale is a giveaway. Others are more ancient, possibly as early as the Roman era when the nearby villa and town were built. Having been planted out with trees and landscaped in the Georgian ere these are less visible. The extent of the quarrying is most obvious using Lidar data, that shows the land without the distractions of trees and buildings.
Map with Lidar date, showing excavations of old quarries and their era.
Dig anywhere along the south side of the park and you’ll soon hit greyish limestone, like that in the Avon Gorge. Once quarried it’s best used in rubble walls. But the stone Kings Weston’s built of is the more distinctive Penpole Stone. As its name suggests, Penpole Stone is found exclusively along the north side of Penpole Wood. It’s a hard and resistant ochre coloured stone with pink and red marbling, a mixture of compressed grit, clay, and glittering quartz occlusions, called Dolomitic Conglomerate. At over 200 million years old it’s certainly the most ancient thing you’ll find on the estate!
Detailed high resolution scan of Penpole Stone, sowing the huge variety of colour and material.
When the builders of the house were looking for materials they needn’t have looked far for a strong and durable material. The proximity of the Penpole source to the house must also have been a bonus. Other mansions in the 18th Century had to pay large sums to source and transport suitable stone, particularly if they sought the harmonious smooth ashlar finish then desirable for classical buildings. Others, for example Stoke Park, accepted cheaper rubble stone, but rendered and painted it to cover up its aesthetic shortfalls. Kings Weston benefitted not just from good stone nearby, but also one that gave its house such an attractive colour.
The site of the quarry was defined by the most appropriate stone for the job. At Penpole that location remains as an obvious woodland landmark, a long deep cut into the side of the wood that follows the line of the ridge. It was later planted as a rustic garden to reincorporate it into the landscaped parkland.
The former quarry in Penpole Wood, looking westwards, towards Penpole Point. It was later landscaped as a rustic woodland garden in the 1760s.
Whether the stone was the suggestion of Kings Weston’s owner, Edward Southwell, or advised by the masons he employed it would have needed to be approved of by the architect, Sir John Vanbrugh, as fit for his work. In a 1716 letter to the Duchess of Marlborough Vanbrugh names a “Mr Townsend (who did Mr Southwells’ masonry)” as the man responsible. This was probably George Townsend, master mason of Bristol, and capable architect in his own right.
In April 1712 Southwell arrived at the building site being prepared for his new house and noted “Upwards of 60 men preparing stones and digging the foundation of the new house”. One can imagine the activity at the Penpole Quarry in this work, the cutting of the stone from the quarry face, its shaping, and transportation the short distance along the ridge to where it was needed. The quantity of stone required for the construction is indicated, in part, by the scale of the excavation, though it should be noted that much of the irregular nature of the material would have been inappropriate for fine cutting, used as infill, or discarded.
This 17th Century engraving of a quarry could almost have been intended to depict that at Penpole. Quarrymen split and roughly shape stone blocks for lifting onto the waiting wagon.
If you look at the outer walls of the house today you can see how large some of the blocks were. Some are colossal and must weigh more than a ton each. Particularly large are the single stacked blocks needed to give each of the front columns a regular appearance all the way up, and the vast shelving window cills Vanbrugh must have enjoyed drawing an exaggerated effect from. Each of these were cut and finished by hand; with such a hard stone it must have been particularly laborious.
Some of the stone blocks in the portico columns are massive.
If you look closer again you’ll spot something else; each stone is treated individually with regular ridged patterning, and a narrow grooved border in the same finish. Preparing a stone requires several stages. A roughhewn block needs to be dressed several times to get a perfectly smooth block, using different tools for each successive dressing. Here at Kings Weston the blocks have not been given the perfect smooth finish, and instead a clawed bolster, a type of wide headed chisel with teeth, used to give an intentionally grooved texture. Rather than being evidence of cutting corners the finish is deliberate and controlled, the surface of each individual block carefully articulated. This was perhaps to give a veneer of antiquity to the finished monument, or exaggerate the massiveness of the architecture so its character contributed to the “Castle air” that Vanbrugh desired of his buildings.
The subtle but clear chiseled patterns are visible on blocks around the front door of the house.
By September 1713 Southwell the house was so advanced that Southwell wrote that “by the end of next month I may have discharged my regiment of outside people”. However, masons work continued until 1716 Later the same stone went into building other buildings around the estate. In line with their status large blocks went into the ornamental garden buildings like the Echo and Penpole Lodge, whilst and the looser rubble went into other estate buildings like Kingsweston Inn and the cottages on Kings Weston Lane.
The facades of the house will reveal that Penpole stone, whilst predominating, was not the only material used architecturally. Being hard and unyielding it was not suitable for the finer ornamental work. The column capitals, pediment and cornices, urns and other intricate details were executed in softer, finer-grained, buff limestone, possibly from Dundry, south of Bristol. The difference in stone colour and texture is obvious once you notice it. Rather than being a poor match the subtle difference appears to have been used architecturally to emphasise the most civilising classical elements of the Enlightenment design, a deliberate contrast to the background rustic aesthetic.
The difference between Penpole Stone and the paler limestone used for detailed work is clearly apparent on the main portico front
The use of specific stone finishes for aesthetic effect is seen again in the “Back Front”, at the rear of the house. This is intentionally the most ruggedly handled of the four great facades. Here, with its massive forms, turreted corner towers, arched windows, and oversized keystones, Vanbrugh’s castle keep medievalism is at its most developed. To add to the effect the use of stone changes. The massive single blocks of the other facades makes way for smaller blocks, with greater variety in size, and with irregular courses. Abandoned too is the regularity and order of the neatly tooled stonework; Instead the blocks are deliberately rough faced. The Penpole Wood quarry would produce plenty of other large blocks for later buildings on the estate, so the effect here is intentional, rather than the result of a dwindling supply of good stone.
The deliberately formidable Back Front of Kings Weston house exhibits the deliberate use of rough texturing and stone coursing.
Other stone was also required to serve particular purposes. Marble was imported from Ireland for fireplaces designed to impress. Hardwearing pennant stone was brought in for steps and flagstones. This was sailed across the Severn from the Forest of Dean with surprising ease, prompting Vanbrugh to write, in a letter to the Duchess of Marlborough, who was then scrutinising her architect’s work at Blenheim Palace:
”I writ to him (Southwell) and his steward both to get an exact amount of the charge of his steps, both stone carriage and work; and the account they send me is this. The steps he has are not from Ross, where my Lord Dukes came from, but out of the Forrest from whence the carriage is so easy to Mr Southwells’ that he says they must needs cost much more to Gloucester from Ross”
Kings Weston had, by this time, become a showcase of the sort of work Vanbrugh was keen for his clients to inspect. The economy with which it had been achieved and the architectural effect would both have been features he was eager to promote. From some of Vanbrugh’s letters the Duchess had clearly been impressed when she’d visited.
A mason employs a bolster to smooth the face of a stone block in the 1700s engraving.
“I am very glad that your Grace is pleased with Mr Southwell’s House; it being the sort of building I endeavour to bring people to who are disposed to ask my advice: Tis certain his work has been cheap and a great deal of it tolerably well”
Though, not all the mason’s work met Vanbrugh’s standards, and he pointed out to the Duchess:
“The steps in Mr Southwell’s garden are of the same stone that is us’d at Blenheim, but it cannot be had anything so cheap” “they must be better wrought and set both than Mr Southwell’s are; some of his steps being abominable.”
Perhaps we should not be surprised that these steps were replaced when the house was remodelled a generation later!
Professor Richard Coates of the University of the West of England has been a regular contributor to academic research on the Kings Weston Estate. Recently he has completed work on a paper detailing the fascinating history of the many farms that lay within the wider ownership of the families who held Kings Weston House. The majority have their foundations in the land improvements undertaken by Sir Robert Southwell and his heirs though some may have their origins in earlier times. Sir Robert was President of the Royal Society and in the 1690s he employed another of its fellows, and close friend, Robert Hooke to design a new sea wall to protect his farmlands from inundation from the Severn. After this work was completed the Southwell family could start developing the floodplain with confidence and throughout the Eighteenth Century new farms were developed for leasing onwards.
Sea Mills Farm now on Bowerleaze, but dated 1710
Campbell Farm on Kings Weston Lane.
Whilst the majority of the farmland owned by the Southwell’s stood to the north of Kings Weston house the estate boundary encompassed lands on the south side of the Kings Weston Ridge, stretching as far as Sneyd Park. The area now covered by Sea Mills also incorporated several farms and other buildings that contributed to the annual income of the estate.
Professor Coates research identifies eighteen farms within these two areas, split by the Kingsweston ridge on which the mansion sits. Many of the buildings of these farms remain today, hidden amongst more recent housing estates. Lost fragments lie scattered in industrial estates, and other have vanished entirely, known today only through historic maps or road names. Perhaps the most interesting collection of farms are those that were given family names of the Southwell Family. The best preserved of these is Campbell Farm just to the north of Long Cross on Kings Weston Land. Here there is a good collection of former farm buildings that date from the Eighteenth Century and have since been converted to residential use. This farm would have formed part of the extended village of Kings Weston before it was swallowed up by the post-war Lawrence Weston housing estate.
Katherine Watson, wife of Edward Southwell II, after whose family many of the farms were named.
Other farms in this collection are Cromwell Farm, named after Lady Elizabeth Cromwell who married Sir Robert’s son, Edward, Rockingham Farm, named after the noble family title of Edward Southwell II’s wife Katherine, Watson Farm taking the same lady’s surname, and of course Katherine Farm itself at the far northern extremity of the Eighteenth Century estate. The last fragment of this farm is a stone barn still standing on the edge of the modern sewerage works, but the grandiose farmhouse has sadly long gone.
the recently revealed line of yews looking up the slope towards the main path
We’ve made a habit recently of clearing undergrowth and revealing some majestic trees in the woodland, but it’s easy to forget that this wilderness was once all part of a designed landscape; Our April Working Party uncovered more trees that help tell that story. Just to the north side of the main path through the woods we discovered a line of three mature yew trees, clearly planted in an intentional line, and with the stumps of a fourth and fifth tree nearby and to the same spacing.
the boundary of the woods shown in 1772
Yew are something of a tell-tale species at Kings Weston; whilst their scattering may at first seem random through the woodland many relate to historic planning schemes and features. When compared with historic plans and illustrations the significance of the yews becomes more clear. The three yews we rediscovered last month run along a former boundary between the more open parkland to the east, and the long-established woodland to the west. Originally a wall formed this boundary, with a set of gates straddling the main path, but, by the 1770s this had be de-formalised and instead an iron park fence replaced it. An estate plan from this date clearly shows the planting of trees on the outer edge of it and the yews are certainly the same ones described in plan.
the walled boundary and gates into Penpole Wood in 1710
This is not the only instance of yews indicating lost historic features. Further along the path through the woods to Penpole Point you will encounter many more, frequently grouped around certain points. A careful comparison between these locations and an earlier estate plan of 1720 suggest that these are the remains of woodland saloons where viewing corridors were cut through the trees northwards towards the Severn and Wales beyond. Whether these yews were planted as a deliberate grove, or whether they are the vestiges of a more formal hedged circle can’t be established, but their planted locations are not coincidental.
Penpole Wood in 1720 showing the main path and circular saloons with viewing alleys cut through the trees.
Our next Working Party will reveal another designed feature in which yews feature prominently: an avenue of mixed yews and oaks leading from the ruins of Penpole Lodge to the Jubilee Clearing. This strip of land is a curiosity. In 1772 the park boundary appears to run just above the main path through the woods, so this elongated sliver of land between that path, the current boundary wall, and running as far east as to incorporate the clearing, is outside the woodland. By 1840 the park boundary had been pushed out to its current extent and the line of yews planted. The planting defining the clearing (along with more cherry laurel) appears to have been laid out at the same time. This may all have been the work of the last of the Southwell family to live at Kings Weston , the 21st Baron de Clifford. He was known to be a keen planter and the dates, between 1777 and 1832, and the enclosure Acts would fit this incursion onto the common land.
So next time you are walking through Penpole Wood keep an eye open, and next time you spot a yew ask yourself what it might be telling you about the lost historic landscape and the people who created it.
Archivist Mark Small of Bristol Archives holds the newly delivered letter
We’ve had confirmation this month that the missing Sir John Vanbrugh letter has arrived at Bristol Archives! We remain hugely grateful to everyone who donated to our short campaign to bring the document back from the USA, and to the Friends of Bristol Museums, Art Galleries, and Archives for their partnership in securing it. The letter has now been accessioned and is available for anyone to study, though is not yet included on the public catalogue.
Architect Sir John Vanbrugh’s signature from the letter.
The 17th of last month saw Kings Weston house host a talk, and discussion, on the slavery connections of the estate. Dr Madge Dresser, of the University of the West of England and KWAG’s chairman David Martyn tried to put the complex relationships between the Southwell family of Kings Weston and their associations with the Atlantic Trade and slavery into context. Dr Dresser began the evening by explaining the many ways in which historic estates such as Kings Weston could be said to have slavery connections. She outlined the Atlantic trade of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and how almost every aspect of it had some relationship with slavery and the direct “triangular trade” connecting Europe, Africa, and the colonies of east-coast America.
The Oak Room was packed for the talk. East Florida in the Eighteenth Century, where the Southwells had plantations.
Mr Martyn sought to tease out the members of the Southwell family and their relationships with the Atlantic Trade. Whether family members were administering government departments, promoting political causes, or involved in plantations it became clear that there were many blurred edges in how their actions could be interpreted. The most direct unequivocal involvement was Edward Southwell III’s grant from the Crown of 20,000 acres of land in East Florida to settle, and the development of that land with plantations worked by black slaves.
The debate following the two presentations mainly revolved around the extent to which Kings Weston could be considered an estate that had benefited from money derived from slavery or the Atlantic Trade. Although the East Florida plantations had collapsed in massive debt, there were members of the Southwell Family who were complicit in enabling the trade to continue. It was difficult to identify any direct financial benefit from the trade that could be linked to the house and estate, but it was largely unanimous that the connections needed to be acknowledged and accepted. The evening was rounded off with continued discussions over drinks at the bar.
Sophia Southwell, wife of Edward Southwell III, 20th Lord de Clifford, and her children by Daniel Gardner. Painted circa.1775, a time at which the family were speculating in plantations in East Florida, but amounting considerable losses.
There has been some incredible generosity from KWAG members over the last couple of weeks in their support of our campaign to repatriate a letter written by Sir John Vanbrugh regarding the construction of Kings Weston House. We are delighted to announce that we’ve met our fundraising target of £500 to bring the letter back to Bristol in partnership with the Friends of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Our contribution will now be added to the £900 the Friends have granted towards the purchase, and the letter added to the collections of the Bristol Archives at B-Bond in Bristol. Once it arrives, and is appropriately conserved, the letter will be available to study by anyone, and we hope that an exhibition celebrating its acquisition might be a good way of thanking the donors.
Reconstruction of the Saloon as originally designed.
The letter now in the process of acquisition dates from December 1713, a time when Edward Southwell was able to walk around the rough floors of the house. From a letter the same September, also in the Archive, we know that it had taken just fifteen months to build the walls of the house up to roof level and have begun leading the roof. In the December letter Vanbrugh discusses Edward Southwell’s hopes to cut costs by leaving out the stone vaults of the basement level which, apparently, were only constructed after the shell of the house was already complete. We also discover that the original plan was to have a stone floor in the great stair hall. Whilst the change to a timber floor appears to have been undertaken against Vanbrugh’s advice Southwell’s idea to extend the stair itself into the cellar was, fortunately, abandoned in favour of the “Little Stair” that was still in construction.
Vanbrugh also discusses the plans to build his intended Kitchen wing at the rear of the building; this structure was built, but later demolished and replaced a few decades later. The letter confirms Vanbrugh’s authorship of the Great Terrace and, from what he writes, he is clearly pleased with Southwell’s decision to execute his designs for it.
Whether Vanbrugh ever returned to Kings Weston in the Spring of 1714 as he promised is not known, but certainly he was keen to make a “trial with boards” to make sure the distinctive chimneys made the effect he intended.
We’re grateful to Mark Small from Bristol Archives for transcribing the whole letter and presenting it along with images of the original. It can be viewed as a PDF here.
Vanbrugh’s original design for the kitchen wing, attached to the north corner of the main house
Another foray into the Bristol Archives has uncovered a new photo. The image shows the Home Guard in an official photograph, lined up at Penpole Point close to the end of the Second World War in 1944. These men were part of “C” Company of the 14th Battalion of the Home Guard.
The Home Guard at Penpole Point in 1944. Part of the Ethel Thomas Collection at Bristol Archives.
The ruinous condition of Penpole Lodge in about 1950
During the war the Home guard used Penpole Woods and the Home Park at Kings Weston, at that time the District Scout Camp, for training purposes. In 1940 they even requisitioned the tower of Penpole Lodge. The Scouts, who still owned the building observed “some concern the activities of the home guard when they took over the tower” and their site warden recalls in his diary of the time that “In the autumn of this year the Home Guard, or the LDV’s as they were then called, took over the tower as an observation post. They stayed until the Spring. Poor old tower – it bears its scars from friend and foe now. Still we won’t say too much about that; but it’s another job to be attended to after the war.” The journal now also forms part of the Bristol Archives collection.
It is not clear exactly what damage the Home Guard might have inflicted on the tower, but this, and further vandalism by “Local toughs” in the years following the war, led to the building being ruinous by the 1950s.
The Home Guard trained in the woodland and camouflage skills were practiced amongst the trees and undergrowth. The warden’s journal for the war years includes some humorous sketches of their activities!
Humorous sketches abound in MR W Webber’s journal of the Scout’s district campsite (Bristol Archives ref: 45305/1)
The Loggia, designed in 1718 by Sir John Vanbrugh. Seen here in 1927 (Country Life)
The area recently worked on by KWAG volunteers, just below the coffee shop terrace, Is an odd corner of the Kings Weston estate. Hard up against Kings Weston Lane in its gulley to the east it has always been an abrupt edge to the Landscaped grounds.
Before the present house was built the slopes descending towards Lawrence Weston here were laid out as formal kitchen gardens, though would have been sorely exposed to the brisk winds off the Severn. The top of the slope offered spectacular panoramas across the estuary and, in 1705, a banqueting house was built on a terrace overlooking the kitchen gardens. When Sir John Vanbrugh came to rebuild the house for Edward Southwell his plans extended to major landscape interventions. The small banqueting house received a new façade in 1718, one that looked back into the park and along a vast new terraced promenade; this building forms the core of the current Loggia.
As garden fashions changed the whole of the area below the banqueting house and Loggia were deformalised and the topography took on a form much the same as today’s. By 1772, when the area was surveyed by Isaac Taylor, only the Loggia remained, and the terraces and formal gardens swept away. In their place the open parkland swept unbroken to an area described as “verge plantations”. On his plan Taylor identified a railed fence separating the newly planted area from the recently created rolling meadowland below the house; the remains of this Georgian fence can still be found in the area recently cleared.
The view from the loggia across the meadow land. Hieronymus Grimm, 1788 (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery)
Taylor’s 1772 estate plan with later alterations annotated
Within the plantation new trees and shrubs were laid out as part of a pleasure walk that connected the house and Loggia with the Home Farm and Menagerie below. This planting would have been intentionally picturesque in style and some of the holly, yew, and Portuguese laurel from this era are still growing there, though the path has long become lost. Maps show there to have been many evergreens incorporated within a design intended to frame the open meadow and focus the eye on Kings Weston house commanding the ridge above it.
As time went on the trees and shrubs grew up and the view of the Loggia from the park was sadly obscured. The pleasure walk and planting continued to be maintained until the 1930s, but since then there has been little attention spared on them. Since WWII and the cessation of regular livestock grazing, this has resulted in the gradual encroachment of self-seeded trees beyond the historic fence line and the loss of the tamed edge of the meadow. Today trees cover almost twice the area of the original verge plantation and have further obscured the house and Loggia from within certain areas of the park. It is hoped that KWAG’s work, and forthcoming work as part of the National grid contributions, will help enhance the setting of Both Grade I Listed buildings and the park as a whole.
