Prior Park
Prior Park is a country house in the Unitary Authority of Bath and North East Somerset in Great Britain . The property, southeast of Bath , was built as the country estate of entrepreneur Ralph Allen and is classified as a Grade I cultural monument with its landscaped garden .
history
Prior Park was originally created as a deer park by the Bishops of Bath and Wells in the late 11th century. The western half of the park was the 13th century Prior of Bath Abbey left. The priors built a manor at the northern end of the park, which was later converted into a country residence. As a result of the decline of the drapery in Bath in the 15th and 16th, the enclosure of the deer park fell into disrepair and the park without deer, as John Leland discovered in 1530. The abbey was dissolved in 1539, the area of the deer park was divided between different owners and used for agriculture from then on.
In 1726 the postmaster and quarry owner Ralph Allen bought the land between Widcombe and Combe Down and built a railroad to transport the stones from the quarries on Combe Down to the loading bay on the Avon . In 1728 he also acquired the site of the former Prior Park and commissioned John Wood the Elder to design a new country estate. The new country estate was intended to be a visible proof of its prosperity, but also a sign of the quality of Bath Stone, which was sold across the UK . The new mansion was built from 1735 to 1748 according to Wood's plans, after 1740 Richard Jones , an employee of Allen, took over the construction.
As early as 1734 Allen had a formal garden laid out below the house, and from 1737 he was advised on the layout by the poet Alexander Pope , who was a frequent guest at Allen. From 1744 a less formal garden was created in the lower valley. From 1760 Lancelot Brown , who was busy in the area with the construction of the parks of Longleat and Bowood House , advised Allen. Presumably on Brown's recommendation, the formal layout of the garden was removed and the garden converted into a classic English landscape garden .
After Allen's death in 1764, the house and park changed hands several times. In 1829 the Catholic bishop for the Western District , Peter Baines , bought the house and set up a seminary in the east wing and a Catholic boys' school in the west wing. The two side wings were significantly rebuilt for this purpose, and adjacent to the west wing, Baines began building a large basilica in 1844 according to plans by Joseph Scoles . The main house was remodeled by Henry Goodridge and served as a bishop's residence. However, it was badly damaged by fire in 1836. The stairs and other parts of the interior of the demolished Hunstrete House not far from Bath were used in the reconstruction .
Due to a lack of money, the seminary and the school had to be closed in 1856 and the construction of the basilica stopped. The Catholic Bishop of Clifton, William Clifford acquired Prior Park in 1867 and re-established a Catholic boys' school there. From 1872 the basilica was continued under the direction of Alexander Scoles , the son of Joseph Scoles. The basilica was completed in 1882 according to simplified plans. In 1904 the school was closed again and the army confiscated the buildings during World War I. In 1921 the Christian Brothers bought the site and founded a Catholic boarding school for boys in 1924, which still exists today. A fire destroyed the roof of the main house in 1991, the reconstruction took place until 1995. In 1993 the 11.3 hectare landscaped garden was given to the National Trust . The main house continues to serve as a private school and cannot be visited, the garden has been open to the public since 1996.
investment
Prior Park is 1.5 km southeast of Bath on the summit of Combe Down , a limestone ridge south of Bath that runs in an east-west direction.
Main house with side wings
The mighty main house in the Palladian style was built from 1735 to 1748 according to a design by John Wood the Elder. It was based on a design by Colen Campbell for Wandstead House in Essex . The more than 300 m long facade consists of carefully hewn blocks of Bath Stone from the quarries of Ralph Allen. The main house and the two side wings have two floors above a basement , the main house also has an attic with parapet. The main house is connected to the two angled side wings by quarter-circle-shaped single-storey arcade buildings, which formerly contained the stables and which are at the level of the basement. This extended basement makes the main building look particularly powerful. In addition, the two main facades of the main house are emphasized by a mighty portico with Corinthian columns . In front of the garden are the stairs, which were added around 1834. The flat hipped roof made of Westmorland slate is hidden behind the parapet.
The interior was cleared out after Allen's death in 1764. Large parts of the remaining furnishings were destroyed by the fire of 1836, and various alterations today only reveal remains of the furnishings. The two-storey chapel with a semicircular apse and Corinthian columns at the east end of the house has been preserved.
The originally two-storey side wings have been changed several times. The west wing, built in 1735, was raised by two floors around 1830 when it was used as a boys' school. From 1844, the Catholic Church of St. Paul was added in the style of a classical , barrel-vaulted basilica. Due to lack of money, the construction of the church was stopped in 1856. Construction continued from 1872 and was completed in a simplified form in 1882. The east wing originally contained the utility rooms for the main house and was raised by one floor from 1830 to accommodate the seminary.
Garden and park
To the north of the main house, the garden extends in a sweeping valley, wooded on the sides, to the ponds at the foot of the hill at Widcombe. Through the valley there is an unobstructed view of Bath. Originally the park was 22 hectares and also included a garden in the south of the house, where the school's sports fields are today. In the west, the park is bounded by Ralph Allen Drive , the former route of the railroad and later the access road to the main building, the eastern border is formed by forests.
After his death, the various owners gradually let Allen's landscape garden run wild, so that the meadows overgrown with young trees, the paths were overgrown and the buildings in the park fell into disrepair. After the handover to the National Trust, experts examined the garden archaeologically and researched its formation. With the help of volunteers, the paths and lines of sight were restored, specialist firms restored the bridge and the dams on the lower lake. The restoration has not yet been completed, but the park has been open to the public since 1996.
In the upper valley is the so-called Wilderness Garden , restored in 2003, with the Serpentine Lake, the grotto built around 1740 based on the model of Pope's grotto near Twickenham and a waterfall. In the grotto is the grave of Miss Bounce , a dog owned by Ralph Allen. There are panoramic views of Bath from lookout points. The Gothic Temple , built around 1754 in the Wilderness, is to be reconstructed again soon.
The lakes in the lower valley were created from 1744. Today there are three lakes connected by a series of dams. A Palladian-style bridge was built between the upper and middle lakes in 1755 and is a copy of the bridge in Wilton House Park .
The lakes, meadows and forests of the garden are habitat for numerous animal species, from dragonflies to swans to roe deer.
Prior Park College
Prior Park College is a private Catholic school and boarding school in Bath. The school uses the buildings on the property and numerous other buildings, the school grounds cover a total of 23 hectares. The institution, which was first established as a boys' school in 1830, has been run by a foundation since 1980 and has also been co-educational since 1982 . There are currently around 580 students in the school, around 48% of whom are girls
literature
- Gillian Clarke: Prior Park: a compleat Landscape . Millstream, Bath 1987, ISBN 0-948975-06-7 .
Web links
- The garden is on the website of the National Trust
- Prior Park's College website
- The National Heritage List for England: Prior Park
Individual evidence
- ^ The National Heritage List: Prior Park. Retrieved March 13, 2013 .
- ^ Prior Park College: Prior Park's History. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved March 13, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '55.4 " N , 2 ° 20' 36.7" W.