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Shaw House gets new Tudor garden – as 500 years of changes continues at Newbury’s Elizabethan manor




Newbury’s Elizabethan Shaw House is to get a new Tudor garden.

It is yet another modification to the gardens, which have been taking place for more than 500 years.

New garden design at Shaw House
New garden design at Shaw House

The ‘knot garden’ will feature towards the front of the house, with the rest of the space being left as lawn.

Work on the landscaping started this week.

The project is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and the design is by Ivy Hill Garden Design.

The garden will be created using a mix of low maintenance hedging, flowers and herbs to create a symmetrical design in the style of a Tudor knot garden.

Shaw House has had some keen gardeners in the past.

It was built by wealthy Newbury cloth merchant Thomas Dolman and completed in 1581.

It is suggested that his son Humphrey Dolman may have been responsible for laying out the Great Garden with the raised walk to the east of the house, possibly incorporating features from earlier gardens.

The banks were likely an earlier feature added to the gardens in the late 16th Century.

The surveyor William Godson was employed to survey the estate in the winter of 1729, resulting in the estate map, Map of Speen See. This is the earliest surviving record of the garden’s layout.
The surveyor William Godson was employed to survey the estate in the winter of 1729, resulting in the estate map, Map of Speen See. This is the earliest surviving record of the garden’s layout.

It is likely they were used as raised walkways forming part of the original garden and laid out at the same time as the construction of the house.

Apart from the earth banks there is little evidence of the garden’s original form.

However it can be assumed the gardens, like other great houses of that period, would have mirrored the sophistication of the house with a series of formal and elaborate avenues.

According to a West Berkshire Council heritage report, the gardens would have taken inspiration from the royal gardens of Hampton Court and would have been intended to be viewed from the upper floors of the house and looked down on to reveal the intricate floral design fashionable at the time.

Shaw House is famous for its reputation as King Charles 1’s HQ during the second battle of Newbury. In one of the bedrooms, there is a brass plate covering a bullet hole.

This is said to have been the work of a Roundhead soldier, who aimed at King Charles I when he was dressing himself at the window, on the morning of the Second Battle of Newbury when the house was heavily under siege.

In the 1720s, Shaw House was acquired by the flamboyant James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. It is claimed the second Duke bought a wife at a sale in Newbury.

Anne Wells, a chambermaid from Newbury, became his second wife.

Anne Wells, a chambermaid from Newbury, who became the second wife of the second Duke of Chandos.
Anne Wells, a chambermaid from Newbury, who became the second wife of the second Duke of Chandos.

At this point Shaw House would have been located in a fairly rural area to the north of Newbury town and surrounded by agricultural land and local industry.

It is suggested the estate was bought for its convenient location as a mid-way point between London and Bath, which was becoming an important social destination for high society.

Additionally, it is likely Chandos saw an opportunity to benefit from the peat deposits near the River Lambourn and from the sale of timber on the wider estate.

The surveyor William Godson was employed to survey the estate in the winter of 1729, resulting in the estate map, the Map of Speen See. This is the earliest surviving record of the garden’s layout.

The Duke of Chandos introduced numerous varieties of fruit trees including peaches and figs grown espalier on the forecourt walls. He was said to have taken advice from Phillip Miller, the curator of the London Apothecaries at Chelsea physic garden, so one can presume only the best varieties were planted within the garden.

Various avenues, water gardens and other fashionable garden features came and went.

During the Victorian period the raised earthwork terrace enclosing the Great Gardens was revered for its historical associations with the Civil War, though there are some questions as to whether the associations were true or created to add interest to the house.

By the time the OS map was surveyed in 1878, the stable yard and associated service buildings had been demolished and a new wilderness garden is shown to the west of the house.
By the time the OS map was surveyed in 1878, the stable yard and associated service buildings had been demolished and a new wilderness garden is shown to the west of the house.

The council heritage report highlights the first edition Ordnance Survey map that shows a square of lawn surrounded by a wide border to the south of the house.

It says the garden became very typical of its era and was planted with a selection of exotic trees, shrubberies, herbaceous borders and elaborate bedding displays.

Subsequent snapshots show the development of small but elaborate flowerbeds and a pergola along an adjacent path; these have all since disappeared.

By the time the OS map was surveyed in 1878, the stable yard and associated service buildings had been demolished and a new wilderness garden is shown to the west of the house.

From 1943 until 1985 the building was used as a school and part of its historic grounds are still in educational use by Trinity School today.

Shaw House is now a Grade I listed event venue run by West Berkshire Council, which is also open for the public to explore during school holidays and at weekends between February and September every year.

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