Woodrow High House

Location/Address

None recorded

Type

Park or garden

Coherent areas of land designed and/or managed for leisure purposes.

Description

Eighteenth and nineteenth century park and gardens surrounding Woodrow High House No substantial evidence for gardens occuring before the 19th century when the present layout was designed. The garden features a column of specimen trees. To the west of the house is an early 18th century octagonal underground grotto. Both house and grotto are grade II listed buildings (B5). A typical early-mid-C19 country villa landscape with C18 origins in a Chiltern setting comprising formal and informal gardens and pleasure grounds and a small park, including a fine collection of ornamental trees. The most notable feature is a detached pleasure ground comprising a dell, with a fine sunken grotto, leading to a Yew Walk affording views across the site. The layout of the 10 ha. site survives largely intact with few alterations since the 1870s, although the grotto is fragile and areas of the grounds have been adapted for a recreational centre. The extent and survival of villa gardens is not well recorded and this is a good example at this scale, with an ensemble of typical features many of which survive, its most notable feature being the grotto and dell. It is one of a group of Chiltern villa gardens including Brands House and Castle Hill House (Wycombe Museum). Key feature: The grotto in the dell, and ensemble of trees framing the whole landscape design. (See report for detail)(B6).

Map

Statement of Significance

Asset type

Eighteenth and nineteenth century park and gardens surrounding Woodrow High House

Images and Documents

Date Listed

n/a