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Panshanger Park, Hertford, Hertfordshire

Panshanger Park is situated between Welwyn Garden City and Hertford. It is over 1000 acres of which a third is currently open to the public.

Contents • 1 Transport • 2 History and Design • 3 The Park today • 5 Additional sources of information

Insert map of park – FPP version and satellite one – as on FPP website.

Transport

Hertford North station is about a 15 minute walk from the entrance to the main entrance to the park at Thieves Lane SG14 2WN. Trains run to London, Stevenage and the North. Bus services also run through the area. There is a car park at Thieves Lane and an additional entrance from Hertingfordbury via the Mary Purver Path. There will soon be a cycle path through the entire park which will provide a route from Hertford to Welwyn Garden City.

History from Tudor times

In 1540, the land between Welwyn and Hertford belonged to the Marquess of Exeter. He was beheaded for treason in 1539 and his estates including the Blakemore and Panshanger estates went to Henry Vlll. He gave it to Nicholas Throckmorton who was cousin to his surviving wife, Queen Catherine Parr, and ambassador to France. For the next century or more it passed through many hands (including Queen Elizabeth 1) finally arriving into the possession of the Cowper family.

The Georgian Era

William, the first Earl Cowper (first Lord Chancellor of Great Britain after the union with Scotland, 1707-10, again 1714-18; died at Cole Green 1723) took as his mistress, Elizabeth Culling of Hertingfordbury Park, by whom he had two children and through whom he was bequeathed the park.

The house at that time, at the western edge of Cole Green park, was called Fitzjohns. This was pulled down in May 1704 by William and a seven-bayed mansion built and named Cole Green House. He occupied the house in 1711 and settled there upon his retirement in 1718. Fruit and formal flower gardens lay close to the house, closely attended by the Countess. The formal drive to the house was from the east.

In 1719 the Earl bought the adjacent Panshanger estate. This contained a farmhouse of at least Elizabethan origin which was then used by other members of his family, notably Spencer Cowper (1713-74), Dean of Durham (William’s son). The house was added to in the fashionable Gothick style. By 1738 the park surrounding Cole Green House had been extended to roughly 50 hectares as far as Birchall Wood to include 86 acres of what was formerly Birchall Farm. ‘Capability’ Brown

The accounts ledger of the 2nd Earl Cowper details seven payments to ‘Mr Lancelot Brown’- the renowned landscape architect - over nine years for a total of £718 7s 6d. The accounts show work starting in the garden area and later moving to the parkland, with house renovations such as a new necessary (water closet) plumbing, drains, laundry and stables. An undated and an unsigned sketch of Cole Green shows a parkland landscape with a pool of water and clumps of trees scattered on mounds, which is similar to the parkland at Beechwood. Old oaks still survive on the eastern side, along with sweet chestnut and beech. Closer to the river an ice house and a Fishing Lodge were added. Work was still progressing when Cowper died in 1764.

Humphry Repton

In 1797, the fifth Earl came of age and began improvements upon his Hertfordshire estates. He engaged Humphry Repton the most famous landscape designer of the late Georgian period who with the architect John Adey deisgned a new house and landscape on the other side of the valley.. He produced a Red Book in 1799 for the united Panshanger and Cole Green estates, suggesting where on the Panshanger estate a new house could be sited most advantageously, and how the River Mimram could be diverted and widened into a lake (The Broadwater) to take full advantage of the valley scenery around it. This was part of a larger scheme to landscape the Earl’s estates along the River Mimram valley, including Tewin Water and Digswell. Digswell had recently been acquired by the Cowpers, but under the previous owner Richard Willes (or Willis), ‘Capability ‘ Brown had made improvements there in the area of Digswell Place and Sherrardswood Park 1771-73. Repton intended that the Mimram valley should be a continuous run of designed landscapes but that each of the Cowper estates were to be given ‘a degree of extent and consequence which it could not boast exclusive of the others, and while each possesses its independent privacy and seclusion, their united lawns will, by extending thro’ the whole valley enrich the general face of the country’ . The plan was gradually put in place by the 5th Earl until his death in 1837. The house suggested by Repton was not built but instead a house by Thomas Atkinson was built between 1806 and 1809, becoming habitable in 1811. Planting began in 1799, continuing over several years, and Cole Green House was pulled down in 1801-2. The enclosure of Hertingfordbury parish in 1801 meant that the park could be substantially enlarged, and six miles of public rights of way, including what is now the B1000, were diverted around it.

It still remains in places “…one of Repton’s most perfect schemes” as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner has commented.

Victorian Developments

After the fifth Earl’s death his wife continued to manage Panshanger until 1867, she having remarried to Lord Palmerston of Brocket Hall. Following her death, the estate was managed until 1913 by the seventh Earl’s wife, Katrine, who supervised the addition of formal garden features around the house, until her death in 1913.

Under the 5th and 7th countesses the gardens around the house were developed in a Gardenesque style with a fernery and a rock garden. The house terrace gardens were extended to a new balustraded sunken garden. The orangery and conservatory were added to the Dairy and a formal garden laid out around them. Nearby is the famous Panshanger oak which is reputedly over 500 years old and one of the oldest in England. (It had a preservation order placed on it by Hertfordshire Rural council when the land was sold in 1953). A rose garden, a sundial garden with yews and a rustic summerhouse, and a canna garden were all added. A secluded spot, later used by Lady Desborough towards the end of her life, was flanked with 2 fountains and offered views from the woodlands across the valley to ‘Capability’ Brown’s Cole Green landscape. At the other end of the house, a Box Garden of box clipped to the arms of the de Greys and Cowpers with infilling of flowers of heraldic colours was added. The estate continued to have a Wood Feast every 31st October when underwood was sold. The woods were felled and replanted as they became mature and extra plantations put on land too poor for profitable agriculture. Evergreen Wood was enhanced with exotic trees such as Sequoias and Weymouth Pines which were also set out along the Broad Walk and the trees underplanted with rhododendrons, new types being introduced to Britain from the Himalayas.

The lakes, the source of water for the house and for the electricity generating plant, were regularly cleaned, relined with puddle clay and drainage channels cleared. Most of the park was grazed by sheep which produced the fine sward required and also helped pay for the upkeep of the grounds. In the 19th century between 400 and 600 sheep were kept here and folded at Park Farm in the winter.

The Twentieth Century

The 7th earl and his wife had no children so the ultimate heiress was his sister’s orphaned daughter Ethel (Ettie) Fane. Having been orphaned at the age of 3 she was brought up at Wrest Park by aunts and grandmother. In 1905 Panhanger came to Lord Desborough of Taplow Court Berkshire who had married Etttie in 1887. As a secondary estate it was not subject to much redevelopment although it was kept up until the end of the first World War. The Desboroughs had an active social life at Taplow Court, one of the centres for ‘The Souls’ but also found time to lay out a skittle alley at the back of the orangery. The Desboroughs’ two sons were killed in the First World War, with the third dying in a car crash in 1926. The estate deteriorated, and Lord Desborough sold 4000 acres of it in 1919, some to Ebenezer Howard for the establishment of his second Garden City, near Welwyn. More land at Sele Farm went for housing and Hertfordshire County Council bought up land for smallholdings – part of the postwar initiative of Homes for Heroes.

Following the death of Lord Desborough in 1945 and of his wife in 1952, the estate was finally broken up and put up for sale in 1953. Although attempts were made to sell the house as an institution or school, there were no buyers after World War Two. The house and 89 acres of land was purchased for £17,750 and the house demolished. The park was purchased for gravel extraction which continues today.

The Park Today

Panshanger Park is owned by Lafarge Tarmac who continue to quarry areas on the Western side of the Park. Hertfordshire County Council along with local groups represented by the Friends of Panshanger Park have worked with the owners to fulfil their vision of providing a 21st Country Park for the people of Hertfordshire.

The first phase of this was achieved with the opening of the Eastern third of the Park on 31st March 2014. Much of the landscaping of the 19th century remains and the park has sweeping meadows down to lakes and the River Mimram as well as woodland walks abundant with bluebells in late spring. The grassland areas continue to provide grazing for cattle and sheep and the spring water lakes and chalk based river provides a rich environment for aquatic life. Additionally there is an abundance of birds and a viewing platform overlooking one of the lakes.

Parkun

At 9am every Saturday, the Park hosts a 5 kilometre run known as Panshanger parkrun (www.parkrun.org.uk/panshanger/). This has been set up by the Friends of Panshanger Park with support from Lafarge Tarmac and Herts Sports Partnership. This is not a race, but a timed run that is open to people of all ages and abilities and co-ordinated entirely by local volunteers. Participants register for free on the parkrun website (parkrun.org.uk/register/), print out a unique barcode and bring this with them to the run so their time can be recorded. Each runner is given an individual webpage on the parkrun website which records their performance and helps them to track their improvements. This is one of over 300 parkrun events that take place every Saturday in the UK, with hundreds more being held around the world. Panshanger parkrun places a real emphasis on the social side of running, with many runners gathering around the mobile coffee van after each event.

External links

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