Understanding historic park designs - HELM

The landscape park (1730s–1800)
From the early 18th century onward there developed a distinct English landscape
aesthetic gradually overtaking the more formal aesthetic of the previous century.
The key features of the English landscape style developed under Lancelot ‘Capability’
Brown from the mid-18th century onward, although Brown often incorporated
elements of mature formal planting in his designs rather than ‘sweeping’ it away. The
whole was designed to give the impression of a natural landscape that could be
appreciated particularly through the carefully composed series of views encountered
during movement through the parkland on the main approach and the ridings.
Considerable ingenuity and earth-moving went into Brown’s designs to create
naturalistic vistas and to hide unwelcome features, such as the surface of the
approach in views from the house. Many of these compositions are vulnerable to
erosion by neglect or subsequent planting so that expert analysis is often required to
identify them correctly.
Principal features
• Informal clumps of trees, single trees and woodland
• Perimeter belts and rides
• Irregular, natural-looking water bodies
• Entrance drives and carefully contrived drives and rides
• Informal but composed views from the main approach, from ridings around
the park and from the house’s principal rooms and entrance
• Designed views to eyecatchers such as a purpose-built structure or folly
within the park, a clump of trees planted on a distant hill top or a
neighbouring building
• Ridings often extended outside the park into the surrounding estate to
include views of farmland and more distant beauty spots
• Ideally the house appeared to rise directly from the landscape park, but more
often than not shrubbery walks or other discreet garden areas continued to
be valued in the near neighbourhood of the house with kitchen gardens
hidden out of sight
• Tree planting in parkland largely used a restricted palette of predominantly
native trees, such as oak, lime, beech and sweet chestnut, with only
occasional use of exotics such as Cedar of Lebanon – specialist plantations of
American and other exotic trees became increasingly popular towards the
end of the 18th century
• Plantations grown for timber, with oak extremely popular for its economic
and symbolic value
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