PGW(Gt)21(MON)

Itton Court  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

St. Arvans  

349756  

195037  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Remnants of formal seventeenth-century layout; eighteenth-century landscaping; nineteenth-century ornamental tree planting.  

Seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century.  

The registered area at Itton Court represents a good example of an historic park and garden, which survives in its entirety, with remnants of a seventeenth-century layout, eighteenth-century landscaping and nineteenth-century/early-twentieth century alterations and planting. The registered park and garden has important group value with Itton Court house, its associated estate buildings and the church of St Deiniol, which was rebuilt by the Curre family of Itton Court in 1869 and contains a collection of monuments to the family. The fourteenth-century gatehouse is probably the only part of the medieval Itton Court still standing. It is incorporated into the present-day house (LB: 23971) on the east side of the forecourt. In the early eighteenth-century the owner, John Jeffreys, demolished the medieval house, apart from the relatively new William and Mary Wing, and the Queen Anne wing was built. The formal layout of avenue and groves to the east and north of the house respectively was already in existence in 1695 when a plan of the grounds was made by Thomas Crofts (copied in 1782). In about 1749 Jeffreys sold the house to John Curre of Rogerston Grange, and the house remained in the possession of the Curre family until the 1950s. Edward Curre (1855-1930) who inherited in 1868, had the major extensions by Guy Dawber (1861-1938) built in 1890-1910. The small early eighteenth-century park lay to the north and east of the house on ground sloping gently away from it. A map of 1782 ('A map of the manor of Itton ... copy'd from an old survey by Tho. Crofts in 1695 ...') shows the layout in 1695, with parallel rows of trees beyond the formal garden to the north, and a short avenue to the east terminating with two transverse double rows of trees on either side. This pattern of planting is still discernible on the 1880s six-inch Ordnance Survey map, with some of the rows to the north of the garden, the north side of the short avenue, and both transverse rows shown. Also shown is the great horse chestnut avenue which continues from the outer ends of the transverse rows eastwards for approximately 750m. It is probable that the avenue was planted at the same time as the house was rebuilt, in the early eighteenth-century. The avenue was broken up in the 1950s, with only a few trees remaining on the north side, but more on the south, particularly near the east end (possibly later replacement trees). Immediately south of the avenue, the slightly sunken line of the old road, later the east drive, can be made out in the grass and on aerial photographs. By 1900, Howick Lodge was built at this entrance to the park. This formed part of the landscaping in picturesque style carried out by Edward Curre. He was also responsible for the long winding drive from Wellhead Lodge (LB: 24770 – gates & gatepiers at Wellhead Lodge) in the south, which passed through woodland and Middle Lodge before crossing the park and arriving at Itton Court on its west. This drive is now a track and no longer in use to access Itton Court. To the north of the house the garden has been extended to take in the area of the park which was planted originally as a grove. The original trees have gone, but the area has continued to be planted with trees. The earliest evidence of a garden at Itton Court is the 1695 plan (copied 1782) which shows a rectangular formal garden to the north of the house. Its north end was apsidal, with a central feature. This area appears on the 1886 six-inch Ordnance Survey map, flanked by rows of trees and without its apsidal end. It is now a lawn, and the only trace of the seventeenth-century layout is the grass bank along its east edge, which extends southwards to form the east boundary of the upper terrace to the east of the house. The approach to the house is through the garden, to the west and south of the house. Both drives arrive at the walled forecourt to the west of the house built in the late nineteenth century. To the east of the house are two long terraces. On the east edge of the lower terrace is a ha-ha, beyond which is the park. To the south of the house the ground slopes gently southwards and most of the area is laid out as lawn with specimen trees. There is a small formal terraced garden next to the south end of the house, laid out largely with lawns and paths. Along the east side of the churchyard (now in the church's extended cemetery) is a row of large wellingtonia trees. The walled kitchen garden lies to the south of the pleasure garden, south of the church. It is a large, rectangular garden surrounded by stone walls. Against the north wall are derelict glasshouses, without their glass but with their superstructure intact and still with interior fittings including cast iron staging and grills for underfloor heating. Along the outside of the north wall is a row of brick lean-to outbuildings. The walled garden is now the garden of Court Garden House. Setting: Itton Court is situated in the small village of Itton to the northwest of Chepstow. The surrounding rural landscape is one of mixed pastoral and arable fields with hedgerows and woodland. Itton Village Institute (LB: 2894) built for the Curre family in 1901 and designed by Guy Dawber is located to the northwest of the registered area. A pair of estate cottages, probably also by Dawber, are situated just outside the registered area to the north. Significant View: View from the east side of the house across the ha-ha and park along the former avenue. Sources: Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 57-58 (ref: PGW (Gt)21). Ordnance Survey six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXV (1886) Ordnance Survey six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXV.SE (1902) Ordnance Survey six-inch map: sheet Monmouthshire XXV (1922)