Spring Park and Woodchester Mansion

"And then, suddenly, round a bend in a clearing, you are confronted by an astonishing apparition: a prodigious stone pile adorned with a tower, gables and buttresses. After a necessary pause to catch your breath, you advance and notice a series of gargoyles depicting fantastic creatures. The haunting atmosphere is heightened by the attendance of real-life species such as jackdaws, kestrels, pigeons and bats swooping in and out of vast windows which, now you come to think of it, are unglazed."
(c) Hugh Montgomery Massingberd. Daily Telegraph Magazine. 1992.

The first house
The original Manor House for Woodchester was in the village, adjacent to the old church. After a succession of owners, the manor was granted to George Huntley in 1564. Subsequently, he decided to create a deer park, a little distance from the Manor House, by both purchase and through the enclosure of common agricultural land in the Inchbrook valley. A seven mile long boundary wall surrounded the park and by 1610 a hunting lodge was built at the western end. The expense of creating the park is thought to have nearly bankrupted the Huntley's and the manor and park were sold to Sir Robert Ducie in 1631. Later generations of the Ducie family decided to build a grand country house and, at the same time, create a magnificent landscaped park out of the deer park. Quite why this site was chosen will forever remain an enigma. The steep sides of the valley mean that for much of the year the sun is obscured. The house being positioned halfway down the length of the valley reduces the dramatic views that would have surely been seen if it had been built on a higher spot. The site is neither convenient nor easy for transport. As it wasn't the Ducie's principal residence, they may have looked at it more as an isolated retreat. In any case, they decided to extend and adapt the hunting lodge and lay out a formal garden, and although a precise start date isn't known, the house - called Spring Park - was constructed during the 1740s. Certainly by 1750 it was finished, as Frederick, Prince of Wales stayed - and in 1788, George III visited.
Before George III's visit - and only 30 years after the formal gardens were established - a start was made on extensively re-landscaping the grounds from plans drawn-up by John Speyers, working with Capability Brown. This plan removed the more formal aspect of the garden to create a naturalistic park. Part of the plan also turned a group of small fishponds in to a series of lakes - and this was done in the late 18th or early 19th Century.

Not only was the park remodelled but the house too - several times in the 1770s and 1830s (including the reintroduction of a more formal garden area by Humphrey Repton) but in 1840 when the 2nd Earl Dulcie wanted further alterations and repairs, the estimate was thought to be too great and the estate was sold to William Leigh, a wealthy merchant.

A splendid Victorian edifice
William Leigh bought the 1000 acre Woodchester Park in 1845. Born in Liverpool and educated at Eton and Oxford, when he bought the estate he was living in Staffordshire with his wife and young family. Here, he had been converted to Catholicism by the controversial priest Dominic Barberi and joined the Oxford Movement. Reports suggest that his neighbours in Staffordshire didn't receive his attempts to convert the local population happily, so he moved to Woodchester.
Leigh asked the renowned architect A.W.Pugin for advice; he recommended that the old Spring Park be torn down and replaced with a new house as the exisiting building was cold and damp. Work was started on the demolition but before a new house could be built, Leigh decided to build cathedral in Adelaide, a monastery on the outskirts of South Woodchester and establish a Catholic religious community in the village. Only after this was completed did Leigh return to thoughts of building a new country house.

A.W. Pugin was one of the great exponents of the Gothic revival and had become a Catholic in 1835. From 1835 to 1852 he designed more than one hundred buildings, wrote eight books and established a flourishing business in the production of metalwork and stained glass.
However Pugin's plans proved to be too expensive and Leigh commissioned a second architect, Charles Hansom, to take over. Hansom was also responsible for the priory that Leigh had built. Hansom's design can be seen at the rear of the Mansion but ultimately it is thought that Hansom and Leigh disagreed and the project was handed over to Hansom's assistant, a local architect, Benjamin Bucknall.
Bucknall was one of the many English architects to be heavily influenced by Violett-le-Duc, the great neo-gothic French architect who was responsible for much of the restoration of Notre Dame.
The twenty one year old Bucknall designed a house that was almost entirely made of stone: walls, roofs, gutters, gargoyles, stairs, baths, kitchen tables. Various types of Cotswold stone were used, quarried from the Park, Selsley Common and Minchinhampton among several sites. The design as a whole had a distinctive medieval monastic feel with its stone vaulted ceilings with intricate tracery and carved stone ceiling bosses, along with the laundry, bakery, brewery, game larder and cheese room, and all built round a courtyard with massive buttresses and fine windows. Outside, there were animal-shaped gargoyles with bats, owl, boar and ravens depicted. In fact, it is easy to believe that the whole project was more one of a religious rather than a secular nature, designed to help elect Leigh’s soul to heaven. We can speculate that within the house there would have been the singing of the offices by the Dominican Order, visits by the Catholic Church's great and good, and an academic repository of Catholic thinking - all running alongside the bustling domestic life of the Leigh family. But whilst the building as a whole clearly embodied Leigh's faith, Bucknall also ensured that the house was based on the local vernacular and from outside is unmistakably Cotswold with its gables and simplicity. On the other hand, there are aspects to the house that are peculiar in design: there is an overall lack of symmetry; there is no grand entrance apparent from the outside; the kitchen is small and a long way from the dining room - in fact the shortest route between the two is through the Chapel; the bathroom is likewise a lengthy walk from the main bedrooms; and whilst the limestone bath and taps are a stunning piece, their practicality is questionable. The inner courtyard, hemmed-in by tall walls would have been perpetually in shadow, cold and, as it is now, damp. On a more prosaic level, there are problems with the guttering and rain drainage. This all hints to Bucknall's youth and lack of experience; or could it be the result of combining earlier designs into his own - something that perhaps Leigh insisted upon.

Work started finally in about 1856 and a significant portion of the basic structure was finished by 1866 when the clock in the Bell Tower was installed. Under the clock is the motto- In sapientia ambulate tempus redimentes. This is quite a common moto (it can be found on the sundial at St Trinity's, Cambridge for example) meaning "walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time". The reference is found in both Paul's Ephesians 5 and Collosians 4:5 and can be thought to mean 'be wise in your dealings with the outside world.'

Building continued for a few more years after the clock was installed but then stopped in the early1870s - when the house was still far from complete. None of the rooms had been finished, many were no more than a shell with neither floors or ceilings - but we can see that the standard of workmanship was extremely high. (It is thought that some of the masons and glaziers were French and their skills were exemplary.) Only the drawing room is today almost complete but this was finished some time after Leigh's death by his son. In the ceiling can be found more than fifty carved stone bosses - though these do not compare to the standard found in the original carving found elsewhere in the Mansion. The windows are glazed with uncoloured leaded panes. Even if the room doesn't match the highest standards of finish William Leigh intended for the Mansion, it is still a beautiful and embodies what the Mansion might have been.
Most dramatic of all is the chapel. A fabulous design with a spectacular fan-vaulted ceiling that soars high towards the heavens.
David Verey described Woodchester as 'one of the greatest achievements of 19th-Century domestic architecture in England.' Without doubt it is an inspirational building that never fails to impress any visitor.
It is a big house in more than just its physical aspect. Bucknall made no compromises in its construction. But why building stopped is not known for certain as no records or correspondance exist. However circumstances point to a probable explanation: it is likely that Leigh's money was running out as it is thought that the cost of building significantly ran over budget. (In the last few years when construction was taking place, the pace of work was getting slower and slower.) This period also coincided with a decline in Leigh's health and perhaps Leigh could see it was a house he would find difficult to live in.

It would not be surprising if one day we learnt that Leigh lost the will to drive the project to completion. In 1873, at the age of 70, Leigh died. Perhaps for some time, he had been more than aware that he was dying, and decided to stay in the cottage that overlooked Woodchester Park. It was also said that he was depressed by a series of early deaths in his family; two daughters had died before they'd married and one son died in infancy. After Leigh's death, a public sale of tools from the Mansion was held, signifying that the project too had ceased.
We can also summise now that Leigh's surviving family were less keen on the design for shortly after Leigh's death they asked another architect, James Wilson of Bath, to propose a new design. This he did in his flamboyant Italianate style but the cost of completing a new Mansion was too great for any of them to afford. (Indeed, it begs the question how they ever thought they could both demolish and build a completely new building but clearly it underlines that they did not share their father's passion for living in monastic conditions.) Wilson had his own opinion of the site and wanted the family to build, if they were going to, in a new location in the valley. He wrote, 'I consider the situation far from the best that might have been selected on the Estate; it is low, damp, and has much shut-in on the South, West and North, so that a free circulation of air is impeded. Its position is much too close to the high bank on the North, which will always keep the House damp, and if this bank were sloped off and formed into terraces (which must be allowed with a large outlay) still there would be a closeness and humidity, which would always prove to be detrimental.' In the meantime, Bucknall had moved to Algiers where he worked on domestic projects and villas. The reason for his move is unknown, although poor health is one reason put forward, but without doubt he must have been bitterly disappointed that his grand vision and architectural statement had not been realised. Indeed, in 1878 he wrote to Leigh's son, 'there is nothing more sad to the sight than an unfinished work and it is even more forlorn than a ruin of a building which has served its purpose...' Thereafter the Mansion was slowly forgotten.
In 1938, William Leigh's granddaughters, Blanche and Beatrice sold the house - and what was left of the estate - to the Barnwood House Trust who intended to convert the Mansion into a mental hospital but subsequently this plan was shelved. During the Second World War the Mansion's grounds were used as a billet for troops, and the house itself used by St Paul's Teacher Training College. It was then abandoned to the elements. Fortunately, its isolated position meant it didn't suffer from vandalism; it was not redeveloped. None the less, the efforts of Reginald Kelly - who lived nearby - ensured that the Mansion didn't fall into a state of total disrepair.

Today it is a remarkable and unique living text book of building techniques and architecture. No such buildiing exists in the UK. It is administered by the Woodchester Mansion Trust who took over responsibility for the Grade 1 listed building in 1989, and it is open to the public on selected weekends. H.R.H The Prince of Wales, who lives close by, took an early interest in the restoration of the Mansion and is now Patron of the Trust.
The aim of the Trust is to restore but never complete the Mansion and to make it a centre of training for student masons, ensuring that this craft and tradition are kept alive. English Heritage's remit is that Woodchester should retain its "profound sense of abandonment."

*Pictures of the Mansion interior courtesy of Woodchester Mansion
*The photographs of the park were taken by Ivan Judd and his web-site, featuring the town of Nailsworth, can be viewed here:

The only known picture of Bucknall shows a typically stern Victorian gentleman with a full beard, a large hooked nose and deep eyes.
Benjamin Joseph Bucknall was born in Rodborough in 1833. Some of his ancestors were connected with the woollen industry but his father was an accountant. In his teens Benjamin was converted to the Catholic faith.
It seems that William Leigh was instrumental in getting Benjamin articled to to the architect Charles Hansom in 1852 when Bucknall was nineteen. (He had two bothers and a nephew who were also architects). Hansom's practise was in Clifton, Bristol.
Certainly it would seem that Bucknall worked with Hansom on the initial designs of the Mansion and then, when Leigh and Hansom fell out he took over responsibility for the project.
Bucknall became one of many disciples of Violett le Duc, who's passion and theories of gothic architecture were highly attractive to Bucknall. Violett le Duc was responsible for restorating many cathedrals in France as well as some of the great chateaux. His writings and teachings strongly influenced Medieval and Gothic revivalists, the Arts and Craft Movement and Art Noveau.
Bucknall's first public work is thought to be the Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Michael at Abergavenny, completed in 1860. He was then responsible for St George in Taunton and then probably Tocknells, a house in Painswick. Other houses in the area include Scar Hill, the lodge near the entrance gate to Woodchester Park; St Stephens at Nympsfield and also the Imperial Hotel, Stroud.
In 1861 he visited le Duc and in 1862 he designed churches at Chester and Malvern. Also in 1862 he started on building the Convent of St Rose of Lima, in Stroud.
Sometime after 1864 he moved to Swansea and worked in partnership with his two younger brothers. He extended the Roman Catholic church of St David and designed the Seaman's Church on the quayside. Further afield, the practise also was responsible for the church of the Poor Clares near Knowle, Warwickshire.
Bucknall eventually abandoned the Gothic principle and spent the last eighteen years of his life in Algiers where he concentrated on building villas in a Moorish style. His first visit to Algiers had been in during the winter of 1876 when he was suffering from ill health. His wife remained in Swansea when the following winter he returned to Algiers for good. In the suburb of El Biar there are several villas that Bucknall designed. At one stage, a street was named after him. Perhaps his best work was the remodelling of the Villa Montfield, used as the residence of the American ambassador. During his time in Algiers, his health was poorly. He was looked after by his children, none of whom married; one, Josephine ultimately became a nun, a son, Edgar was drowned in a yachting accident near Algiers at the age of 21. Bucknall died in 1895. A Times correspondent wrote:
"His funeral in Algiers was so largely attended by persons of all nationalities and classes that it assumed almost a public character." In the English church a tablet records:
"Benjamin Bucknall...Of rare genius and taste, the disciple of Viollet-le-Duc; his buildings in Algiers are models of simple beauty. Placed by his friends desirous of perpetuating his memory."
Source: A Brief Biography by his great-great-nephew, Stephen A Bucknall.

'During World War ll, St. Paul's College from Selly Park, Birmingham was evactuated to the Mansion. I'm not sure when they first went there, or when they left, they were still there in 1947. I was there from 1944 to 1946. St. Paul's College was a teacher's training college run by the Sisters of Charity of St. Paul. Our three year training was condensed into two years because of a shortage of teachers, our third year was spent in the classroom. We used the Mansion for lectures, particularly what we called the ballroom, the large room on the ground floor, with a beautiful, partially finished staircase leading from it. We wrote all our exams in that room too, as well as using it for our needlework and art exhibitions. All art work was done in the Mansion as well as English and Biology lectures - and probably other subjects that I did not take - and gym. We used other rooms too. Needless to say we were all fascinated by the Mansion, exploring as much of it as possible. The bathroom fixtures fascinated us, as well as the beautiful chapel. When I went back years later, I was sad to see how much it had deteriorated. We never did learn the history and there were all sorts of legends about the Mansion. The two sisters were still alive, although elderly. They lent us some of their dresses to use in our annual Gilbert and Sullivan productions - eighteen inch waists! Woodchester Park was beautiful in those days, with magnificent trees, we had to walk through the park to Nailsworth to play hockey, it was the closest area with a flat place to play. We thoroughly enjoyed those walks. In our Biology course we did detailed study of the flora and fauna of the park and lakes. We even helped pick potatoes at harvest time. 6 pence an hour! We lived in the house close to the road from Nympsfield. There were fifty two of us, including sisters in training, and lecturers. It was quite crowded and very cold in the winter. Bathrooms were limited to two, we used old fashioned wash basins and water jugs in our rooms. We took it in turns to have a bath, about every ten days! On Sundays we used to walk to the Dominican Church in Woodchester. (My parents are buried in the churchyard there). In those days there was a priory with about ten monks. We sang with the monks on those Sundays. We did our teaching practice in all the local schools, I did my final six weeks in Nailsworth. I was so happy to read of your restoration and preservation efforts, what a wonderful way to treat such a beautiful Mansion. I look forward, when we are next visiting our daughter, to revisiting the Mansion, this time it will be with pleasure. Sincerely, Janet Wooding, Maine, USA'

A key scientific site
Besides being a Grade I listed building, the Mansion is also a protected scientific site because of the bat colonies that have lived there for many years.
There are two colonies: some ninety odd Greater Horseshoe bats in one attic and over 200 Lesser Horseshoe bats in another. Both breed enthusiastically and are thriving, in part due to improved cattle grazing in the surrounding fields thereby ensuring a plentiful supply of an important bat food source: dung beetles.
On Mansion Open Days it is possible to view the roosting bats through two infra-red camera systems. Quite fascinating. And there is an extensive display that provides more than enough information about the life of these extraordinary creatures. (I would recommend buying the leaflet by Dr Roger Ransome who has spent many years studying the bats).

The role of the National Trust
The Park is now owned by the National Trust and is separately run from the Mansion, which is administered by the Woodchester Mansion Trust.
Woodchester Park, as we have read above, was once owned by the Ducie family and they were responsible for initiating the landscaping of the Park. This included formal gardens, canals and fishponds. Carriage drives and woodland walks were created. Five lakes were constructed (probably for economic reasons as mill ponds rather than aesthetic) fringed by woodland and pasture. The carriageways can still be seen and used, and represent an important part of the historic landscape.
Whether the famous landscape designers 'Capability' Brown was involved with Woodchester Park directly isn't known but one of his partners, John Spyers, developed and implemented a plan that turned the formal layout of the park to an open and more naturalistic landscape, with the formal gardens grassed over and the water features filled. Later Humphrey Repton visited Woodchester and some further work was done in the vicinity of the house when a formal terraced garden with two fountains was built.
During the mid twentieth century, the Estate was divided up and sold to various landowners. Much of the valley was turned over to commercial forestry - which has now matured - to provide timber for match making and pit props for use in the Forest of Dean. This makes for some spectacular scenery but has also led to much of the original design - and importantly the open aspect - being lost. Over the next few years, the National Trust will clear some of the plantations to recreate parkland. To help them, Tamworth pigs are being used - an ancient species that have, for hundreds of years, been used to graze and clear dense and tangled undergrowth. (They actually enjoy eating brambles, nettles and bracken). Interestingly, in the Royal Charter of 896 AD, it records that the land was given to Bishop Werferth for pig grazing, and pigs probably grazed in the area until the 17th century. Grazing by sheep, cattle and goats is also practised.
The National Trust have opened up some fascinating trails in the park, through the woods and around the lakes. These are clearly marked and can be accessed even when the Mansion is closed. It is easy to spend at least a half day wandering through some enchanting countryside.

The earliest map showing Woodchester Park is Issac Taylor's map of Gloucestershire dated 1777. In 1782 an Estate Map was drawn by John Speyers. In 1800 a second estate map was produced. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey was 1830 and shows the Park - most likely as it had been since the end of the 1700s.

There are a number of buildings and structures in the Park that both survive as remains or are known to have been located there.

The Woodchester Glass House - there is little to be seen of the building today but it is the oldest structure in the park, constructed around 1590 by Huguenot craftsmen.

The Park Mill - the site of the mill lies on the eastern edge of the lowest lake. It is known that the mill existed here from at least 1777. (The valley is well-suited to the siting of a water mill as the geology permits a large number of springs to be present, with a constant flow of water.)

Stables - situated above the house, known since 1782 but most likely constructed in 1740s when Spring Park was first built.

Summer House - only a few stones are left of the Summer House, a building from later than 1838.

The Kennels - at the southern end of the dam seperating the middle and kennel ponds. A single stable block can be seen and is thought to be part of a larger block built in the first half of the 18th century.

The Tower - sits on the valley slopes on the north-western side of the park. Thought to be constructed in the 1720s following, it is claimed, a proposal from George II.

Woodchester Park, Mitchell Pollington
Woodchester Park Mansion. Duff Hart-Davis
The House of the Holy Spirit. Daniel P Sullivan
The Victorian Country House. Mark Girouard

Mansion has batty exhibit
SOME of Britain's rarest bats are to be exposed to the public gaze for the first time in the deserted Victorian mansion they have made their home.
Bats are the only permanent residents of Woodchester Park Mansion, a 150-year-old house that was never completed or occupied. Now the charity which has been restoring the house has joined forces with the Bat Conservation Trust to give the public a unique glimpse into the life of colony of rare greater horseshoe bats which live there. An exhibition jointly organized by the Bat Trust and the Woodchester Mansion Trust opens on Sunday and will provide visitors with a CCTV view of the bats in their hideaway. VIPs and diplomats from across Europe visiting the mansion this weekend as delegates to a Meeting of the Parties for the Agreement on the Conservation of Bats in Europe will be among the first of the spectators. And the timing is perfect for many of the bats have recently given birth and are raising their young. This provides for the first time a unique opportunity for the public to view some of the UKs rarest bats, said a
spokesman for the Bat Conservation Trust. The exhibition utilizes two CCTV cameras which enable visitors to see the bats on monitor screens and a projection in an adjacent viewing area. Other features include a bat listening post and information boards. The exhibition will be open to the public every Sunday until October 1. Matthew Haynes, Woodchester Mansions chief project director, added: Never before has the public been offered such an opportunity to see this most reclusive of mammals. Greater Horseshoe Bats are a highly endangered species. Amazingly, ten percent of the British population of the species lives in the mansion. Lesser Horseshoe Bats also live in the mansion together with common Pipistrelle bats.