BOWOOD
Bowood liberty consisted of land imparked c.
1618 and formerly part of Chippenham forest. (fn. 88)
In 1709 the justices at quarter sessions found
that the liberty included settlements on the
edge of the park called Mannings Hill, Cuff's
Corner, and Buck Hill, and part of the settlement called Red Hill; the settlements probably
included many squatters' cottages. (fn. 89) In the
earlier 19th century the boundary of the liberty
was drawn to include Buck Hill and to exclude
all or nearly all the site of each of the other
three settlements. The liberty was then of 991
a. and consisted of only the park of Bowood
House and Buck Hill. (fn. 90) In 1890 it became part
of Calne Without parish. (fn. 91)
The population of Bowood liberty increased
from 34 in 1811 to 81 in 1831 and from 68 in
1841 to 140 in 1851. Few new houses were built
between 1841 and 1851 and much of the later
increase was due to a rise in the number living
in Bowood House. By 1881 the population of
the liberty had decreased to 92. (fn. 92)
In the late 16th century and early 17th there
were two or more houses on the west side of what
became the liberty, (fn. 93) and in 1650 three lodges
stood in the park. None of the lodges survives.
One probably stood on or near the site of Bowood House, which was built probably c. 1727;
one, described in 1650 as new, probably stood on
the site of the farmstead called Home (formerly
Lodge) Farm, which had been built west of
Bowood House by 1754; the third apparently
stood south-west of the site of Bowood House.
There were three other farmsteads in the park in
1754; one, north of Home Farm on the site of
Queenwood House, possibly stood on the site of
a barn standing in 1650. (fn. 94) The farmhouse of
Home Farm, of dressed rubble with plain mullioned windows, has a south-west range with
arched cellars and probably of the mid 18th century, and a main north-east range of the 19th
century. (fn. 95) South-east of it there was a barn, of
stone rubble with a stone-slated roof and probably
late 18th- or early 19th-century, and north-west of
it there was a slightly smaller stone barn. In 1992
the south-east barn was linked to the house,
other farm buildings were removed or demolished,
and Home Farm became the club house of a golf
course. In 1998 new ranges in a rustic style were
built to link the house and the north-west barn,
and other buildings were erected. (fn. 96) Queenwood
House, also of dressed rubble and incorporating tall decorated chimney shafts, was built in
the earlier 19th century as a large cottage ornée.
On the site of a third farmstead standing in
1754 the Osprey, an estate yard with singlestoreyed stone buildings and a two-storeyed
red-brick house around it, was built between
1847 and 1885. It remained an estate yard in
2000. The fourth farmstead, Litton's Farm,
was on the site north-west of Home Farm on
which a row of cottages called Home Farm Cottages stood in the 19th century; the cottages
were demolished in 1992. Several of the lodges
built at the entrances to Bowood park, and a
few cottages at Derry Hill and Sandy Lane, also
stood in the liberty. Between Bowood House
and Queenwood House a brickyard was in use
in 1806; it was removed between 1885 and
1899. (fn. 97)
Bowood in 1843: from the map on page 28
Bowood liberty had a small north-eastern
protrusion taking in Buck Hill. A cottage of
dressed stone and a school with mullioned windows and carved bargeboards were built there
in the earlier 19th century. (fn. 98) Both buildings
were standing in 2000.
ESTATES
What became Bowood liberty belonged to the Crown in the Middle Ages as part
of Chippenham forest. (fn. 99) About 1618 that part
of the forest, including woodland accounted
404 a. or 496 a., was inclosed by the king as
BOWOOD park, which was apparently roughly
conterminous with the later liberty. (fn. 1) Within the
new park lay lands formerly assarted from the
forest, with the owners of which the king compounded. The largest assart was apparently
that assessed at 82 a. in the north-west part of
the park for which the king had compounded
with Mervyn Tuchet, earl of Castlehaven, by
1619. (fn. 2) It was later claimed successfully that the
king had inclosed Abbot's Waste, c. 50 a. in the
south corner of the park, without compounding
with the tenant in demesne. (fn. 3)
Bowood park was retained by the Crown until 1727, when it was bought by the tenant, Sir
Orlando Bridgeman, Bt. (d. 1738 or 1745),
who had a son Francis (d. s.p. 1740). Under a
Chancery decree of 1739 the park and Bowood
House, which Sir Orlando had built on it, were
acquired by Richard Long, Sir Orlando's principal creditor, who sold them in 1754 to John
Petty, earl of Shelburne (d. 1761). Petty devised them to his wife Mary, who in 1761 or
1762 conveyed them to her son William Petty,
earl of Shelburne (cr. marquess of Lansdowne
1784, d. 1805). (fn. 4) Bowood House and its park
passed in turn to William's sons John, marquess of Lansdowne (d. 1809), and Henry,
marquess of Lansdowne (d. 1863), who in 1818
adopted the surname Petty-Fitzmaurice and in
1845 owned the whole liberty. (fn. 5) From 1863 the
house and park descended with the marquessate in the direct line to Henry (d. 1866), Henry
(d. 1927), Henry (d. 1936), and Charles (d.
1944). Charles's heir was his cousin George
Mercer Nairne (from 1947 George Mercer
Nairne Petty-Fitzmaurice), marquess of Lansdowne (d. 1999). In 1999 Bowood House and
park belonged to George's son Charles PettyFitzmaurice, marquess of Lansdowne, and
trustees of his family. (fn. 6)
Bowood House was built by Sir Orlando
Bridgeman probably c. 1727, the year in which
he bought the inheritance in fee of the park. (fn. 7) It
was probably built on or near the site of, and
presumably replaced, Lower Lodge, a house
which in 1650 stood in the park and was described as old. (fn. 8) Bowood House, apparently
built of rendered stone, was of two storeys and
a half and had a basement. Its main front, to
the south, was plain: it incorporated tall sashed
windows, a central pedimented doorcase, and
parapets which hid the roof. East and west
wings, both two bays wide, projected south by
one bay and flanked a centre of seven bays; only
one of the wings projected northwards. The
basement lay under the seven central bays,
probably extended under the east wing, and
possibly extended under the west wing. To the
north-west, lying east-west along the north
boundary of the walled ground surrounding the
house, there was an apparently contemporary
building of two storeys and attics. It consisted
of a pedimented coach house with to the east
seven and to the west eight bays of stables and
service rooms. (fn. 9)
When John, earl of Shelburne, bought
Bowood House in 1754 it may already have appeared old fashioned, and some interior fittings,
including a grand staircase, were incomplete.
Lord Shelburne engaged the architect Henry
Keene, who directed work on the house until
1761, the year in which Lord Shelburne died.
By 1755 the second of the wings had been extended northwards and the house thus given an
H plan. The elevations were altered in Baroque
style, the most distinctive changes being the
addition of a high balustraded parapet, of an
octostyle Roman Doric portico, with two rows
of columns and a pediment, in the central five
bays of the south front, and of a full-height
canted bay on the south front of each of the
wings. The whole south front was faced in
ashlar, probably when the canted bays and the
portico were built; the other fronts apparently
remained rendered. North-west of the house
the service range was demolished and a new one
built of dressed stone in Palladian style. The
new building, almost three times as long as the
south front of the house, had an E plan with the
open courts to the south; three-storeyed towers
with pyramid roofs stood at its north-east and
north-west corners and terminated the east and
west wings to the south. The south elevation of
the central wing had a tall niche and a columned
cupola; all the elevations facing the courts had
pilasters between arch-headed openings on the
ground floor. Service rooms were ranged
around the east court, stables and coach houses
around the west. The kitchen was moved from
the main house to a vaulted basement at the
south end of the east wing of the service building and was linked to the house by a tunnel. (fn. 10)
Between 1761 and 1770 work on Bowood
House was carried out to designs by Robert
Adam. Between 1761 and 1763 the portico was
altered and a porch was built on the west front.
A drawing room and a room called the cube
room had been built between the wings on the
north front by 1763, probably to designs by
Adam. Inside the house Adam altered the entrance hall and the north-east ground-floor
rooms by raising their ceilings and apparently
designed the east staircase. Between 1768 and
1770 two nine-bayed ranges were built between
the south ends of the three wings of the service
building, thus enclosing the courts; the long
range consisting of the two new ranges and the
ends of the three wings, altogether of 25 bays,
was called the Diocletian wing, Adam, in designing its south front, having been inspired by
features of Diocletian's palace at Spalato (Split,
Croatia). (fn. 11) The south faôades of the east and
west wings were retained, and Adam varied the
rhythm of the whole composition by applying a
pedimented portico to the south front of the
central wing and by making each central bay of
the new ranges taller than the others and giving
them attached columns. The central nine bays
of the Diocletian wing were occupied by a
greenhouse (later called the Orangery) lit by
full-length arched windows. The bays between
the greenhouse and the south-east and southwest towers had smaller arched windows. On
the east the windows lit a room used as a laboratory from the 1770s to the 1790s and a library;
there was a supper room in the east tower. On
the west there was a menagerie, the central bay
was an open arch to the stable court, and the
windows were false. The arch was closed when
a garden terrace was laid out in 1818, and the
windows were made genuine in 1980. (fn. 12)
Bowood House from the south-west in 1806
In the 1760s the accommodation of the main
house was supplemented by the library, by the
supper room, and by rooms in the east wing of
the service building converted to living rooms.
An octagonal staircase hall and an ante-room
were built, almost certainly to Adam's design,
as part of an apparently incomplete link between the east wing and the north-west corner
of the main house; to complete the link a drawing room was built in 1775 under the direction
of James White, formerly an assistant to
Adam. (fn. 13) The main house was later called the
Big House, the east wing the Little House.
In 1823, to designs by C. R. Cockerell, the
four bays of the central wing of the service
building adjoining the greenhouse were converted to a chapel, and Cockerell designed the
redecoration of the library between 1821 and
1824; the painted medallions on the coffered
ceiling of the library may have been added in
1842. Between 1830 and 1833 the west part of
the Big House, and the supper room in the
tower at the east end of the Diocletian wing
which became an eastern extension of the library,
were altered to designs by Charles Barry. An
entrance hall, approached through the porch
built between 1761 and 1763, was made in the
Big House, and at its north end led to a new
staircase hall built to replace the octagonal one;
the staircase hall led in turn to a new gallery,
built along its west side and along the west side
of the ante-room built between 1768 and 1770
and of the drawing room built in 1775; the gallery opened directly into the old supper room
and thus gave access between the Big House
and the Diocletian wing without the need to
enter the drawing room. A staircase was built in
the angle of the Diocletian wing and the Little
House to provide access between the kitchen
and a dining room in the Little House; (fn. 14) it was
demolished in 1955. (fn. 15) A wooden clock tower
above the chapel, perhaps surviving from the
18th century, was replaced in 1860 by a stone
one designed by Barry. (fn. 16)
In 1955 the Big House and the buildings
linking it to the Little House and the Diocletian
wing were demolished. To designs by F.
Sortain Samuels, based on proposals made in
1947 by Philip Tilden, the Little House, which
in 1955 contained private apartments, was converted to a self-contained house. It is entered
by a new door from the east courtyard, and a
central staircase in 18th-century style was constructed in it. Fittings from the Big House were
re-used in it: they included the chimneypiece
apparently designed by Adam for the drawing
room, which was moved to the library. Other
fittings from the Big House were re-used in the
chapel; most were dispersed. The chapel and
most of the Diocletian wing were opened to the
public in 1975, and in the period 1978-80 the
west wing of the old service building was converted to a restaurant, a shop, and exhibition
rooms, the west end of the Diocletian wing to a
sculpture gallery. (fn. 17)
The south front of the house built for Sir
Orlando Bridgeman opened on to a raised terrace which lay within a rectangular walled
forecourt. In the lower part of the forecourt lay
a circle of pathway, and there was a gate in the
centre of each side. The south gate stood in a
curved projection of the forecourt. The east led
to an area in which there was a raised terrace
along the side of the house, a lawn below the
terrace, and below that a rectangular pool fed
by the Whetham stream; north and south of the
pool the stream flowed through wooded areas
with formal walks and serpentine paths. The
west gate led to a long walled court bounded to
the north by the service building. An avenue
led north from the house. (fn. 18) By 1754 part of the
avenue, and probably some of the formal features
around the house, had been removed, and between 1754 and 1763 the walls of a large square
kitchen garden were built north of the service
building, and the garden was divided by walls
into quarters. (fn. 19) The walls, of stone and brick,
survived in 1999, when the north-west quarter
contained greenhouses built c. 1900 and later (fn. 20)
and the south-east quarter contained a tennis
court and a swimming pool. In 1999 the buildings of a laundry court west of the service
building were mainly 19th-century.
Bowood House was built in a park of c. 940 a.
partly used for agriculture in 1754. (fn. 21) In 1762
William, earl of Shelburne, commissioned
Lancelot Brown to alter the landscape around
the house, and arable farming in the park
ceased soon afterwards. Brown presented his
designs in 1763, and by 1768 most of them had
been executed. To extend the park eastwards
and south-eastwards Lord Shelburne acquired
land, mostly east of the Whetham stream, by
purchase and exchange between 1765 and 1767.
In 1766 the stream was dammed to make a long
north-south lake east of the house, and south of
the house a tributary formed a spur of the lake.
North of the house an arboretum was begun
within pleasure grounds bounded by a haha. In
some places in the park the level of the ground
was altered; west of the house field boundaries
were removed, rides were disrupted, stands of
trees were left, and the stands were supplemented
by clumps planted on grassland. All but c. 75 a.
of the woodland standing in the early 17th century had been removed by 1754. Under
Brown's direction woodland protecting the
north side of the house was kept, plantations in
the west part of the park were extended, and a
belt of trees was planted along the west part of
the park's northern boundary to link the plantations to the woodland north of the house.
Abbot's waste, in the south corner of the park,
was bought by Lord Shelburne in 1769. A
mausoleum for John, earl of Shelburne (d.
1761), was built in woodland on high ground in
the west part of the park to designs by Robert
Adam and was completed c. 1765. (fn. 22) It was designed in an austere Roman Doric style and
stands on the plan of a Greek cross. Its centre is
crowned by an hemispherical dome, and its
arms are formed by a portico on the east side
and lower projections on the other sides. (fn. 23) Its
main part is a chapel, which houses a sarcophagus
designed by Agostino Carlini, completed in the
mid 1770s, and containing the remains of Lord
Shelburne and his wife. (fn. 24) Beneath the chapel,
and reached by a ramp on the west side of the
building, is a vault containing 51 burial niches. (fn. 25)
A Doric temple had been built north of the
kitchen garden by 1778; (fn. 26) the designer is unknown, and the building was moved to the east
side of the lake in 1864. (fn. 27) About 1785, under the
direction of Josiah Lane of Tisbury, a rockwork
cascade was built north of the dam at the north
end of the lake, and a grotto was built east of
it. (fn. 28) A rockwork cascade at the south end of the
lake is of similar date. (fn. 29) On the west shore of
the lake a half-timbered boathouse in a picturesque style was built apparently between 1847
and 1885. (fn. 30)
The immediate surroundings of Bowood
House were transformed in the 19th century.
In 1818 a formal garden terrace designed by
Robert Smirke was laid out along the whole
south front of the Diocletian wing; the terrace
blocked basement windows at the east end of
the wing, and the carriage arch towards the
west end was closed. In 1851-3 a lower parallel
terrace, adjoining the higher terrace and the
west front of the Big House and with a small
Italianate pavilion at its south-west corner, was
made to designs by George Kennedy. (fn. 31) By 1857
Italianate gardens had been laid out on both
terraces. (fn. 32) Yews were planted c. 1900, and both
terraces were extended a little eastwards after
the Big House and the linking buildings were
demolished in 1955. The pavilion was destroyed
by falling trees in 1990. (fn. 33) In the angle of the Big
House and the Little House a garden terrace,
extending along the whole east front of the
Little House, was made in 1865-6, (fn. 34) and steps
were built to link it to the east front of the
drawing room built in 1775. (fn. 35) The three terraces
survived in 1999. A forecourt made in front of
the Big House in 1851-3 to designs by Kennedy
and incorporating iron gates and recumbent
lions (fn. 36) was destroyed with the house in 1955;
the gates were re-used at the east and west ends
of the yard between the service building and the
walled kitchen garden, the lions on the terrace
made in 1851-3.
North of the kitchen garden, near the arboretum, a pinetum, in which trees indigenous to
the same parts of the world were grouped together, was planted in 1848-9. (fn. 37) In woodland
near the mausoleum many rhododendrons were
planted in the 1850s and after the Second
World War. (fn. 38)
As inclosed c. 1618 Bowood park had seven
gates, Mannings Hill and Cuff's on the southeast, Horselpride at the north end of Sandy
Lane, Loxfield Heath between Sandy Lane and
Derry Hill, Redhill (or Derry) at the west end
of Derry Hill, Studley towards the east end of
Derry Hill, and Buckhill on the north-east. (fn. 39) In
the earlier 19th century lodges and other buildings were erected in picturesque styles at or
near the entrances to the park, and in 1999
lodges stood at or near the sites of all but the
first two of those early 17th-century gates. After
the alterations made to the park in the 1760s the
two main entrances became those at its northwest and south-east corners, each giving access
to and from the London-Bristol road. (fn. 40) At and
near the north-western entrance, that at the
west end of Derry Hill, a stone cottage which
may have been a lodge, and other stone cottages
in a consistent picturesque style, were built in
the earlier or mid 19th century, after a new
course for the London road had been built
away from the north boundary of the park. (fn. 41) A
new gateway, the Golden Gate, consisting of a
triumphal arch and belvedere, was built in
Italianate style c. 1841 to designs by Charles
Barry; (fn. 42) a lodge in similar style was added later.
About 1766 the park was extended southeastwards, and the height of the dam across the
Whetham stream was fixed to make the tail of
the new lake lie at the new boundary. (fn. 43) The
road from the north end of Sandy Lane to
Calne was diverted to the new south edge of
the park east of Cuff's Corner, and from the
south end of the lake a new road was built in
1774 to replace two older roads and to run
north-eastwards to meet the Calne-Devizes
road via Heddington Wick c. 1 km. south of
Calne. A plan made in the 1760s for a drive
from Bowood House to approach one of the
older roads by crossing the lake on a long
bridge, which Robert Adam designed, was
aborted. A new bridge was built at the south
end of the lake with balustrades which survive;
it has a single arch to the south and a small cascade in a rockwork face to the north. The road
from the north end of Sandy Lane to the
Heddington Wick road went out of public use
as a road in 1790-1 when the Whetham road
was built as part of an alternative turnpiked
road linking Calne to Melksham and Devizes.
By 1828 two new sections of road had been
made, one between the main front of Bowood
House and the south end of the lake, and one
from the Melksham road to the London road
between Calne and Quemerford, and the road
built in 1774 and those two new sections were
then in use as a private road to enable traffic
between London and Bowood House to avoid
Calne. (fn. 44) By 1843 three picturesque lodges had
been built beside it. Pond Tail lodge, where the
road left the park, was apparently altered in the
later 19th century and, simply built, is of
squared stone rubble. The other two lodges
were built in the earlier 19th century. Pillars
Lodge, where in 1999 the 19th-century piers
for the gates on the road serving Bowood House
survived on both sides of the crossing of the
Melksham and Devizes road, is in Tudor style
with carved bargeboards; the lodge at the junction with the London road, where by 1843
Wessington Avenue had been planted to embellish the approach from London, is in Gothick
style. (fn. 45) The entrance to the park at Mannings
Hill was drowned by the lake; its site was near
that where, on the east shore, a cottage was
standing in 1776 (fn. 46) and was replaced by one
built, in a picturesque Tudor style with carved
bargeboards, in the early 19th century. Also in
the earlier 19th century a picturesque lodge of
stone and stone slates and with fretted bargeboards, and other picturesque cottages of
ironstone and thatch, were built at the north
end of Sandy Lane at or near the entrance to
the park, (fn. 47) and Kennels Lodge, of stone, singlestoreyed, and in a picturesque Tudor style, (fn. 48)
was built off the Chippenham-Devizes road on
or near the site of Loxfield Heath gate. (fn. 49) Those
on the north edge of the park were apparently
service entrances. At that towards the east end of
Derry Hill, Studley Lodge, a plain two-storeyed
house of stone rubble with ashlar dressings and
a stone-slated roof, was built c. 1800 facing the
park. That entrance to the park may have become more important from when, in 1839-40, a
church was built at Derry Hill. (fn. 50) East of it a
road between Bowood House and the London
road through Buckhill gate was presumably
much used for transporting goods from when,
in 1873, Black Dog halt was built nearby; a pair
of stone lodges, each on an L plan and with a
diagonally set porch in the angle of the projection
wing and a side wing, was built between 1843
and 1885 at the junction of the two roads. (fn. 51)
In 1260 the king gave 40 a. of Chippenham
forest to Lacock abbey with liberty to inclose
it. (fn. 52) The land, later called ABBOT'S WASTE,
passed back to the Crown in 1539 when the abbey
was dissolved, (fn. 53) and in 1540 was granted with
Lacock manor to Sir William Sharington (fn. 54) (d.
1553). Abbot's Waste, 59 a. in 1653, evidently
passed with the manor in turn to Sir William's
brother Henry (fn. 55) (d. 1581) and Henry's daughter Olive (fn. 56) (d. 1646), the wife of John Talbot (d.
1581) and of Sir Robert Stapleton (d. 1606). It
passed to her grandson Sharington Talbot (d.
1677) and presumably to Sharington's son Sir
John (d. 1714) and Sir John's grandson John
Ivory Talbot (d. 1772) in turn. (fn. 57) In 1769 John
Ivory Talbot's son John sold it to William, earl
of Shelburne, and, as part of its park, it has
since belonged to the owner of Bowood House. (fn. 58)
The tithes of Chippenham forest were taken
by Salisbury cathedral from the 12th century,
apparently by grant of the Crown as owner of
the land, (fn. 59) and the dean and chapter held the
tithes arising from Bowood park in the 17th
century and later. (fn. 60) In the 1630s the vicar of
Calne claimed tithe of wood and other small
tithes from the park. (fn. 61) Although what was apparently another claim was successfully
contested in the mid 17th century, (fn. 62) perhaps as
a result of a compromise then the vicar was
later entitled to all the tithes from one of the
assarts imparked c. 1618; in the earlier 19th
century £5 a year in respect of those tithes was
paid by prescription. The dean and chapter's
tithes from the park were valued at £100 in
1845 and commuted in 1847; the payment to
the vicar was converted to a rent charge in
1847. (fn. 63)
ECONOMIC HISTORY
In the Middle Ages
what became Bowood liberty, as part of
Chippenham forest, was presumably woodland
and woody ground and open to the sheep and
cattle of the men of villages with land adjoining
it. (fn. 64) By the early 17th century land, perhaps c.
100 a., had been assarted, presumably for agriculture, and in 1612 there was 404 a. of
woodland in three coppices in what became the
liberty; Home hill, 92 a., may have been a
fourth coppice. The park inclosed c. 1618 was
of c. 990 a. and included those lands and
Abbot's Waste; (fn. 65) no right to common feeding
on it is known to have existed after that time.
In Bowood park in 1650 there were 12,681
trees, of which 4,423 were timber trees; 168 of
the trees stood in Abbot's Waste. The trees
stood in five coppices, 172 a., and in six parts of
the park described as aldermoors, c. 120 a. The
trees in one of the coppices were felled in 1650,
cattle and horses feeding in the park were preventing new growth in 1651, and in 1653 there
were 10,921 trees including those on Abbot's
Waste, 59 a. There were 450 deer in the park in
1650; in 1652 the number was said to have been
reduced to 30. It was alleged in 1660 that most
of the trees standing in 1644 had been felled, (fn. 66)
and by 1754 all but c. 75 a. of the woodland had
been removed and most of the park was apparently being used for agriculture. In 1754 there
were four farmsteads in the park, much of
which had been divided into regularly shaped
closes; the farmsteads stood on the sites of
buildings later called Home Farm, Home Farm
Cottages, Queenwood House, and the Osprey. (fn. 67)
In 1763 Abbot's Waste lay mainly as six closes,
in one of which stood a farm building. (fn. 68)
By 1762-3, when alterations to the landscape
of the park began, the farmland, besides that of
Abbot's Waste, had presumably been brought
in hand, and in the 1760s field boundaries were
removed and the area of woodland increased. (fn. 69)
Thereafter farming in the park was based at
Lodge (later Home) Farm, ploughing ceased,
and the grassland was grazed mainly by sheep. (fn. 70)
Between 1765 and 1767 the park was enlarged
to c. 1,075 a. by the addition of land east and
south-east of the liberty, and in 1769 the owner
of the park bought Abbot's Waste. (fn. 71) In 1770
there were 839 sheep, 15 cows, and 44 other
cattle kept in the park, in which in 1794 there
were 508 a. of meadows and pasture, 66 a. of
old woodland, and 378 a. of plantations of less
than 30 years' growth. In 1805 the park contained c. 115 a. of gardens, pleasure grounds,
and water, and 475 a. of woodland. (fn. 72) In 1806
the rest, 455 a. including 116 a. of arable, was
offered as agricultural land to be let. (fn. 73) Much
timber was felled between 1805 and 1809. (fn. 74)
About 1810 all the agricultural land, then 547 a.
and including 132 a. of arable, lay in a single
tenanted farm. (fn. 75)
In 1845 Bowood park comprised c. 750 a. in
hand and a tenanted farm of 321 a. The land in
hand included 400 a. of woodland, a deer park
of 106 a. south of Bowood House, c. 150 a. of
pleasure grounds and water near the house, and
45 a. of arable in Abbot's Waste. (fn. 76) In 1851 there
were c. 275 deer in the park; numbers fell in the
First World War and the herd ceased to exist in
1927. (fn. 77) In the late 19th century and the 20th
game birds were reared near Kennels Lodge. (fn. 78)
All the woodland standing in 1845 survived in
2000, when it was used for commercial forestry
and there were again deer in the park. (fn. 79) The
321-a. farm in 1845 included 136 a. of arable
and 174 a. of pasture; it was worked from Home
Farm, and the farmer apparently lived in
Queenwood House. (fn. 80) In 1852 it had 188 a. of
arable and 120 a. of pasture and was in poor
condition. (fn. 81) A herd of Kerry cattle was kept in
the park for several years from 1895, and a herd
of Angus and Galloway crosses was started in
1914. (fn. 82) In the late 20th century there was no
arable in the park, about half of which was
grassland, in hand, and part of a large arable,
sheep, and dairy holding worked from Home
Farm. The grassland in the park was used
mainly to feed sheep, and in 2000 a flock of c.
650 was kept on it. (fn. 83)
Part of Bowood House and of its gardens and
park were opened to the public commercially in
1975. A shop, a restaurant, and an adventure
playground were opened, and a garden centre
was built. (fn. 84) In 1992 c. 125 a. in the west part of
the park was converted from agriculture to a
golf course, Home Farm was converted to the
club house, and a large farm building was
moved from Home Farm to the north end of
Sandy Lane. The home farm of the Bowood
estate was worked partly from that building
until, by 2001, all its land outside the park had
been leased. (fn. 85)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Paupers living or
born in Bowood park and at Mannings Hill,
Cuff's Corner, Buck Hill, and part of Red 'Hill
were relieved by Calne parish until the mid
17th century, from when, by agreement following a dispute over tithes between the principal
inhabitant of the park and the vicar of Calne,
the inhabitants of the park and those other
places relieved their own poor. From c. 1706
the principal inhabitant of the park refused to
pay for such relief. In 1709 the justices ordered
him to do so and declared that all those places
were part of Bowood and not of Calne parish. (fn. 86)
Later the boundary between the liberty and the
parish took in Buck Hill, was otherwise defined
as that of the park, and excluded all but a few
cottages of the other adjoining settlements. (fn. 87) In
the 1770s and 1780s the poor of the liberty were
relieved apparently at the sole expense of Lord
Shelburne. Weekly doles of 1s.-4s. were given
to 8-12 paupers, miscellaneous goods and services were occasionally paid for, and the relief
of the poor cost £40-£50 a year. (fn. 88) In the early
19th century overseers apparently acted jointly
for Bowood and Pewsham, which, like Bowood,
was extra-parochial. (fn. 89) From 1831 to 1834 expenditure on the poor of Bowood averaged £50.
In 1835 Bowood liberty, but not Pewsham,
joined Calne poor-law union. (fn. 90)
EDUCATION
From 1773 children living in
Bowood liberty probably attended Cowage
school. (fn. 91) A school in the liberty was built at
Buck Hill in 1814: besides those living in the
liberty it was attended by children from Derry
Hill, Sandy Lane, and Studley. In 1833 it had
72 pupils and incorporated a teacher's house
and a small lending library. (fn. 92) It was attended
by c. 80 pupils in 1859. (fn. 93) In the later 1860s
clothing was given to each pupil; boys were required to work in the school garden, girls in the
master's house. (fn. 94) In 1892 the school was closed
and the children were transferred to schools at
Derry Hill and Chittoe. (fn. 95)