ST8890 : Eagle Lodge
taken 5 years ago, near to Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire, England
Estcourt Park was developed from the late 18th century through into the mid-19th century as the setting for a country house which was demolished in 1964. The estate, which had been in the possession of the Estcourt family since 1303, was sold by T. Sotheran-Estcourt in 1996.
Estcourt Park covers 87 ha of land south of Tetbury and north-east of Shipton Moynelies 2km south-east of Tetbury, and to the west of the county boundary with Wiltshire. The River Avon, which was dammed to create a lake, flows from west to east in a deep wooded valley through the north side of the site, culminating in Shipton Mill, a working flour mill.
The site of Estcourt House lies roughly at the centre of its irregularly shaped park, the elevated position on the summit of a knoll having afforded long views to the north towards the spire of Tetbury church. Formal gardens were in existence by 1805, but the formal parterre, with four grass plats around a central circular fountain shown on mid-20th century photographs, may have been the formal garden mentioned in the estate records as having been laid out in the mid-19th century with the assistance of Elizabeth Bouverie.
To the west of the house site is a complex of estate buildings set within grassed enclosures and yards. The buildings include the former Bailiff's House, built in Tudor-Gothic style in 1854 and enlarged in the later 19th century. Of random coursed stone, its roof is tiled in fish-scale pattern with the estate's tiles. The urns on the gateway which stands to the north served to decorate the mansion and were moved here on its demolition. The buildings between the Bailiff's House and the site of the former mansion include a set of animal shelters, a small barn, the former coach house, and the main stable block to the north of the latter, which is dated 1781.
Beyond the estate buildings, lay the kitchen gardens, two walled enclosures divided by the drive to Manor Farm which still passes between their high stone walls flanked by grass verges. Walnut Cottage stands in its own garden enclosure to the south.
The mid-19th century Eagle Lodge, so named because of the sculpted figures of eagles which surmount the square gate piers, stands 1.3 km to the south-west of the house site, set back from the public road which runs south from the A433 to Shipton Moyne.
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