Site Description of Wrest Park

The dominant structure on the site is the rebuilt house of the 1830s, a tour de force of French seventeenth-century style architecture, a double-pile building of two storeys over vaulted basements, with attics contained within mansard roofs.

The building contains numerous elements of the original rococo plasterwork, notably in the entrance hall, and other important elements of decoration in the state rooms of the garden front, though other rooms, notably in the north front have suffered from modern institutional partitioning and the insertion of other historical elements.

Particularly notable on the first floor are survivals of Chinese and French block wallpapers. The extensive service buildings to the east of the main house, plainer and showing less French influence, are contemporary with the house.

To the south of the Wrest Park House lie the Formal and Great Gardens. These occupy about 40 hectares and are laid out predominantly on a north-south axis from the house, with further axial components running east-west, incorporating vistas beyond the gardens. Although the gardens appear to form a unified design due to these strong axial lines, much of the garden design to the north of the Horseshoe Lawns dates from the 1830s onwards, whilst those areas to the south of the Horseshoe Lawns formed the original formal woodland gardens and canals pre-dating the rebuilding of the House.

A raised terrace gives views from the garden front of the House across Earl de Grey’s French Gardens, with their low planted parterres and display of statuary. The formal parterres are divided from the lawns to the south by decorative railings, original to the design.

To the immediate west of the House lies the Italian Garden, also formal and set within stone kerbed beds. The planting here is not original to the design and has been chosen for easy maintenance. The Italian Garden forms a direct axial link between the interior of the house, the Conservatory, and through a gateway allowing views into the walled garden.

The walled garden retains several important architectural features, notably the ornamented gateways for different users, and the cottage for the Head Gardener, facing the approach from the Silsoe Lodges.

To the south of the French Garden parterres, beyond the decorative railings, lie the South Lawns, bisected by a wide gravel walk and leading to the focal point of the fountain (not functioning) and statuary. A cross path leads west to the Orangery, and continues a short distance to the east. This would have continued to the Atlas Pond but both pond and path are now obscured, although the Atlas Statue remains.

To the east of the French Garden lies the area of lawn which contains the Petit Trianon, whilst to the east of the South Lawns lies the Old Orchard. These areas are less formal than the main south axis. Also outside this main north-south formal axis is the Bath House Grounds, situated to the west of the Orangery.

This pattern of formal axis with independent features located on the periphery is typical of many of the post-1730s features at Wrest, including the Chinese Temple, Mithraic Altar and Bath House Gardens. The current gravelled Broadwalk marks the original south terrace walk of the old house. To the south of this is a sundial which has been in this location since the eighteenth century, although now surrounded by later statuary.

Below-ground archaeology is readily visible in this area of the lawns, and some of the features that made up the original eighteenth century formal gardens around the old house are also visible in the Horseshoe Lawns, most notably the large circular basins. The Horseshoe Lawns are currently laid out as croquet lawns.

To the east of the Horseshoe Lawns lies the Victorian arboretum (Great Grounds), which continues the informality of the Old Orchard, but is divided from this by the remains of an eighteenth century yew hedge. To the west lies an area of formal garden known as the American Garden and a statue, known as the Hunting Scene. This is surrounded by post-1917 Atlas cedars.

To the south of the Hunting Scene (although visually separate) lie the eighteenth century Bowling Green House and Green, with re-planted hedges.

To the south of the Horseshoe Lawns and Bowling Green lies the Great Garden or Woodland Garden, designed symmetrically either side of the Long Canal and continuing the north-south axis, with the Archer Pavilion the focal point at the south end. The Great Gardens are predominantly mixed deciduous woodland intersected by a series of (now grassed) ‘rides’, some defined by evergreen hedging.

Within the gardens are a series of openings accessed from the walks and rides. These are visually separate ‘events’ which contain features and statuary of eighteenth century and later date. Although the original layout appears to have contained mirror features in the west and east parts of the gardens, later additions have not continued this symmetry. In the later eighteenth century de-formalisation of the areas to the south and southwest of the Archer Pavilion included the introduction of a hermitage and a Mithraic Altar.

The Great Garden is surrounded by the encircling waters, which originated in the straight canals.