Bowden Park, Lacock

Bowden Park is a neoclassical country house on Bowden Hill, east of Lacock, built in 1796 by James Wyatt for Barnard Dickinson. It is listed Grade I, and the listing calls Wyatt's interiors outstanding. It is a private home, seen from the public footpath across its parkland.

History

The house on this site before Wyatt's was a late seventeenth-century one built for G. Johnson. In 1751 the estate was sold to E. Dickinson of Monks Park, near Corsham, and the house was rebuilt in 1796 for his son Barnard, who died in 1814.

The architect

James Wyatt was one of the leading architects of the late eighteenth century, and the house appeared in the New Vitruvius Britannicus of 1819, a survey of fine British houses. Historic England's listing singles out his interiors as outstanding, with the original plasterwork complete, marble fireplaces and mahogany doors.

The Gladstones

The estate passed to the Dickinson Harmer family and in 1849 was sold to Captain J. N. Gladstone (1807 to 1863), the brother of the prime minister W. E. Gladstone. The Lacock walk leaflet says he was the elder brother. The house was extended for him in about 1850, with a wing on the south side that included an orangery. In about 1955 the Victorian additions were cut back and remodelled by K. Peacock, and a matching rear wing on the north side seems to date from the same years.

What to see

The front is what you see from the path: two storeys of smooth ashlar, five windows wide, under low-pitched slate roofs. The middle three bays swell out into a semicircular bow that rises the full height of the house, fronted by massive free-standing Ionic columns carrying a continuous entablature and a low parapet. The bow stands on five stone steps, with three French windows on the ground floor and three sash windows above. The corners of the house are marked by broad piers. To the south, the Victorian extension has its own two-storey bow.

The interiors, which the listing praises most, cannot be seen.

Visiting

Bowden Park is private. There is no public access to the house or gardens, but a public footpath crosses the parkland and gives a view of the front. Keep to the path, close gates, and keep dogs on a lead where there is livestock. The path is grass and field, on the slopes of Bowden Hill, so expect mud after rain.

Getting there

The house is on Bowden Hill, about 2km east of the middle of Lacock. On foot, the road east from the village crosses the Avon on Lacock Bridge towards Bowden Hill; check an Ordnance Survey map for the footpath across the park. Park in the National Trust car park on Hither Way in Lacock (satnav SN15 2RQ), free to members. The nearest railway stations are Melksham, about 5km away, and Chippenham, about 6km.

Nearby

North of the park, the rewatered stretch of the Wilts & Berks Canal runs below Naish Hill. Back in the village, St Cyriac's Church and Lacock Abbey are the obvious next stops, and The Red Lion and The George Inn serve food.