Landscape record 0794800000 - Wakefield Lodge

A deer park is first recorded in the vicinity of Wakefield Lodge in 1230. Whittlewood Forest formed part of the Honor of Grafton (created by Henry VIII in 1541). An enclosed park is shown on Saxton’s map of 1576, and a map of c1608 shows a forest keeper’s lodge to the south of a triangular fishpond. The most striking feature was Wakefield Lawn which had been enlarged around 1600 by James I and was enveloped by woodland. The lawn was overlooked by Wakefield Great Lodge, a royal hunting lodge which became the residence of the keeper, and then the lieutenant of the forest. In about 1670 the Honor of Grafton was granted to Queen Catherine, and following her death in 1705 it passed to Charles Fitzroy, the second Duke of Grafton. He and his heirs were made Wardens of Whittlewood Forest from 1712. In 1747 the second Duke commenced extensive improvements which turned Wakefield into a handsome country seat. A large northern wing designed by William Kent (c.1685-1748) was added to the house, and a stable block was built on the east side of the house. Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-83) was engaged to landscape the park at Wakefield Lodge following William Kent’s death in 1748, having previously worked with Kent at nearby Stowe, where Brown was still employed.
There is no commissioned plan for Brown’s work at Wakefield Lodge but the estate accounts in August 1749 record the Great Pond being staked out by Robert Greening. This was achieved by substantial enlargement of the triangular medieval fishpond to the north of the house. Brown built an earth and stone dam in order to raise the water level in the valley by 25 feet, and in 1754 he created another smaller lake to the east of the dam which was fed by the Great Pond. Brown enhanced Wakefield Lawn by adding perspective and punctuating its expanse using his characteristic clumps of trees. He bought in beech trees and had laurels sent over from Stowe. Vistas were created by cutting a view through Hill Coppice from The Pheasantry to focus on the church spire at Hanslope; and existing ridings through to Hallow’s Brook were made broader in order to open two more vistas to the villages of Grafton Regis and Potterspury. The road running from the Lodge through Steer Coppice was extended further eastwards to form the main approach from Potterspury.
In the mid-C19, when Whittlewood was disafforested and enclosed, the 5th Duke of Grafton was allotted Wakefield Lodge and grounds as compensation for his loss of office as Keeper of Whittlewood. Around this time a new dairy farm was built to the north-east of the main house, and detailed accounts record that a kitchen garden was built to the east in the 1860s. The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1884 shows the garden divided by paths into four sections, and the second edition map of 1900 shows a gardener’s cottage built into the north-east corner. A vista was created running for more than a mile westwards from the house, on the same axis as the eastern approach from Potterspury. Remnants of a more formal landscape survive which mapping suggests may also have been a largely Victorian creation. The ha-ha in front of the house is not shown on maps until the 1884 OS map which depicts a hexagonal feature within the semi-circle; and to the west of the house is a series of formal parterres (B1).
Wakefield Lodge Park was added to Historic England's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens in 2017. Mostly within Northamptonshire, with a small part extending into Buckinghamshire.