In this area, the value of repair and management plans is being recognised increasingly by landowners and estate managers. Approaches to the conservation of designed landscapes based upon research and survey are therefore aligned closely with methodologies for the assessment of archaeological remains and the vegetational history of a site, and with the analysis of historic buildings. English Heritage encourages and contributes towards the cost of plans prepared in conjunction with the Countryside Stewardship scheme as well as our own grants for the repair and restoration of historic parks and gardens. Plans are essential for defining the conservation issues and ensuring that proposals for repair, restoration, and management pay due regard to the historic dimension of the landscape. Two recent projects which have benefited from substantial English Heritage funding illustrate our approach and demonstrate the value of landscape research.
A restoration management plan for Rockingham Castle has brought together available archaeological and ecological surveys. These aspects of study, together with a survey of the historical development of the Grade II* registered park, confirm the historical significance of Rockingham Park. A section of the Big Park is still in existence as parkland, originating from the medieval deer park (founded by 1256). There is an extraordinary continuity of ownership: for 450 years Rockingham Castle and park lay within the ownership of the Crown, and for a further 450 years it has been in the possession of the Watson family.
The pattern of land use and the history of settlements from the Roman period to the present day illustrate the classic development of a village overlooked by a stronghold. The medieval village which developed around the castle supported an economic and seigniorial system attested by field patterns, pillow mounds, and a hunting park with associated lodge and fishponds. After the depredations of the Civil War the village which had developed since the medieval period was relocated outside the castle precincts and detached from the castle and church by land engrossed into the park. The parkland boundary has changed little since. The layout, structure, and main views were not overlain by informal eighteenth-century improvements or later ornamental planting. Significant numbers of mature trees survive from the early seventeenth century.
A similar picture of the influence of the medieval deer park can be seen at Muncaster Castle, Cumbria, designated a Grade II* registered parkland. Despite the destruction of some estate papers in the past, a large amount of uncatalogued information still exists at Muncaster. While further historical research might extend our knowledge of specific periods of the landscape development, available information highlights the development of an original medieval deer park landscaped in the eighteenth century. The `landscape' park was initially laid out by Joseph Pennington (at Muncaster 1768-1783) using the area of the `Great Park', a deer park in existence by 1528 which lay to the west of the Castle.
Eighteenth-century leases refer to other areas of `park' which may have been later medieval deer parks or additions to it. Unlike the Great Park these areas were not walled and probably consisted of heathland rather than pasture. John Pennington (1st Baron Muncaster) elaborated on the work started by his father, adding the Monument as an eyecatcher in the landscape and a simple prospect terrace which was laid out on the south facing spur to the north-east of the Castle. The main public road which ran along a natural cutting through the Castle grounds was diverted to skirt through the western edge of the park joining the present road at Whinny Bank.
During the nineteenth century the landscape park was elaborated and ornamented by extending the terrace to its present length and punctuating it with two rustic summerhouses. A major remodelling of the Castle under Salvin was complemented by elaborate Victorian planting along the `Ghyll', the route of the old public road.
While the gardens are known for their interesting and comprehensive twentieth-century plant collection, the survey and plan has emphasised the historical development of the park, which contains earlier archaeological features. It is this earlier landscape which demands conservation measures in any management and replanting proposals for Muncaster.
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