Freston Park

Summary

A landscape park created in the 1850s-1860s for John Berners, owner of the neighbouring Woolverstone Park, to make use of the 16th century Freston Tower as an eye-catcher.

Reasons for Designation

Freston Park, created in the 1850s-1860s for John Berners, is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* it retains most of the original elements of the C19 park including the C16 Tower, Monkey Lodge and the gateway to Monkey Lodge; the various woodland plantations and specimen trees and most of the carriage drive with its avenue of copper beeches.

Design interest:

* the designer was the eminent landscape designer William Andrews Nesfield.
* the park was designed to provide vistas of the River Orwell and Freston Tower within the park from the carriage drive sweeping through it and from the Tower.
* Monkey Lodge and gateway provide an impressive entrance to the parkland and start to the carriage route through the park.

Group value:

* The park has considerable group value with Freston Tower (listed at Grade II*), Monkey Lodge (listed at Grade II) and the gateway to Monkey Lodge (listed at Grade II).

History

Manorial records show that the area that is now Freston Park has many successive high-status owners. The first to make his mark was Thomas Gooding, a wealthy mercer of Ipswich, who purchased the land in 1554.

Gooding had Freston Tower built in 1578-1579, possibly as a look-out for his ships, but most likely as a conspicuous display of wealth, and to impress Queen Elizabeth I who visited Ipswich in 1579. Queen Elizabeth sailed down the River Orwell in 1579, passing the new tower to starboard on her way to Harwich. It is likely that there was some form of landscaping around the tower, and some rectangular earthworks are visible from Lidar.

In 1613 Gooding leased the land to Christopher Hayward. The buildings and features were described thus: “Mansion House called Freston Hall; barns, stables,hay chambers, yards, gardens, orchards… meadows, pastures… all part and parcel of the demesne of Freston”.

The tower is described as standing by the said orchard.

Another lease was drawn up in 1617. The farm was said to comprise 270 acres with barns, stable and three yards, one with a pond, one for carts and the dove house yard. There were rose gardens and orchards with apples, medlars and quinces. The estate was well wooded and the family could go hawking and fowling.

In 1635 there is mention in a document of a prospective buyer complaining that all of the timber had been felled. By this time, Freston was no longer the Gooding family’s main seat, and it was sold to John Havers between 1635-1638.

Freston again changed hands several times. Ogilby’s road map of Kings Lynn to Harwich shows a building, thought to be the tower, marked “ruin”. It must have been restored by 1730 as it was advertised in the Ipswich Journal to lease “the mansion house called Freston Tower” including a large orchard, garden, stable and pasture.

When the farm was again sold, in 1795, the area around the tower was then an agricultural landscape of enclosed fields with alder carr (tree-grown bog or fenland) and marsh.

The next major change came after 1852, when John Berners inherited the neighbouring Woolverstone Park and made substantial changes to that property with the help of the eminent landscape designer William Andrews Nesfield (1793-1881). Nesfield was particularly noted for redesigning the arboretum at Kew Gardens in 1844, where he had created vistas radiating from the Palm House and created a parterre. Berners commissioned Nesfield, to create a new carriage drive one and a half miles long across what would become Freston Park. Freston Tower and the view of the Orwell estuary were incorporated as ready-made features of a picturesque landscape. A copper beech avenue was planted along much of the carriage drive. Berners also commissioned Nesfield’s son, architect W Eden Nesfield, to create Monkey Lodge and the gates, surmounted with statues of monkeys, the symbol of the Berners family. The monkey is said to have been adopted as the symbol of the Berners family after their pet monkeys roused the household when a fire broke out, thus saving their lives. Monkey Lodge and the gateway were completed before 1861.

In 1937, the Berners family sold their estate including the tower and farm to Oxford University. In 1962, the tower was bought as a private holiday home and in 1999 the owner gifted it to the Landmark Trust. It was on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register for some years before being repaired and opened as a holiday let.

In 1973 an article in Country Life expressed concern at the forthcoming building of the Orwell Bridge “if the proposed Orwell Bridge is built it is likely to cut right across this Arcadian scene”. The Orwell Bridge was indeed built in view of Freston Park and opened to traffic in 1982.

Details

LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES AND AREA: Freston Park is a coastal location of grazed parkland running along the saltmarsh and shore of the Orwell estuary, to which it slopes gently down. There are dramatic and scenic views of the estuary, the Orwell Bridge and the further shore of Nacton. The focal point of the park is the C16 tower.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: Monkey Lodge Gateway and Monkey Lodge, both completed in 1861, (both listed at Grade II) form the only formal entrance to Freston Park, as its north-eastern end. The gatepiers are formed from pale brick and ashlar blocks each surmounted by a statue of a monkey facing inwards. Monkey Lodge stands immediately north of the gates and is built from pale brick with white ashlar dressings, in a composite style with classical elements, a tall chimney and a Dutch gable to the east elevation. To the rear (north) is a large flat-roofed extension in brick and glass dating from 2014.


PRINCIPAL BUILDING

The park is centred around Freston Tower, a six-storey tower dating from 1578-9. The tower is built from red brick with blue brick diaperwork and cream ashlar dressings. It has three-light mullioned windows on each floor, and a seven-storey stair tower with a viewing area on the top storey. The tower, used as a holiday let at the time of survey (2024) has a commanding view of the parkland and the River Orwell, and presents a focal point for the parkland.


PARK

The park consists of grazed pasture on terrain sloping downwards to the tidal mud estuary of the River Orwell. To the west, near the main road, are tree plantations that enclose and shelter the area, known as Wheelwright's Plantation (to the west) and moving eastwards in succession: Tower Plantation, Whinneyfield Wood and Pratt's Shrubbery.

The carriage drive is gravelled in some areas but in many areas is grass but the line of it is still clearly visible. In areas away from the Tower, the path is bordered by an avenue of Copper Beeches, some of which are young and have been replanted to replace fallen trees

There are various specimen trees including Dawn Redwood, Plane, Ginko and Tree of Heaven.

End of official list entry