Cornwell Manor

Heritage listing

Details A C16/C17 manor house with formal water garden by Clough Williams-Ellis (1937-9) within a garden and pleasure grounds, enclosed by a landscape park. The gardens form part of his scheme for a model village and landscape. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT Cornwell Manor, mentioned in the Domesday survey, was owned by the Annesleys in the C16, being sold to the Penystones in the early C17. Much of the house dates from these two centuries, with the refacing of the south and east fronts in the 1750s. By the late C18 (Davis, 1797) a small park, containing a string of ponds, existed east of the house, being gradually extended during the C19. The manor and village were sold in 1937 to Anthony Gillson, whose American wife employed the architect Clough Williams-Ellis (1883(1978) to restore the house and village buildings and add various garden features. The garden work was carried out by landscape contractors William Wood and Son of Taplow, Bucks. The house and village remain (1998) in private ownership. DESCRIPTION LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Cornwell Manor lies adjacent to the village of Cornwell, 5km west of Chipping Norton, close to the boundary of Oxfordshire with Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. The c 33ha site is surrounded largely by agricultural land, with the village forming part of the west boundary and a drystone wall marking the south boundary between the pleasure grounds and the road from Chipping Norton. The site, which straddles two small valleys containing streams which are tributaries of the River Evenlode, lies on high ground (150m), surrounded by rolling hills. ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The main approach enters the site 100m south of Cornwell Manor, off the minor road giving access off the B4450 from Chipping Norton to the east. The entrance to th

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.