Name: Holywells Park
District: Ipswich
Parish: Ipswich Borough Council (unparished)
National Grid Reference: TM 17590 43379
National Heritage List for England: 1264013 Stable Block & Tower Grade II Listed Building; 1237504 Orangery Grade II Listed Building
Suffolk Historic Environment Record: IPS 063 Holywells Park; IPS 768 Stable Blocks; IPS 749 Icehouse; IPS 497 Moated Enclosure; IPS 2073 Watermill (Balls Mill)
Local list: County Wildlife Site; Regionally Important Geodiversity Site (RIGS)
The Cobbold family has been connected to Holywells Park since the early 18thc, when Thomas Cobbold first rented parcels of land to access the water from its natural springs which played a key role in the expansion of the family’s brewing business. In 1814, after renovating and extending the farmhouse, John Cobbold moved his family to the estate that his wife Elizabeth would name Holy Wells. The ponds continued to supply water to the brewery below at Cliff Quay even once they had been reshaped and formed an integral part of the overall design and landscape. Several generations of Cobbolds lived on the estate, expanding the house, adding a stable block, orangery and glasshouses and developing the estate to their own taste as styles evolved. In 1935 the Cobbolds sold the estate to Lord Woodbridge, who gifted it to the town of Ipswich. It was opened as a public park in 1935. Although today the house is no longer extant and little remains of the Cobbolds’ gardens, the estate’s springs, ponds and woodlands remain enduring features of the park.
The Manor of Wix Episcopi (aka Wykes Bishop or Bishop’s Wyke) was part of the royal estate in Ipswich and was granted by King Richard I to John of Oxford, Bishop of Norwich (recorded in 1212, Book of Fees vol. I, p. 137).
The earliest reference to a medieval moat was in 1515. [There is a hint of an earlier park at Wykes Bishop, as it is recorded that in 1315 a gang of 48 men ‘broke the bishop’s park there’ and took away a horse – Cal. of Patent Rolls 1313-17, p. 404]. Although no remains of a settlement on the moated site have been discovered, it is possible that the bishop’s representative or bailiff had a modest dwelling here. A 2006 find of pottery, tile and oyster shell dated late medieval to early post-medieval, indicates nearby settlement during this period [IPS063 & IPS 497].
The Manor was taken by Henry VIII under an Act of 1535 and regranted to Sir John Jermy of Metfield and Brightwell in 1545. It was sold to Francis Hewitt in 1635, and then to Sir Samuel Barnardiston of Brightwell Hall (deputy Governor of the East India Company) c1663. It stayed in the Barnardiston family until the death of Mary Barnardiston in 1788. Much of the land was farmed by tenant small holders and the spring water was carried to houses, breweries and brickworks in pipes of bored-out tree trunks.
Thomas Cobbold (1680-1752) rented parcels of land in Wykes Bishop c1723 in order to export the pure, clear water from its springs down the River Orwell to his brewery in Harwich. In the 1740s he built a new brewery on The Cliff in Ipswich to take further advantage of this water supply. A canal was created to channel the water from the springs and ponds to the new brewery, perhaps in the 1740s but possibly not until 1817-1841 (p.24 IPS 471).
A panoramic view by Thomas Gainsborough (when he had returned to Sudbury from London) depicts this landscape c.1748-50 and shows a sequence of eight ponds or damned reservoirs – six round and two rectangular, forming a curving line. It was an ‘idealised’ portrait, as John Blatchly notes that there were brickfields, not a deer park, north of the lakes, and Ipswich had no church with a spire between 1662 and 1870. The painting was only identified as Holywells in 1991 by the Suffolk historian Norman Scarfe (E. Joll, ‘Museums in the UK’ in Agnews 1982-1992, pp. 30-31). The painting had no known history before 1940 and bore a label on the back of its frame inscribed ‘The Nine Ponds at Hampstead’. It had been catalogued in 1982 simply as ‘Extensive Landscape with Reservoirs, Sluice Gate House and Seated Figure’ (J. Hayes, The Landscape Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough).
From 1762 onwards, the Cobbold family purchased land piecemeal from small landowners in Wykes Bishop. In 1812, John Cobbold (1746-1835), grandson of Thomas Cobbold I, purchased an old farmhouse, Pitt’s Farm, with 150 acres. Two years later, after renovating and extending the farmhouse into a mansion overlooking the park, Cobbold moved his wife, Elizabeth née Knipe, and family to the estate. The park area contained land called Holwell Hill, and this may have been the inspiration for a poem written by Elizabeth entitled ‘Holy Wells, a Legendary Tale’, that was published in The Suffolk Garland in 1818. This tells of the healing power of the ‘holy rill’ and also of ‘a bishop’s stately palace’ on a ‘moated square’. By 1816, Pitt’s Farm had become known as Holywells, and it remained the Cobbold family residence until 1929.
Elizabeth Knipe (1767-1824) was a writer, poet, and artist with great interest in botany and geology, and during her lifetime Holywells became a centre for the arts. Some of her botanical drawings were used in “illustrations of British Flora” (Fitch & Smith 1880). A biography by Adele Mallen calls her a ‘Georgian polymath’.
Holywells House and the 67acre estate passed to John Chevalier Cobbold (1797-1882) in the 1860s. He became director of a railway company with its own wharf and shipbuilding yard with more than 20 ships regularly trading with India and China, so would have been aware of and had access to the latest non-native plant introductions. He enlarged the old house and created a walled landscape park with formal gardens to the west and a winding carriage drive to Myrtle Road. The park and house were mainly influenced by the Italianate style, with a terrace with steps down to the park, ornamental water courses, woodland walks, and terraced lawns edged with a ha ha. An Orangery, heated by boilers under the stable block, was built for exotic plants. The estate was opened to the public for horticultural shows, which gave opportunities to see his specimen trees, formal flower beds and the conservatory.
At the beginning of the 20th century, John Dupois Cobbold (1861-1929) and his wife, Lady Evelyn née Murray created formal “Arts & Crafts” style gardens to the south of the House. “Wild” gardens were created c1907 in the eastern valley, around a pinetum, a stream and a rhododendron valley, with extensive collections of wetland exotics, trees and rhododendrons.
Lady Evelyn Murray (1867-1963) was daughter of the Earl Dunmore. A biography by William Facey charts her progress ‘from Mayfair to Mecca’. (She was an early convert to Islam, and became the first British woman, known as Lady Zainab, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca).
In 1935 the estate was sold to the wealthy tobacco merchant Sir Arthur Churchman, 1st Lord Woodbridge, of Abbey Oaks, Sproughton, who gifted it to the town of Ipswich. It was opened as a public park in 1936. The house was used as an air raid shelter during WWII, and lawns dug up as part of ‘Dig for Victory’. The house was demolished in two phases from 1962-3 due to rot.
Holywells Park Conservation Project Area was designated in 1938, and a partial restoration of the ponds was started in 2006. Ipswich Borough Council received a grant of £2.8 million in 2012 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery fund for the Holywells ‘Parks for People’ restoration project. Amongst other things, this contributed to the cost of renovating and restoring the conservatory and stable block, and installing interpretation panels on the park’s heritage and environmental features.
Holywells Park is approx. 70 acres in extent and is located one mile south-east of Ipswich town centre, within a densely urban and predominantly residential area. It is immediately adjacent to the industrial and residential dockland and historic waterfront. It is a public park offering a network of ponds, open spaces, woodland and recreational facilities.
It is an undulating site, with a downward slope west to the River Orwell and a string of ponds in a central depression. There are steep inclines to the north and south of the chain of ponds, which are located roughly in the centre of the park.
The main entrance is at Cliff Lane, from the south, where a tarmac lane leads into the park, passing the original home farm cottages on the left and modern retirement flats on the right, and a small graveled car park with the listed stable block opposite. There are 4 further entrances to the park: a second entrance from the west end of Cliff Lane, at the junction with Holywells Road; Nacton Road to the east; and Bishops Hill and Myrtle Road to the north.
The original entrance to the House is shown on White’s 1849 survey as a carriage drive from the new Cobbold brewery near Cliff Road passing The Fountain Cottage then crossing a bridge before splitting into two separate drives which approach the east and the west sides of the house.
By the late 19th century, two serpentine carriage drives flanked by lime trees approached the House from the lodge entrances at Myrtle Road and at Bishops Hill. A number of these lime trees are still extant, particularly so on the southern end of the drive. It is possible that a stretch of cobbled drive approaching the Myrtle Road entrance dates to the 19th century.
The 19th century red brick wall that surrounded the park remains intact to the north along Myrtle Road and east along Nacton Road. The short section on Bishop’s Hill (north-east) was rebuilt and rendered in the 1920s. Holywells Road to the west is mostly open to small industrial/commercial units which are located to the west of the canal. Other parts of this road are bound by steel fencing. To the south, the park is bound by housing in Cliff Lane and Elmhurst Drive, and steel fencing.
The main component areas of the park today are the ornamental gardens, the parkland, the moated site known as Bishop’s Wyke, the canal and pond network, the eastern woodland, and a nature conservation area.
Early to mid-19th century – When the Cobbold family bought and began to develop the Holywells Estate in the early 19th century, the site that had previously been held by small landowners, was without design, and only defined by its string of ponds (set on an east-west axis), moat and canal. John Cobbold planted numerous trees in the park, including lime, oak, horse chestnut and a beautiful copper beech that stands out as a mature specimen tree. An orchard and garden were planted within the moated area. (In 2004 Wessex Archaeology confirmed that the moat had been backfilled in the south-east corner of the moated site, making way for a formally laid out garden, probably in 19th century [IPS 497]).
Formal gardens were laid out in the north-western corner of the estate, to the east of the orchard; and further to the east, nestled in the edge of woodland, a kitchen garden. To the south-east edge of the canal, at a distance from the Holywells House, a formal garden with a fountain at its centre, was possibly laid out for John Cobbold II (1774-1860), whose main residence was close to the brewery on Cliff Quay. (Of the two Cobbold houses here, Cliff Cottage also had a small, formal, walled garden, possibly with a small orchard to its north). All of the above gardens are recorded with clearly defined beds and paths. A small, informally planted garden is also recorded to the west of Holywells House.
The tithe returns for St Clements parish in 1844 indicate that the land was still predominantly arable land with meadows, and a new brick kiln in the SW corner (later converted into an ornamental garden with winding circular paths by John Cobbold II). The tithe map indicates a kitchen garden to the east of the moated site, however this is not marked in later maps and is no longer extant.
An extract from Map of Ipswich, Edward White 1849 from Holywells Park Conservation Management Plan, Appendix, December 2012.
From the mid-19th century – John Chevalier Cobbold transformed the site into a walled landscaped park, reminiscent in style to those designed in the 18th century. Serpentine paths have been cut through the woodland to the east, and new planting included sweet chestnuts, yews and holly. A carriage drive is created, which extends from Bishop’s Hill and the elevated (north-west) Myrtle Road, following a curving path down towards the house. On entering the estate at Myrtle Road, visitors would first see a newly constructed body of water (extended from Big Pond), with a small island at its centre, before enjoying sweeping views of parkland, ponds, and the house in the distance. The drive, that was edged by lime trees, crossed over a new purpose-built Italianate bridge. The house is extended to the north, and a north-facing Italianate terrace is created, with steps leading down to the parkland and ponds. (It may be that the bridge and terrace were not constructed at the same time, or by the same designers). A boat house is added to the east side of Big Pond.
‘Carriage drive towards Holywells House. Early 19thc engraving from Suffolk Archives HA445/6/3′.
The orchard is no longer extant and has been replaced with a garden set around a central circular feature. The clear definition of beds and paths is no longer evident in the garden to the east of this, or the kitchen garden, both of which have a looser feel. The garden near Cliff Quay has also been redesigned, still around a central fountain, but with eight clearly defined beds. It appears that the kitchen garden has been moved to the north-west corner of the site. Two gardens to the west of the house and stables appear to be more formally planted than previously, and a fountain/pond is recorded here. Also recorded are the addition of a Stable Block, a heated Orangery, which is filled with exotic plants, and three glasshouses to the south and west of the stables, and one or two near Fountain cottage. An undated photo records circular flower beds planted with evergreens as specimen trees, laid out on a slope in the Gardenesque style advocated by JC Loudon in the mid-19th century. The layout of these gardens (as recorded in White’s 1867 survey; the 1880 OS survey; an 1863 report on a horticultural show held at Holywells; Richard Cobbold’s 1867 painting; and photos) suggests the overall design was a blend of 18th century landscape garden and 19th century Victorian fashion, with dams……lakelets, bridges and grottoed falls sitting alongside trimmed lawns and a smooth incline full of flowerbeds, probably set out either side of the steps down from the terrace.
The estate was opened to the public for horticultural shows, which gave opportunities to see John Chevallier Cobbold’s specimen trees, formal flower beds and an Orangery, heated by boilers under the stable block, filled with non-native plants.
An extract from Map of Ipswich, Edward White, 1867. From the British Library Collection shelfmark Maps 5235 (1)
Extract from 1884 OS map (© Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Suffolk Gardens Trust, Licence No. AC0000824319)
Early 20th century – by 1902 the eastern woodland has been extended westwards, mature trees are recorded on the carriage drive and around the moated area, which now contains a new orchard. The incline either side of the terrace steps had now been planted with deciduous and evergreen trees, and planting in the previously described gardens is not recorded. John Dupuis Cobbold (1861-1929) and his wife Evelyn began to move from the formality and strong tones of brightly coloured Victorian bedding to the less formal Arts and Crafts style and planting advocated by William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll. They developed the eastern woodland into a wilderness, with a Rhododendron Valley and wetland garden. Trees are described as being very beautiful in form and foliage and the spaces between them filled with bushes and small trees, of many varieties, growing in the grass – a sort of wilderness garden. This theme continues on the steps up to the terrace, from where an infinite variety of simple flowering plants spring forth interestingly (Suffolk Chronicle, 20th August 1909).
Images record such plants also growing between paving slabs around the house, and in the Arts and Crafts garden, which was created on an upward slope to the south of the house. This South Garden extended up to the estate’s southern boundary, where a sunken garden with a pond was created. Its approach was marked by long borders, filled with annuals and hardy perennials and a planting scheme that included climbing roses, clematis and hydrangeas (Photo: South Garden (Ted Adolphus album). A paved ornamental pond was also set out during this period, close to the South Garden.
21st century – Today the park offers conservation areas, play areas, wooded walks, ponds and ornamental gardens in the area of the Orangery, with beds planted with herbaceous perennials, and some lined by low growing lavender shrubs. The area also has a large area of hard landscaping which forms a stage and seating facing south. The terrace with its Italianate balustrade offers numerous benches from where views of the open parkland and ponds to the south can be enjoyed (albeit obscured by ivy clad trees). Bricked columns are topped by Victorian style plant pots.
The park is home to numerous trees – A 2015 survey records: Taxodium distichum; Quercus ilex; Fagus sylvatica Purpurea Group; Acer saccharum; Corylus avellana; Sorbus aucuparia; Betula nigra; Trachycarpus fortunei; Castanea sativa; Sequoia sempervirens; Pinus nigra ssp. Nigra; Quercus robur; Tilia x europaea; Acer cappadocicum; Ailanthus altissima; Abies grandis; Taxus baccata; Carpinus betulus; Poplus nigra; Aesculus hippocastanum; Alnus glutinosa; Magnolia x soulangeana; Liquidambar styraciflua.
The planting includes a new orchard with old fruit varieties (open to the public for special events) and a Silver Birch from the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Tree of Trees, planted just south of the stable block. The footpath that rises up to the Nacton Road exit (east) is bordered by patches of densely planted bamboo and mature beech. Some remaining limes and other mature trees (intermittently) line the carriage drive. Bamboos are also planted on the north-east side of the 19th century Italianate bridge.
In 1814, after renovating and extending an old farmhouse, Pitt’s Farm, into a mansion overlooking the park, John Cobbold moved his family to the estate. John Chevalier Cobbold added a northern extension in the 1860s with a north-facing terrace with steps leading down to the park and ponds and terraced lawns edged with a ha ha. He further enlarged the mansion on several more occasions, mainly influenced by the Italianate style with a winding carriage drive. He eventually added a Conservatory (now referred to as The Orangery) and Stable Block.
Photo: L. Robinson. 26/01/2024 – conservatory and clock tower
The house was demolished in 1962-3 due to dry rot. The white and red brick Stables with its five-storey Clock Tower (c.1870) and the late-19th-century Orangery were saved. The Stable block is exceptionally well-preserved and was refurbished in 2014-15. Excavation revealed two underground chambers which contained boilers for heating water, and map evidence indicates that the boilers were located under former 19thc glasshouses. A service trench was excavated between the stable block and an extant glasshouse to the west (the Orangery).
The moated enclosure is now the site of children’s play equipment. The quadrilateral area of the moated enclosure extends c.120m (north to south) by 80m maximum (east to west) and covers an area of about 1 ha or 6 acres). Two ponds (connected to a linear series of ponds) form the southern edge of the enclosure, although historic maps indicate these have been repeatedly remodelled. A broad, partly water-filled ditch defines the western edge of the site. The northern and eastern branches of the moat ditch are less substantial, with the southern end of the eastern arm backfilled, probably in the 19th century [IPS 497].
The moat has not been dated, however it is possible that this is a garden or landscape feature belonging to the initial layout of the park for the Cobbold family. A 19th century east-west ditch [0020 Fig. 5, p.20 IPS 497], on a completely different alignment from the enclosure, might suggest that the moat predates the formation of the park. With a possible high status medieval dwelling nearby, it might be that the moat was itself an earlier landscape feature, enclosing a garden or orchard down onto which the bishops of Norwich or their representatives could have looked [IPS 497].
Although the date of construction of the Canal has been suggested as either the 1740s or 1817-1841, consensus is that it was constructed to provide spring water to the Cobbold Brewery. Today it makes an unattractive walk into the park from the west end of Cliff Lane.
The presence of a 19th century Icehouse within the park was confirmed during works undertaken as part of the ‘Parks For People’ restoration project in 2013. The structure appears to be complete and in relatively good condition
Documentary evidence suggests that there was a water mill (Ball’s Mill) from at least 1580 to the late 18thc on the former site of Fountain Cottage with a fountain, and two ponds. They are no longer extant, and exact location is uncertain. Two further fountains, no longer extant, have been identified as follows: In a small garden on the south-western edge of the canal (White’s 1849 Survey and OS Suffolk LXXV.16 Surveyed: 1880 to 1881). In a garden just west of the house/orangery (also OS 1880) and in an undated photo (Photo: Orangery Fountain n.d. Suffolk Archives: K681/1/262/1298).
SUGS research report by Linda Robinson and Margaret King 2024.
Tom Williamson, Suffolk’s Gardens and Parks, 2000, p.172
Adrian Howlett, Holywells Park – Design Influences and Evolution 1746-1929, 2003. Suffolk Archives, Shelf Mark 712.5094.2 Oversize
Adrian Howlett, Holywells Park: Bring the magic back: A management plan for Holywells Park. Dissertation, Revised 2004. Suffolk Archives Shelf Mark: 712.509 Oversize
Clive Hodges Holywells, Home of the Cobbolds, 2015.
Ipswich Journal, Ipswich Horticultural Show at Holy Wells 1863, Saturday 5th September 1863, p.5, c.5.
Gardener’s Magazine, Vol. V, New Series (1839)
Suffolk Chronicle, Holywells Gardens Open for Viewing 1909, Friday 20th August 1909, p.8, c.2
Suffolk Archives: HA445/3/4/17/5/6 – GB173
Suffolk Archives: HE402/1/1925/39 – GB173 (Sales Particulars, 1925)
Suffolk Archives: HE4021/1931/16(a) (Sales Particulars).
Suffolk Archives: Ref GF419/FLS1849/1/1/3/4 – GB173 (Minute Book, Ipswich & Suffolk Freehold Land Society Ltd, pp.124, 174, 175).
Suffolk Archives: HA445/6/3 (Publication, Antique Collecting, February 2011).
Suffolk Archives: K681/1/262/1298 (Fountain photo)
Suffolk Archives: K438/1 (Ted Adolphus Photo Album, undated).
Maps:
Edward White: Plan of Ipswich 1849
Edward White: Map of Ipswich, chief town and port in the county of Suffolk. 1867
First Edition Ordnance Survey 25″ Suffolk LXXV.16, 1880-81
Ordnance Survey 25″ Suffolk LXXV.16 Revised 1902
Ordnance Survey 25″ Suffolk LXXV.16 Revised 1925, published 1927
Ipswich Town Plan LXXV16.6 Surveyed 1881-1883, published 1883
