Monument record MDR14112 - Haddon Park

Haddon Park is part of a grade I Registered Park and Garden [see SMR 10442 also]. The parkland is probably of 18th century date with earlier origins. The park consists largely of open pasture land with numerous scattered trees, including a clump of mature oak and lime trees south of Bowling Green Farm shown on the 1879 OS map. Belts of planting protect the southern and western boundaries, and the flat valley bottom with the meandering course of the Wye affords views of the Hall and gardens from various points in the eastern and southern parts of the park. A dovecote (1614, listed grade II) overlooks the river from a bluff c. 300m south-west of the Hall. Some 350m north-east of the Hall there is a walled bowling green entered from a stone gateway with steps leading up to it on the south-west side and overlooked from the north-east side by an early 19th century building called Bowling Green Farm (building and bowling green listed grade II). It is not known when the park originated, but records of animals killed per year at Haddon in the late 17th century, which mention 'between 30 and 40 beefs and between 4 and 500 sheep' (ibid) suggest a fairly large park and farm was extant at that time. (1)