Plumpton Rocks

Registered parks and gardens take many forms. A rather unusual one is to be found at Plumpton Rocks, near Harrogate, a picturesque garden centred on an outcrop of millstone grit, and a three-hectare lake, and now registered at Grade II*. As cited in this Country Life article, a visitor in 1771 described Plumpton Rocks as ‘uncommonly Romantic’:

… below the Rocks is a fine Lake, with some wild fantastic Rocks standing in it… No idea can be given of these Gardens by an description, they are particularly pleasing, but in a different style from any I ever saw.

The Plumpton Estate

Plumpton Rocks lies in the parish of Plompton (‘Plumpton’ is the original spelling, and ‘Plompton’ the more recent: both have been used in relation to the Rocks). The Register entry notes that the estate was owned by the Plumpton family until 1749. It was purchased in the 1750s by Daniel Lascelles, whose initial intention was to replace the existing house and improve the sixteenth-century estate. John Carr, a leading architect in Yorkshire, was appointed to undertake the necessary works, including ‘lodges, stables, and a model farm’, and the ‘Plumpton Rocks’ pleasure grounds. Lascelles changed his mind after construction of the new house had commenced, and had it pulled down, choosing to live instead in the newly-purchased neighbouring estate of Goldsborough Hall. The new stables at Plumpton were transformed into ‘Plompton Hall’, though Lascelles maintained his interest in the pleasure grounds. The Plumpton estate subsequently passed to the Harewood Estate, but was sold off in the 1950s and is now in the ownership of a descendant of the original Plumpton family.

Plumpton Rocks

The drama at Plumpton Rocks is created by towering rocks lining the edges of a lake, itself terminated by an ornate dam. The latter was erected in around 1760 to enable the extension of two mediaeval fishponds. Again designed by John Carr, it is listed at Grade II, and, as the list entry notes, is around 70 metres long, 5 metres high and 6 metres wide – its turf covering providing part of the path around the lake. Constructed of coursed gritstone, its south façade has a central round arch, ‘portholes’, and buttress piers with heavy banded rustication and ball finials.

The rocks themselves are in large part a ‘dramatic outcrop of millstone grit’ (coarse-grained sandstones from the Carboniferous era), with some quarried additions. They run north-south along the eastern side of the lake, ‘some towering 10-12m above the level of the water’, and some have names, including ‘Lion’s Den’, ‘Lover’s Leap’, ‘Echo Rock’, and ‘Needle’s Eye’.

Within the rocks are seats and also a boathouse – again designed by Carr – which is now listed at Grade II:

Coursed gritstone blocks, some almost megalithic, and outcrop. A rectangular structure approximately 2.5 metres wide and 7 metres long. Entrance on north side (from land) is a narrow opening with large lintel and rebates and hooks for a hung door on the inner side. The wall is composed of very large boulders and is built between natural rock outcrops. The opening to the water is a shallow arch with rock-faced rustication to keystone and voussoirs.

The Plompton Conservation Area Character Appraisal described the garden’s character as ‘romantic and picturesque’, stemming from the ‘dramatic nature of the rocky outcrops themselves’, and their ‘juxtaposition with, and reflection in, the lake, together with the enveloping woodland’. Survivals from the original eighteenth-century planting are limited, but can be found, primarily yews and pines (the site is also designated as a site of importance for nature conservation, due to its oak woodland).

The Character Appraisal also cites a description from 1789, by Eli Hargrove:

… about 20 acres of irregular ground, interspersed with a great number of rocks, standing in detached pieces of various forms and magnitude; in the intervals are planting of a great variety of the most beautiful evergreens and flowering shrubs; through which the walks are carried, in different directions all over the place. There is a fine lake at the foot of the rocks, forming many curious inlets. Seats are placed, in different situations; from whence, the inspector may, with the greatest advantage, mark all the beauties of this romantic scene….

Plumpton Rocks became a popular draw for visitors to the area between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, and were apparently described by Queen Mary in the 1920s as ‘Heaven on Earth’. The gardens were soon to decline however, resulting in their sale in the 1950s.

By 2012, the lake was silting up, and the surrounding trees were obscuring the views within this designed landscape: the site was added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, as being of ‘medium’ vulnerability, and ‘declining’ trend, due to its ‘generally satisfactory’ condition’, albeit with ‘significant localised problems’. Between 2013 and 2016, the site closed for repair and restoration, informed in part by two paintings from 1797-98 by J. M. W. Turner, commissioned by Lord Harewood, and by the original planting plan. It then closed again in 2019 to allow further work to the dam in support of compliance with the Reservoirs Act 1975. By the 2020 Heritage at Risk Register, Historic England was able to report that the site was ‘improving’:

The lake has been de-silted and the dam has been repaired. Historic England grant has been offered towards further works which are required to meet the Reservoirs Act and are expected to be complete in 2020.

Those works were in fact completed in 2022, when the site reopened once more. The site was then removed from the Heritage at Risk Register, and the site experienced today is much closer to the original vision – and indeed that painted by Turner in 1797-98, and described on an information board onsite:

The striking contrasts of the weather-beaten rock, with the blooming verdure that surrounds it, affords a pleasing instance of what nature, properly assisted by art, is capable of producing.

Visiting Plumpton Rocks

The site is open at weekends (and Bank Holidays) from May to September, and is accessed via the entrance lodge. Boots are recommended, as the environment – including the woodland car park – is rustic, and the route to the lakeside is steep. Once there, though, the path runs around the lake, with the occasional interpretation board to inform your wanderings. There are some facilities onsite – a toilet, and snacks sold out of the back of a van – but, as noted in Country Life, ‘this is not a place… for those who wish for the indulgence of a tearoom or paths of hard standing’. It is certainly ‘uncommonly Romantic’, however, and well worth exploring.