Ashton Court
Encyclopedia
Ashton Court is a mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
house and estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
to the west of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Although the estate lies mainly in North Somerset
North Somerset
North Somerset is a unitary authority in England. Its area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare....
, it is owned by the City of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. The estate has been a venue for a variety of leisure activities, including the now-defunct Ashton Court festival
Ashton Court Festival
The Ashton Court Festival was an outdoor music festival held annually in mid-July on the grounds of Ashton Court, just outside Bristol, England. The festival was a weekend event which featured a variety of local bands and national headliners...
, Bristol International Kite Festival
Bristol International Kite Festival
The Bristol International Kite Festival, full name Bristol International Festival of Kites & Air Creations, is held annually during September in Bristol, England. It takes place at the Ashton Court estate, which is owned by Bristol City Council, although it is actually in the district of North...
and the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is held annually during August in Bristol, England. Teams from the UK and other parts of the world bring their hot air balloons to the site and participate in mass ascents where as many as 100 balloons may launch at a time.The event was first held in 1979...
. On the 18th September 2011 the estate played host to a 12 hour softball match for a cancer charity.
Architecture
The core of the house was built in the 15th century, but it was enlarged and adapted over the centuries by the SmythSmyth
Smyth is an early variant of the common surname Smith. Shown below are notable people who share the surname "Smyth".- Notable people sharing the Smyth surname :...
family, who bought the estate in 1545. The south facade and the wing incorrectly attributed to Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
date from about 1633 and were extended eastwards in the 19th century. The house became derelict after the last of the Smyths died in 1946; it was taken over by the City in 1959, and restoration has been an ongoing process since then. The facilities of the house are now rented out for business conferences, parties and weddings.
The mansion house and stables have been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a Grade I listed building.
The lower lodge to Ashton Court and attached gates, railings and bollards, which were built in 1805 by Henry Wood, are Grade II* listed buildings. The garden and perimeter walls and railings are also listed.
The estate
The estate covers 850 acreAcre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (3.4 km²) of woods and open grassland laid out by Humphrey Repton. It includes two pitch-and-putt golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
courses, a Disc Golf
Disc golf
Disc golf is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." Of the more than 3000...
Course, an orienteering
Orienteering
Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they...
course and horse riding and mountain bike
Mountain bike
A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...
trails. There is a deer park
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
which was started in the 14th century and extended in the 16th and 17th centuries. The park contains a great variety of wildlife; much of the site (an area of 210.31 hectares) was notified in 1998 as a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
due to the presence of rare woodland beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s.
Ashton Court Meadow
Avon Wildlife Trust
The Avon Wildlife Trust aims to protect and promote wildlife in the area of the former county of Avon — now Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, in England...
. It contains a wide range of flowering plants, including wild carrot, yellow-wort
Blackstonia perfoliata
Blackstonia perfoliata or yellow-wort is a species of plant in the family Gentianaceae found around the Mediterranean Basin, but extending into northwestern Europe.Pathogens affecting B. perfoliata include Peronospora chlorae....
and field scabious
Knautia arvensis
Knautia arvensis, commonly known as Field Scabious, is a species in the genus Knautia.It is a perennial plant that grows between 25 and 100 cm. It prefers grassy places and dry soils, avoiding heavy soils, and flowers between July and September. The flowered head is flatter than similar...
. Some unusual parasitic plants are also found here, such as common broomrape
Broomrape
Broomrape or Broom-rape is a genus of over 200 species of parasitic herbaceous plants in the family Orobanchaceae, mostly native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Some species formerly included in this genus are now referred to the genus Conopholis.The broomrape plant is small, from...
which feeds off clovers, and yellow rattle
Yellow rattle
Yellow Rattle or Cockscomb, Rhinanthus minor, is a flowering plant in the genus Rhinanthus in the family Orobanchaceae, native to Europe and Western Asia....
, which feeds partly off grass.
Clarken Combe
Clarken Combe, at the western edge of the estate, is a woodland area with a range of plant species, including narrow-lipped helleborineEpipactis leptochila
The Narrow-lipped Helleborine is a species of the genus Epipactis....
, which grows here in small numbers under beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
.
External links
- Photos and information on Ashton Court estate
- Timberland Trail The popular mountain biking trail which passes around Ashton Court