Talk by David Martyn, co-founder of the Kings Weston Action Group, in February 2023. Report by Stephen Griffiths.
Sir John Vanbrugh is well-known as the flamboyant architect of Blenheim Palace, but his bow had multiple strings. Creator of the English Baroque, he was also a celebrated playwright (The Provoked Wife, as common then as now), supporter of women’s rights, political activist, conspirator in the plot to overthrow James II, principal architect to Queen Anne. The foundations for his Kingsweston House, overlooking the Avon at Shirehampton, were begun in 1712, but neither Kingsweston nor Sir John Vanbrugh is the central character in this story.
Arise Sir Robert Southwell. Born to Irish landowners on the last day of 1635, he was sent to Oxford to acquire an ‘education’, then to the South of France to recover, then to Italy and Germany on the Grand Tour. An amicable and gregarious chap with a penchant for languages, he easily made friends with the great and the great, the Medici Duke of Florence for example. Back in England, and having made a very advantageous marriage, he landed a position at the Court of Charles II as envoy to Portugal.
So far so good, but when James II inherits the throne in 1685, Robert finds himself embroiled in some unhealthy intrigues and, with things getting rather hot at Court, decides to retire for the life of a country gent. Bristol being a convenient spot between London and Ireland, he acquires the Kingsweston estate with its then Elizabethan manor house.
When things get even hotter, James II himself retires for the life of a country gent, in a different country, and William of Orange takes over the throne. Conveniently, Robert is already a bestie of William’s, and so ends up back at Court as Secretary of State for Ireland. In the odd moment Robert has to spend at Kingsweston he sets about modernizing the formal Elizabethan gardens with a fashionable evergreen ‘wilderness’ garden, designed with secret groves, useful for secret assignations, it being impossible to have any secrets in an old manor house full of servants.
As a modern man of means in Restoration England, Robert was enlightened and interested in the sciences as well as in the arts. He was one of the first members of the Royal Society, and became its president for five successive years. He corresponded with the leading luminaries of the day, including the diarist John Evelyn, to whom he berates the high prices of the London nurseries, preferring to dig up Yew saplings himself from the Forest of Dean.
In 1702 Robert’s son Edward inherits the estate and, having made a very advantageous marriage, in 1711 decides to rebuild the old manor house, demolishing it before commissioning Vanbrugh to design the new house. Vanbrugh’s design is impressive and dramatic, but the finished house proves to be cold with a prodigious echo. Edward’s son Edward, having made a very advantageous marriage, completely rebuilds the interior in a softer, more comfortable Georgian style.
In Georgian times the house was a celebrated stop on the tourist trail. I’m sure that Eliza Bennet would have come to Kingsweston rather than Pemberley, were it not for the magnetic pull of a certain Mr Darcy. In fact, Jane Austen mentions Kingsweston in two of her novels. But by 1830 the estate was up for sale, eventually being bought by the first Bristol millionaire, Philip Miles. He married a Miss Peach from Tockington (aaah), which presumably was to her advantage. His grandson, a friend of Vaughan Williams, built Shirehanpton village hall as a music venue, and the premier of Lark Ascending was heard therein.
After many years of institutional decline under the auspices of Bristol City Council, restoration of Kingsweston is well underway thanks to the Kings Weston Action Group. The landscape park is open and accessible – refer to the Action Group’s website for details: 