Chetwynd Park is an 18th-century

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "Landscape architecture, landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, r ...

with woodland, on the edge of

Newport, Shropshire Newport is a market town and Civil parishes in Shropshire, civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies north-east of Telford, west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 Ce ...

. The park can trace its history back to 1388, when it lay southeast of Chetwynd Park estate. The country house is now lost, but the

medieval deer park In medieval and Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland, a deer park () was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank, or by a stone or brick wall. The ditch was on the ins ...

survives as an agricultural showground, used for

Newport Show Newport Show is held at Chetwynd Deer Park at Chetwynd, Shropshire, England, between Newport, Shropshire, Newport and Edgmond. History On 24 August 1889, a circular was sent out by Mr W H Burton, Chairman of Furber and Burton Auctioneers (late ...

and other events. The deer park was probably established early in the 18th century, and elements of the pleasure grounds in the 1860s. The country house was built on the banks of the 20-acre Chetwynd Pool, a small lake thought to have formed in the same way as nearby Aqualate Mere. In the 19th century, the park was filled with deciduous trees, including

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

wych elm ''Ulmus glabra'', the wych elm or Scots elm, has the widest range of the European elm species, from Ireland eastwards to the Ural Mountains, and from the Arctic Circle south to the mountains of the Peloponnese and Sicily, where the species reac ...

horse chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with notable species including buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with ...

s and Spanish chestnuts, and some

crab apple ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples (sometimes known in North America as crabapples) and wild apples. The genus i ...

s. It was stocked with 115

Père David's deer The Père David's deer (''Elaphurus davidianus''), also known as the ''milu'' () or elaphure, is a species of deer native to the subtropical river valleys of China. It grazes mainly on grass and aquatic plants. It is the only extant member of t ...

. Before 1891, there was a great

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

at Chetwynd, which provided cuttings to plant the new church's drive (Leach 1891, 367). J.C.B. Borough also added a strip of land east of the park and north of the Longford, and created a drive to run around the outer edge of that extension, leading from Chetwynd Park to a new lodge on the Longford. This lay opposite the north end of Park Pool. There were other lodges at the south end of the pool, and at the bottom of the drive to the park. The northern part of the park featured a stone icehouse, probably dating from the mid- to late 18th century. Animals that live around the pool are shoveler, wigeon and occasionally goosander. As well as the

wildfowl The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating o ...

on the pool other birds of interest include all three species of

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

nuthatch The nuthatches () constitute a genus, ''Sitta'', of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Mo ...

, treecreeper,

raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

, and

buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Easte ...

. The deer park is owned by the Newport and District Agricultural Society. As well as being the home of

, which is held on the second Saturday in July each year, there are a number of other events held there each year. In addition, the society has developed the educational potential of the deer park by building a classroom facility known as The Lodge in 2013 and as a result, many local schools and community groups as well as

Harper Adams University Harper Adams University, founded in 1901 as Harper Adams College, is a public university located close to the village of Edgmond, near Newport, Shropshire, Newport, in Shropshire, England. Established in 1901, the college is a specialist provi ...

visit the deer park for educational purposes.

References

External links

Church website
Gardens in Shropshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Shropshire Geography of Newport, Shropshire Newport, Shropshire {{Shropshire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links