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Coordinates: 51°24′11″N 2°12′00″W / 51.403°N 2.200°W / 51.403; -2.200 (Neston Park)
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Neston Park

Neston Park is an English country house and estate in the village of Neston, some 2 miles (3 km) south of Corsham, Wiltshire. The name of the village of Neston is derived from the name of the house.

The present house dates from 1790 and has been extended several times since then.[1] It is ashlar-built in two storeys (three storeys at rear) with a frontage of eight bays, and is Grade II* listed.[2]

The grounds of the house contain farmland: the estate extends from north of Neston village, southwards beyond Atworth, to South Wraxall, and includes the certified organic home farm with a herd of Jersey cattle and unusual Aberdeen Angus and Jersey cross-bred cattle.[1][3] The route of the ancient Roman road from London to Bath crosses the home farm from east to west, about 200 metres (700 feet) south of the house. The local portion of the road is sometimes known as the Wansdyke.[4]

History

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The raised course of the Roman road has been reduced by 19th-century landscaping

The Neston estate was built up by Thomas Tropenell in the 15th century, passed to the Eyre family and then by marriage to the Baronets Hanham. They sold it c. 1790 to John Fuller (died 1839), who built Neston House. John was succeeded in turn by John Bird Fuller (died 1872), George Pargiter Fuller MP (died 1927), and other descendants. The Fuller family became well-known for its ownership of Fuller's Brewery in London, producer of Fuller's London Pride cask ale.[1][5][6]

In 1864 John Hanning Speke, an explorer and a nephew of John Bird Fuller, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while shooting partridge at Neston Park, seemingly an accident in climbing over a wall.[7]

In 1910, the then owner of Neston Park, John Michael Fuller MP, was created a baronet on the recommendation of the Asquith government.[8] In 1998 James Fuller became the proprietor, estate manager and fourth Baronet.[6][8]

In the late 1990s, the estate went into a Countryside Stewardship Scheme agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, supporting a programme of hedge, wall, and wild flower field margin restoration.[1] A farm shop and coffee shop were established in Atworth in 2006.[3] In 2013, a Bath Stone mine on the estate called Park Lane Quarry, first worked in 1880, was reopened.[9][10]

The estate has been used as the filming location of a number of productions, including the outdoor sets for the 2008 BBC television adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford, and some scenes of the ITV series Persuasion.[11][12][13]

Unlike the neighbouring English country house Great Chalfield Manor, occupied by other members of the Fuller family, the house at Neston Park is not open to the public, although several public paths cross the parkland.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Neston Park Estate". Neston Park Farm Shop. 2007. Archived from the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  2. ^ Historic England. "NESTON PARK (1021961)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Neston Park Farm, Atworth". Newsquest. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  4. ^ Robert Vermaat (2001). "Wansdyke and the Roman Road". self-published.
  5. ^ The History of Fuller, Smith & Turner P.L.C. Archived 2005-12-19 at the Wayback Machine from the brewery's website. Retrieved on August 14, 2008.
  6. ^ a b FULLER, Sir James (Henry Fleetwood), Who's Who 2008, A & C Black, 2008; online edn (subscription or library card required), Oxford University Press, December 2007. Accessed 15 August 2008
  7. ^ Roy Bridges, Speke, John Hanning (1827–1864) (subscription or library card required), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2006. Accessed 15 August 2008.
  8. ^ a b "Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page: The Baronetage of England, Ireland, Nova Scotia, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Fletcher-Vane to Fytche". Archived from the original on 27 February 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
  9. ^ "Park Lane Quarry". Neston Park. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  10. ^ "'Lark Rise' quarry in Wiltshire to reopen after 50 years". BBC. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  11. ^ Scott McPherson (11 March 2008). "Lark Rise returning". Gazette and Herald. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  12. ^ "Lark Rise to Candleford - Locations". IMDb. Retrieved 16 August 2008.
  13. ^ "The South-Central Region On Screen". Retrieved 16 August 2008.
[edit]

51°24′11″N 2°12′00″W / 51.403°N 2.200°W / 51.403; -2.200 (Neston Park)

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