The history of Newark Park

Published:: 05 July 2023

An historic etching of the deer park at Newark Park, Gloucestershire — Etching of Deer Park, Newark Park, Gloucestershire | © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

The fortunes of Newark Park, Gloucestershire, were made by rearing sheep for the local and global trade in wool and cloth. The house began life as a Tudor hunting lodge built by Sir Nicholas Poyntz. It transformed into a home in the 17th century, with later embellishments by the Clutterbuck family. From the late 19th century it was managed by a succession of women owners and tenants. Since the 1970s, restoration by the tenant Bob Parsons, with the National Trust, have ensured its survival.

Monastic farming to Tudor revelry

From the 13th to 16th centuries, the land was owned by a nearby Cistercian abbey in Kingswood. When the monastery was dissolved by Henry VIII, a local courtier, Sir Nicholas Poyntz (1510–56), was well placed to buy a share of their lands from the king in 1544. The Poyntz family were closely connected to royal circles and wealthy exporters of wool, giving them both money and opportunity.

Nicholas commissioned the new hunting lodge to be built, which was known as his “Newwork” with three storeys and spacious cellars. The lodge had kitchens, servant’s quarters, reception rooms, a large banqueting room and bedrooms, as well as a flat roof, where the ladies could watch the hunt below. A dragon weathervane now mounted on the bell turret was probably part of this early building. Nicholas didn’t have many years to enjoy his new lodge, dying in 1556, leaving it to his wife Joan, (d. 1563), a member of the Berkeley family of Gloucestershire.

The East Front of Tudor Hunting Lodge, Newark Park, Gloucestershire | © National Trust Images/Matthew Antrobus

A wealthy family home

From the 17th century, four generations of the Lowe family owned Newark Park, they doubled its size and gave it a new purpose as a home for a wealthy family. Sir Thomas Lowe (c. 1546–1623), the first owner, was an important cloth merchant in the City of London, Mayor of London, and Governor of both the Merchant Adventurers (of London) and the Levant Company. One of this Company’s main exports was cloth to the Eastern Mediterranean, some of which probably came from Gloucestershire. He married Anne Coulston (c. 1559–1626) and they had seven children together.

A Georgian makeover

Over the next 400 years, the house was expanded and remodelled several times by a succession of families who made it their home. The most significant work was commissioned in the 1790s by the Reverend Lewis Clutterbuck (c. 1763–1820) who reportedly hired leading London architect, James Wyatt to remodel the house largely as we see it today.

The works commissioned by the Clutterbuck family saw the southern front of the house entirely re-faced and a new porch added, to create a grand impression when viewed from a new snaking driveway which brought visitors from the bottom of the estate to the high ridge the house sat on. Everywhere attention was given to adding the effect of surprise and the picturesque for visitors, a fashion in the Georgian period. An illustration by J & H Storer published in 1825 illustrates the view from the southern carriage drive.

The south front of the house, Newark Park, Gloucestershire | © National Trust Images/Andrew Butler

Caribbean connections

As with most owners of Newark Park, the Clutterbucks had very strong connections both in Gloucestershire, London and the cloth industry. A good number of the family held church or military positions. Like so many wealthy families of this era they benefited from a compensation payment for the emancipation of enslaved people, in this case through Sarah Clutterbuck (1787–1867), the wife of Lewis Clutterbuck II, who inherited Newark Park in 1820. Sarah was awarded £290 for 12 enslaved people in St James, Jamaica, in 1836, which she inherited through her father, William Balfour of Martha Brae, Trelawney, Jamaica.

Women owners, tenants, developers and caretakers

In the late 19th century Catherine Annie Power-Clutterbuck (1866–1957) let Newark Park to Mrs Annie Poole-King (1831–1913) and her children, who trained racehorses and hunted on the property. The family were the last at Newark Park to have a substantial private staff supporting the running of the house and the estate. There was a butler, cook, kitchen maid, parlour maid, two other housemaids, a ladies’ maid, a chauffeur, the head gardener and three under-gardeners. Their head gardener, John Henry ‘Harry’ Cole (c. 1867–1947), joined their staff as a boy of 12 years old and remained in his post until he died in January 1947, aged 80, after suffering a stroke in the garden.

Annie’s oldest daughter Mary King (1854–1923) was a keen and knowledgeable gardener and a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. It is likely Mary knew the horticulturalist and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll and was influenced by her in changes to the garden carried out by Harry and his team. Mary took over the lease of Newark Park when her mother died in 1913. During the First World War (1914–18) Mary saw to it that Newark Park offered accommodation for convalescents.

On Mary’s death, her youngest sister, Dottie (1860–1949), took over the house and when in turn she died in 1949, the owner, Catherine Annie Power-Clutterbuck, decided to offer Newark Park to the National Trust. Her wish was that it would be kept as a memorial to her son, James Edward Power-Clutterbuck (1893–1917), a Royal Flying Corps pilot killed, aged 23, in the First World War by the German ‘Red Baron’ Manfred von Richthofen.

A Texan's restoration

In 1970 a new tenant came to Newark Park: a Texan architect called Robert ‘Bob ’Louis Parsons (1920–2000). Bob first came to Britain during the Second World War, then after the war he studied architecture at Harvard. He returned to Britain, and in 1970 took on the lease of Newark Park from the National Trust. Bob spent almost 30 years taming the grounds and returning the house to a home along with his partner, Michael Claydon. They also added a walled garden to the east side of the house.

A visitor attraction

When Bob passed away in 2000, the National Trust decided to open Newark Park as a visitor attraction. Michael Claydon continued to live here managing the house as a National Trust employee, until 2011 when he retired. The National Trust carries out works to conserve the unique character of the historic buildings and landscapes and improve wildlife habitats and access for visitors.