The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest:

A largely 19th-century formal garden with significant surviving 18th-century features and with 20th-century planting, set within an 18th-century park.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Goodnestone Park lies adjacent to the south end of Goodnestone village, about 1 kilometre east of the B2046, between the villages of Wingham, 2.5 kilometres to the north-north-west and Aylesham, 2 kilometres to the south-west. The registered site, which comprises roughly 15 hectares of formal gardens and ornamental planting, surrounded by a further 96 hectares of parkland, farmland, and woodland, occupies the floor and the gently rising east and west slopes of a shallow dry valley, the land falling generally towards the north.

The southern and eastern boundaries and most of the length of the northern boundary are bounded by narrow lanes while the western boundary is marked by a farm track; the site is largely hidden from view by internal roadside woodland belts. Beyond the lanes the landscape opens into rolling arable farmland, with occasional small woods and lengths of hedgerow. On the north side of the site, Goodnestone village extends some 400 metres southwards into the park and the site boundary follows the rear fence lines of the properties lining the main street (The Street).

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The manor of Goodnestone was held by Sir Thomas de Godwyneston in the 13th century and then by the Engeham family. In 1705 the estate was purchased from Sir Thomas Engeham by Brook Bridges, an Auditor of the Imprest under Charles II, who built the present house. Bridges' son succeeded him and was created a baronet in 1718. The Fitzwalter family came into possession of Goodnestone on the marriage of the third baronet to Fanny Fowler, co-heiress (albeit in abeyance) of the Barony of Fitzwalter. Their third daughter, Elizabeth, married Jane Austen's eldest brother, Edward and the novelist was a frequent visitor to their house on the Goodnestone estate in the late 18th century. Goodnestone passed by marriage to the Plumptre family in 1828 and in 1924, Henry Fitzwalter Plumptre successfully claimed title to the ancient Barony of Fitzwalter. Goodnestone remains (1997) in private ownership. (1-2)

Historic England archive material: BF082390 GOODNESTONE HOUSE, GOODNESTONE

<1> Parks and Gardens Data Services Limited (PGDS), 2005, Parks and Gardens UK (www.parksandgardens.org) (Website). SKE16061.