Landscape record TQ 75 SE 341 - Mote Park, 18th-19th Century landscape

An 18th and 19th-century landscape park created from an earlier deer park, set at the east edge of Maidstone. The park surrounds a 1790s country house with informal, mid-19th-century pleasure grounds. The earthwork remains of an earlier formal garden of the early to mid-18th century, related to the site of the former mansion, lie within the park (TQ 75 SE 338).

The second Baron died in 1793, and his son, the third Baron (created first Earl of Romney, 1801), at once began to erect a new mansion on higher ground to the north-east of the park. The park itself was extended and new drives were laid out. The old mansion was demolished in about 1800. Estate accounts for the period 1793 to 1802 show that over £1,900 was spent on the kitchen garden, park wall, the Great Bridge over the lake, and boathouse. The first Earl died in 1811 leaving large debts.

By 1835 the estate was cleared of debt, and a further phase of landscape improvement began in about 1839 at the behest of the second Earl (died 1845), following the acquisition of further land. The alterations included the extension and enlargement of the lake, the demolition of the Great Bridge, and the realignment of the principal approach from Maidstone.

In 1895 the estate was sold out of the family to Sir Marcus Samuel (later first Viscount Bearstead) and, following the death of his father in 1927, the second Viscount sold the park to Maidstone Corporation. Mote Park was opened to the public, and the mansion was used first as a school, then during the Second World War by the army, and most recently as a Leonard Cheshire Home. The park remains (2010) in use as a public amenity and the mansion is unoccupied. (1)

An evaluation carried out near Mote Park reservoir in 2020 identified a levelling layer, a pit, and a small gully associated with the landscaping and management of the 19th-20th century park. (3)

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

Maidstone Borough Council, 2008, Mote Park, Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE16008.

<3> Trent and Peak Archaeology, 2020, Mote Park, Maidstone, Report on the Results of an Archaeological Trial Trench Evaluation (Unpublished document). SKE57547.