Shadwell park

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT Robert Buxton acquired the manor of Rushworth in Shadwell during the C16, initially holding a lease from the fourth Duke of Norfolk. In c 1715 John Buxton, amateur architect of Channonz Hall in Tibenham, began to rebuild what he called Shadwell Lodge and to lay out the grounds. The main features however of the design which survives today (1999), including the layout of the plantations and the creation of the lake, are the work of his son, also John, between the 1740s and 1760s and these are recorded on William Faden's map of the county dated 1797. The house was altered by John Soane in c 1789 and again by Edward Blore in 1840-3, but it is the work of S S Teulon between 1857 and 1860 that completely transformed the house in the Gothic style. During the same period the formal gardens to the west and south were laid out, a pleasure ground was planted between these and the kitchen garden, and the park was embellished. The estate remained in the Buxton family until 1895 when it was sold to John Musker who simplified the west garden. The Musker family sold Shadwell in the 1980s and the site remains (1999) in private ownership.