Kingscote Park (formerly Kingscote Cottage) is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

house and country estate in Kingscote, near

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. The original Kingscote Park was demolished in 1951. Both houses formed part of the

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

of Kingscote which was held by the Kingscote family from the 12th century and is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as 'Chingescote'.

The original house

It was owned by Anthony Kingscote, whose daughter Catherine married

Edward Jenner Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was a British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines, and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms ''vaccine'' and ''vaccination'' are derived f ...

on 6 March 1788. The couple met in the grounds of the manor house when a balloon that Edward Jenner was experimenting with landed in the park. In April 1829, the grounds were described in ''The Gardener's Magazine'' as 'A fine place; the pleasure-grounds extensive, and within the last five years greatly improved'. In 1914, Frank Henry, writing of Colonel Sir Robert Nigel Fitzhardinge Kingscote, who owned Kingscote Park until his death in 1906, describes 'one of the finest racecourses in England' being in the estate grounds, 'although it has not been used for that purpose since 1825'. Also, of 'a secluded dell in the Park' where 'many prize fights were contested'. In 1915, the estate was leased to John Jameson Cairness, who resided there. Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the house was neglected and fell into disrepair. It was demolished in 1951, with building materials being re-used in new buildings in the Kingscote area. The stables, built in 1862, and former coach house remain and are

. The former walled garden is now part of a small housing development.

Kingscote Cottage

The cottage's origins date to a building, possibly a farmhouse, from the 18th century. It was enlarged in the 1790s and then extended, again, in the mid-1800s. It was the

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family h ...

to the original Kingscote Park. In the 1820s, the cottage was home to the family of John Wedgwood, founder of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

. In the 1930s and 40s, Lieut-Col. Ardern Arthur Hulme Beaman,

High Sheriff of Gloucestershire This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Gloucestershire, who should not be confused with the Sheriffs of the City of Gloucester. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (in England and Wales the office previously kn ...

, occupied the cottage, which he called 'Kingscote Grange', and built a summer house there. Following the demolition of the original house, the cottage and roughly 289 acres of land were offered for sale as 'Kingscote Park' in 1956. The property was purchased by the owners of 'Kingscote Grange'. The house is now used as holiday accommodation.

References

{{coord, 51.6627, -2.2692, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Country houses in Gloucestershire Houses completed in 1785