Site search

The Frankland family held Thirkleby for over 300 years and shaped the designed landscape following the fashionable ideas of the time. William Frankland, 1st Baronet began the enclosure of Great Thirkleby in 1668 that allowed his son Sir Thomas (2nd Bt) to create a park and admired formal garden between 1699 and c. 1720.

Thornes Park is a public park consisting of three historically distinct areas of landscaping, the earliest dating from the later C18. The public park was opened in 1891, with additions in 1919 and 1924.

The Thornton Park estate was first developed in the 17th century with the construction of a mansion called ‘Wood End’ by the Talbot family. The grounds we see today however were mostly laid out between 1792 and 1810 by Samuel Crompton I, with some input from local garden designer Adam Mickle II.

Pleasure grounds and lakes laid out c 1800 probably by Adam Mickle the second, a park with C17 origins enlarged in the first half of the C19.

The designed landscape of Thorpe Hall, Rudston retains much of the physical character that had been achieved by the early 20th century through three stages of development from the late 18th century. Of particular note are the two serpentine ponds or lakes, and the series of ornamental buildings in the grounds, especially the Dairy, all of the early 19th century and the late 19th century ornamental garden.

The grounds of a villa, developed mainly in the 1870s/80s, but modified in the mid C20.

The designed landscape at Toulston Lodge is of historic interest because it retains elements of the main period of development during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Simeon Marshall a gardener with James Backhouse and Son of York, either laid out or developed the gardens here.

Tudor Croft was built by the well-known brick manufacturer, Ron Crossley in 1934 in the Arts and Crafts style. The garden was laid out to complement the house and covers an area of c.2ha.

Cemetery opened in 1854 which was designed by William Gay, and considered to be his finest work. The core of the site contains many grand C19 monuments.

University campus landscape of 1963-1980 incorporating a late-C17/early-C18 formal landscape and an early-C19 fishpond belonging to Heslington Hall.