Enville, together with Hagley and The Leasowes, was one of the triumvirate of famed eighteenth-century Midland estates. The seat of the Earl of Stamford, it was ornamented with a variety of features: some have disappeared over the years, but fortunately many survive. A number of regular readers were intrigued by the image of the exquisite Museum at Enville which appeared in these pages in April, and asked to know more. So the Folly Flâneuse asked The Garden Historian, aka Dr Michael Cousins, to explain its history…

Various contenders for designer of the unusual garden building have surfaced: Sanderson Miller, the gentleman (i.e. amateur) architect who favoured the Gothick style, for one. Discussion with his mason about ‘Ld Stamfords Green House’ was underway in October 1749 and he spent the rest of that month, and most of the next, drawing up a design. Miller (1716-1780), besides his own inclination to the ‘Gothick’, had a well-stocked library to call upon that included Batty Langley’s Ancient Architecture Restored and Improved (1741/2). This was a pattern book which builders and owners used for ideas, and may have provided inspiration. By June 1750 William Shenstone, the poet and acquaintance of Stamford, was able to note the new ‘Gothick Greenhouse’ at Enville.

By 1756 Miller’s building had been renamed, with the peregrinatious Dr Pococke noting an elegant ‘Gothick Summer house of Mr Millers design’. Clearly then the greenhouse and summerhouse were one and the same building, and although it has been suggested that the first incarnation of the greenhouse was a wooden structure, no evidence has come to light to support this.

Sandy Haynes, the former archivist at and authority on Enville also concludes that the greenhouse and summerhouse were two names for the same building, writing that: ‘Sanderson Miller’s name is mentioned by too many different sources to be discounted and although Pococke refers to it as a summer-house there is no other building at Enville that he could be describing.’ Sadly no records seem to survive in which the exact use of the building is noted, so we don’t know for sure if the building ever housed plants or was simply a pleasure pavilion, or dual purpose.

By 1770 the building had been repurposed as a billiard room. Joseph Heely’s guidebook of c.1773 described it as being fitted out with a billiard table, a chamber organ, and ‘the inside richly adorned with stucco, the cieling remarkably so’. This work is more difficult to date: Haynes believes that it was during the transition to billiard room that the building acquired its elaborate interior plasterwork, and this brings in another contender: Henry Keene (1726-1776). This rare photograph of the inside of the building as it was in March 1952 shows stucco work that bears a strong resemblance to that in the chapel at Hartlebury Castle in Worcestershire, which Keene refitted and reroofed in the Gothic style in around 1750.

The association between Miller and Henry Keene was strong, with the two working together at Hagley in Worcestershire, Chart Park in Surrey and at Arbury in Warwickshire (where Keene probably took up reins as architect following Miller’s deteriorating mental ill-health at the end of 1759) and it is possible that he undertook the interior work of Enville’s summerhouse. To add to the naming confusion the summerhouse was referred to as a ‘Gothic room’ in 1759, yet was still being called a greenhouse by a visitor as late as 1777.

In 1846, soon after the 7th Earl of Stamford inherited, it was refurbished as a Museum for the display of ‘shells, fossils and curiosities’, and that name has now stuck for almost two centuries. By the middle of the twentieth century the building had decayed significantly and its plight gained public attention. Ultimately the principal structure was restored and reroofed by William Hawkes of Cave-Browne-Cave architects in 1988-9. The interior awaits restoration.

There was another Gothic feature at Enville, a ‘Gothic Seat’ which is sometimes misinterpreted as Miller’s building. It is mentioned in a letter of 1754 from John Ivory Talbot of Lacock Abbey to Miller  ‘at Enville we saw an Horrid Massacre of a Fine Gothick design of yours: committed by the Hands of some Shrewsbury man…’ (it was an occasional hazard for architects to have their plans tweaked by owners or masons as soon as their backs were turned). Haynes believes it was the Gothic Seat sited at the west edge of Essex Wood that Talbot was referring to – no views survive, and it fails to get mentioned in any visitors’ accounts after 1759 and so probably disappeared soon after.

Enville is a private estate but opens very occasionally for special events. Keep an eye on their website for details https://envilleestate.com

Please get in touch if you have any thoughts or further information – scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the comments box. Please note that your email address will not be published – only your name will appear. Thank you for reading, and thank you to Michael for this guest post.

The Ruined Castle in the grounds of Hagley Hall, near Stourbridge in Worcestershire, was built by Sir Thomas Lyttleton (1685-1751) in 1747-48 as a feature to be visited, and seen as a prospect, on a walk around his park. His eldest son, George Lyttelton (1709-1773), was probably a driving influence, and together they created one of the most perfect sham ruins in Britain.

Designed by gentleman architect Sanderson Miller, the Castle takes the form of a ruin, with one intact tower and three others in varying stages of decay. Originally, loose blocks of stone were placed artfully around the building to appear as if they had just tumbled down from the ruin. Horace Walpole, not always easy to please, famously found the castle a convincing sham, declaring it had the ‘true rust of the barons’ wars’.

From its inception the Castle was designed to have a practical purpose as well as an aesthetic one. At the top of the main tower there was an elegant room where visitors could take tea. The windows were filled with painted glass and specially-commissioned ‘Gothick’ chairs were designed to complement the architecture. There was also a telescope to admire the prospect. The rest of the building provided a home for the Keeper, and the three ruined towers became a Cow House, Coal House and Poultry House.

Intriguingly, in 1697 Sir Charles Lyttleton (1629-1716), a man who employed an interesting phonetic approach to spelling, wrote to a friend to announce that ‘I phancy a Tower wth Battlements’. His tower was built that same year on high ground in the park, and was used as a place where he could rest on his daily walk, as well as being a lodge for the Keeper. Half a century later, his son and grandson followed his lead and created the castle we see today, presumably sweeping away any remains of the earlier building.

Over the centuries the Castle continued to have a practical purpose, and as the craze for sham ruins waned its principal role became that of an extremely sophisticated shed. This can be seen in this mid-20th century view by Lyndon Goodwin Harris. Harris, RI, RWA, RSW (1928-2006) was born in Halesowen to an amateur artist father whom accounts paint as a domineering man. Sidney Harris collected the works of Albert Goodwin (1845-1932), and such was his admiration for the artist that he gave his son ‘Goodwin’ as a middle name. Harris senior pushed his son into practicing art from a young age, and whether he worked under duress or not, the boy clearly had talent. In 1942, when barely into his teens, his father suggested they ‘try their luck’ at submitting one of his works to the Royal Academy Summer Show. The work was accepted, and ‘Midland Boy Artist, 13, Has Picture In Academy’ was the boast in the local papers.

Harris’s view of the castle at Hagley, which was just a few miles from Halesowen, was painted four years later in 1946. At that date Harris was planning his future, and considering his love of painting buildings, it is not a surprise to learn that he considered a career as an architect, and was awarded a valuable Leverhulme scholarship to attend the Architectural Association School of Architecture. But instead he continued to train as an artist, and took up a scholarship at the Slade School of Art.

Harris produced many works featuring local scenes, including these two views of Halesowen Abbey, a genuine ancient ruin, which by the middle of the 20th century was somewhat swamped by a farm. Ironically, its poor condition may in part be because, according to tradition, masonry was purloined for incorporation into the fake ruin at Hagley. A 19th century account claims that windows from the mediaeval abbey were incorporated into the curtain walls of Lyttelton’s Ruined Castle. In 1750 the poet and gardener William Shenstone tried to beg a couple of Halesowen Abbey’s windows to ‘terminate ye Vista’ in his wood at The Leasowes, just outside Halesowen. There’s no evidence that Shenstone’s wishes were met, but he did incorporate mediaeval fragments into a mock ruined priory (now lost) which he added to his park in 1757.

Although talented, painting does not seem to have made Harris happy, and he is believed to have given up painting after his father died in 1971. He became increasingly reclusive and lived quietly in the family home until 2006. After his death his father’s valuable collection was ‘discovered’ in the house, and the local paper was able to trot out the usual phrases: ‘forgotten art stash’, ’treasure trove’, ‘eccentric bachelor’ and ‘astonished family’.

The history of the Ruined Castle at Hagley included here is entirely based on the work of The Garden Historian, aka Michael Cousins, and The Folly Flâneuse thanks him for generously sharing his research (including the new discovery that there was an earlier castle building). His full account of Hagley was published by The Gardens Trust (formerly the Garden History Society) and you can find out more here https://www.jstor.org/stable/40219948?seq=1

Lyndon Goodwin Harris deserves to be better known, and the Folly Flâneuse is grateful to Neil Jennings for introducing her to his work. Neil Jennings Fine Art has a number of works by Harris available. Contact neiljennings20@gmail.com

Hagley Hall hosts weddings and functions and there is a programme of events, including house tours. Visit the website for further details https://www.hagleyhall.com

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