page_title: South Stoneham House
section_title: Grounds and gardens
hierarchical_section_title: South Stoneham House / Grounds and gardens
caption_attribution_description: English: South Stoneham Tower
context_page_description: South Stoneham House is a Grade II* listed former manor house in Swaythling, Southampton; the former seat of the Barons Swaythling before the family moved to the nearby Townhill Park House. The building is owned by the University of Southampton, and was used as a hall of residence, part of the Wessex Lane Halls complex.
  Originally known as Bishop's Stoneham, the records of the manor date from the 11th century, but the current house was constructed in the early 18th century. It has been attributed to Nicholas Hawksmoor with the gardens and landscaping attributed to Lancelot "Capability" Brown. The house is located close to the River Itchen and Monks Brook and the manor's previous owners include the Willis-Fleming family of nearby North Stoneham and Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling.
  After Montagu's death in 1911 his son elected to continue living at nearby Townhill Park House, and South Stoneham was subsequently sold to University College Southampton for use as student accommodation. In 1964 the building was considerably altered by adding a 17-storey tower and a kitchen and dining complex to the building.
context_section_description: The estate was landscaped some time after 1722 by Lancelot "Capability" Brown and Kelly's Directory of 1915 described the house as being "pleasantly seated". At that time the grounds comprised 110 acres, with 5 acres of water, which would have included parts of Monks Brook (including the salmon pool that it flows into) and the River Itchen and the modern Riverside Park. However 100 years earlier the estate was more extensive, being described thus in The Times on 21 June 1815:
  A highly valuable and very compact FREEHOLD ESTATE, comprising the manor or reputed manor of South Stoneham, and the capital Mansion, called South Stoneham-house, most delightfully situate on the banks of the Itchen river, distant only two miles and a half from Southampton, with offices of every description for a family of respectability, gardens, pleasure grounds, hot houses, ice house, sheets of water, fish ponds, and 360 customary acres of arable, meadow, and wood land, about 40 acres of which form a beautiful paddock, in which the mansion stands; the remainder divided into a farm, with farm house and buildings ... 
  — The Times, 21 June 1815
  In 1839 the estate was described as not particularly extensive, but notable for its groups of "patrician" elm trees. Architect Leonard Rome Guthrie redesigned part of the gardens at South Stoneham House in 1906 prior to moving on to contribute to the design of those at Townhill Park House.
  It has been suggested that the ponds are relics of the "2 fisheries" mentioned in the Domesday Book entry for the site. The gardens and salmon pool were the subject of an oil painting by the neo-classical painter Adam Buck; the painting, measuring 35 inches by 57 inches, sold at auction at Sotheby's in London for £3,200 on 27 November 1974. Some of Capability Brown's signature cedars of Lebanon still surround the house today.
caption: Mature trees in the front gardens in 2013
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