Halswell Park

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This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by English Heritage for its special historic interest.
www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/...
In the Saxon and Norman period, Halswell formed a distinct property within the heavily wooded parish of Goathurst (VCH 1992). By the late C13 Peter of Halswell held Halswell for one quarter knight's fee, while in 1318 William Halswell was licensed to have mass celebrated in his private chapel.
In 1603 Nicholas Halswell became MP for Bridgwater, and was subsequently knighted. Halswell was conveyed to his son Henry in 1628, and passed to Henry's brother, Dr Hugh Halswell, a Proctor of Oxford University in 1636. The estate was placed in trust for Dr Halswell's nephew, Halswell Tynte, whose mother was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Halswell who had married John Tynte of Chelvey Court c 1640. Tynte inherited the property on the death of Dr Halswell in 1672, and the following year was granted a baronetcy. Sir Halswell Tynte settled at Halswell, and in 1689 completed the construction of a new Palladian wing to the north of the C16 and C17 house.
An early C18 painting (private collection) shows formal terraced gardens and parkland to the north-east of the House which were associated with the late C17 remodelling of the House. Halswell was inherited in 1702 by Sir Halswell's son, Sir John, who had married the heiress of Sir Charles Keymes of Cefan Mably, Glamorganshire. Sir John was succeeded in 1710 by his eldest son, Sir Halswell Tynte, who died in 1730, leaving the estate to his unmarried brother, the Rev John Tynte, Rector of Goathurst. Sir John's third son, Sir Charles Keymes Tynte, succeeded the Rev Sir John Tynte in 1740, and in 1747 inherited the Welsh properties belonging to his mother's family. Sir Charles sat in Parliament as Member for Somerset until 1774, and was a leading figure in the county.
Richard Escott, appointed estate steward in 1753, wrote a detailed account of Sir Charles¿ mid C18 improvements (Escott Memorandum). These included the extension of the park to the east and west of the House, and the construction of a series of ornamental structures in Mill Wood and elsewhere in the pleasure grounds, the design for several of which has been attributed by Gervase Jackson-Stops to Thomas Wright (CL 1989). Halswell was extensively visited in the mid and late C18, with a detailed description being written by Arthur Young in 1771. Work in the grounds at Halswell continued up to Sir Charles' death in 1785, when the property passed to his widow, who remained in occupation until her own death in 1798. The estate was inherited by Sir Charles' niece, Mrs Johnson (d 1825), who assumed the name Keymes Tynte but did not reside at Halswell; in 1821 Mrs Johnson's son, Charles Keymes Tynte MP, was living at Halswell.
The ninth Lord Wharton sold Halswell in 1950, and the estate was divided into several parts. Trees in the park and Mill Wood were felled and the stables and outbuildings divided into flats. The estate remains in divided private ownership today (1999). The Temple of Harmony and Robin Hood's Hut were vested in the Halswell Park Trust in 1994, and were restored in 1996-9.