The Bretton Estate: A Guide to the Historic Lakes and Woodland

500 acres of fields, hills, woodland, lakes and formal gardens combine to create the stunning setting for Yorkshire Sculpture Park. These historic grounds were once part of the Bretton Estate, with a country manor at the centre. As well as housing hundreds of artworks, today the landscape is rich with the stories of Bretton’s former lives.

The Domesday Book listed this land as 'waste' in 1086. In the centuries since, it became an aristocratic home. And each of those who inherited and worked on the estate left their mark. As beautiful as it may be, this landscape is not entirely natural. In fact, its previous owners had it carefully designed and managed to look 'natural'. Their architects, landscape designers and gardeners dug lakes, planted trees, built lodges. They also introduced extravagant, purely ornamental buildings – or follies. Among the wealthy landowners of 18th-century Britain, a folly was a fashionable status symbol, a display of excess.

Many of these fascinating features and romantic relics remain today. Seek them out in the grounds, dotted among the artworks, wildlife and trees.

This publication features full colour site photography documenting the restoration work that took place around historic lakes and woodland of the Bretton Estate between 2010-2011. Texts and contributions by Patrick James and Alex Robinson. Preface by Sir Peter Murray.

- Paperback
- Size: 240mm x 169mm
- 48 pages