Stanage Park is located on the south side of the Teme valley to the west of Knighton, on the English border. Its associated park (nprn 405466) is noted as an outstanding example of picturesque parkland laid out by the famous landscaper Humphry Repton (1752-1818). His picturesque improvements, castellated house (140661) and enclosed garden survive almost intact and are recorded in a 'Red Book', still kept at the house. A later nineteenth-century arboretum and formal terraced gardens lie to the north and west of the house. 

The gardens and wooded pleasure grounds of Stanage Park lie to the east and north of the house. In total the gardens (excluding the utilitarian garden) and arboretum cover about 10 acres. The garden is composed primarily of two large, levelled, lawned terraces which are separated by the east drive as it enters the forecourt. The terraces are enclosed by an ornamental crenellated stone wall on the south and east (22942).

The pleasure grounds lie within Park Bank Wood, the hill above the house to the north. The lines of old rides and walks, which survive as forestry tracks, run around the hill. Near the centre of the wood (at SO33157201), there is a late nineteenth-century feature, the Labyrinth, an overgrown rectangular maze of beech and yew laid out around a central oak. Above the Labyrinth, on the north-west side of the hill, some surviving mature broadleaf planting marks the position of the Ladies' Avenue, where the views were enjoyed out over Knighton and the Teme valley. Nearby is Jubilee point where a beacon was lit to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. Back down the track on the east is the entrance to an extensive Victorian arboretum, which lies on the south-east side of the wood.

The arboretum dates from about 1840 onwards. By 1900, the planting had been developed by Charles Coltman-Rogers, a well-known planter and keen amateur arboriculturist and author, who created the main part of the arboretum and inserting ornamental stands within the park plantations towards the end of the nineteenth century.

The kitchen garden and its eastern extension lie just north of the north garden and house (700366).

Sources:
Cadw 1999: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Powys, (ref: PGW (Po)24(POW)).
Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map: Shropshire LXXVI.16 (1889).  
RCAHMW air photos: 955031/50-3; 965145/41.

RCAHMW, 13 July 2022