Ravenfield Park was established as a formal designed landscape by the early 17th century as evidenced by an engraving by Thomas Badeslade of c1740 which shows impressive formal avenues and smaller geometrical gardens and lawns in the French style. The three artificial ponds are shown on Bladeslade's drawing as are two wooded areas to the north west. Deer are depicted on an open area to the north of the ponds. The formal layout of the park is well maintained between the Badeslade drawing and a 1764 Fairbank survey. By 1855 (possibly between 1866 and 1874 [http://www.rotherhamunofficial.co.uk/villages/ravenfield.htm]) the parkland had been remodelled in the informal naturalistic style popularised by Brown and Repton in the later 18th century. Significant legibility of early 18th century garden features. Exact date of abandonment as formal landscape unknown - main area of Ravenfield park last shown as parkland by Ordnance Survey maps in 1938 - resurveyed as farmland by 1967.