Description

CROFT-ON-TEES HALNABY
NZ 20 NE
8/32 Walled Garden and
Orangery

GV II

Walled garden and former orangery. Mid C18. For Ralph Milbanke of Halnaby
Hall. Red brick in English garden wall bond with brown sandstone ashlar
dressings and wrought-iron gates. Wall approximately 3 metres high,
quadrangular in plan, with gateway in centre of south side and orangery in
centre of north side. The wall has been increased in height approximately
500 mm and has ashlar coping. In the west wall is a board door in
segmental-arched opening about one-quarter way from south-west corner. In
the centre of the south side the walls sweep sharply down to a gateway, with
attached ashlar gate piers of chamfered rusticated quoin strips flanking
plain Tuscan pilaster with horizontal tooling to north and south, on
chamfered bases and with cornice capitals above plain frieze; the
easternmost capital dismantled at the time of the resurvey. The gates,
stored elsewhere at the time of the resurvey, have square bars with
corkscrew finials at the top and inverted-V-shaped finials to intermediate
bars above central scrolled decorative panels; one gate has a small wicket
section; the upper cross-piece has ligatured initials of Ralph Milbanke
readable from both sides, and with a 3-dimensional arrangement of branches
with leaves and fruit. In centre of north side the orangery, comprising a
semicircular recess in garden wall with side walls projecting forwards and
roofed projection to rear; in front of it an ashlar terrace with moulded
edge and protective C20 screen wall of glazed panels in brickwork
(incomplete at time of resurvey). At either end of this, rusticated ashlar
piers terminating the side walls which rise rearwards to similar, taller
piers with pedimented capitals. In the centre, a C20 perspex protective
half-dome set against a boarded gable. Rear of orangery: on ground and
first floors, 2 side-sliding sash windows with flat arches, the ground-floor
window frames incomplete; rear wall rises to form swept gable, formerly with
apex chimney; coped gables; pitched roof of Westmorland slates. Inside the
orangery, paved floor continuous with terrace; half-dome over recess has
decorative plasterwork with cornice with bead-and-reel and rope motifs,
half-quatrefoils with ribbon, acanthus leaf and shell motifs, and in the
centre a concave quatrefoil. The wall containing the recess was heated,
having cavity and stoke-holes reached from rear part of orangery (one
stoke-hole later blocked, the other used for C19 boiler). The first floor
of the rear part of the orangery, reached by ladder, has racks for storing
fruit behind slatted partitions to protect it from vermin. Sacking, stored
on rollers, and surviving in a fragmentary condition, was moved into
position to protect fruit trees in orangery from frosts. To the right of
the orangery are 3 altered windows to bothy behind wall and not of special
interest. To the left of the orangery, a segmental-arched doorway with C18
wrought-iron gate of square bars, inverted-V-shaped finials to the
intermediate bars above a scrolled central panel; added on the top, and now
detached, the initials of John Todd who bought the Halnaby estate in 1843.
Lead rainwater pipes and heads on the orangery, since stolen, were cast with
a date in the 1750s.

Listing NGR: NZ2605806682

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26424335

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)