Summary

Fernery wall built c.1864.

Description

Fernery wall built c.1864.

MATERIALS: roughly squared and coursed stone rubble with the mortar set back from the face, and terracotta fern bricks.

PLAN: it is located in the north-eastern part of the fernery and forms a retaining wall c.5m in length.

EXTERIOR: the fernery wall is rustic in character. It has flat stone coping and a central, round arched alcove, the arch ring formed of stones with roughly chamfered edges which together form a rustic chevron pattern. Set within the stonework are fifteen Watsonian Patent Fern Bricks, five within the alcove and five either side. These are approximately square and have a circular recess with a shelf for a detachable bowl or pot and a hole for drainage. None of these bowls or pots survives but it is known from contemporary catalogues that they took the form of a shell which partly projected beyond the vertical surface of the wall. The upper part of the surround is embellished with an inverted dentilation and dogtooth pattern, and the spandrels are decorated with an incised floral pattern. They contain small roundels with ‘AD’ and ‘1860’ in raised lettering, and the corresponding roundels in the bottom corners have ‘WP’ and ‘FB’ (standing for Watsonian Patent Fern Brick).

The wall has been extended by approximately 3m at the north-western end using a combination of rubble and roughly dressed stone.

History

Newstead Abbey was founded as a priory between 1163 and 1173. After the Dissolution it was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1539 and acquired by Sir John Byron in 1540. The fifth Sir John Byron was created Lord Byron in 1643 by Charles I. In the early C18 the gardens and ponds were laid out for the fourth Lord Byron. William, the fifth Lord Byron (1722-98), known as the Wicked Lord, who succeeded to the title in 1736, had two castellated forts built in the early C18 but neglected the estate towards the end of his life. His great-nephew, the poet George Gordon (1788-1824) became the sixth Lord Byron but due to remaining debts on the estate he had to sell the Abbey. In 1817 it was purchased by Colonel Thomas Wildman who commissioned John Shaw to make additions between 1818 and c.1830 when the gardens were also altered. On Wildman’s death in 1860 the Abbey was sold to William F. Webb, and during his family’s ownership more building and laying out of gardens took place. The Abbey was sold by Mr Webb’s grandson to Sir Julian Cahn who presented it to the City of Nottingham in 1931, and it remains in local authority ownership (2016).

The Fernery was laid out around 1864 by the head gardener Mr Anderson under the direct supervision of Mrs William Frederick Webb (1826-1889) who, along with her daughters Geraldine and Ethel, also introduced Venetia’s Garden, the Spanish Garden and the Japanese Garden. According to Victorian guidebooks, the banks of the fernery were ‘built up of rough stones of various sizes, placed so as to admit of the ferns being arranged in the proper manner’. Pulhamite rock was also used, and some of the old carved stones probably came from the ruins of the priory church. In a souvenir of Newstead Abbey from 1874, the fernery is described as containing ‘every known specimen of the genus crytogramic’ and displaying ‘great knowledge of the nature, habits, and character of the plants themselves; an eye to the beautiful, in grouping; and a highly cultivated and classical taste in the conception of the grottoes. […] As a whole, we doubt if there is a more interesting, well arranged, or complete fernery and rockery combined, in England.’

The terracotta planters built into the fernery wall were patented in 1859 in the name of George Churchill Watson, ‘of the City of Chester, Physician’, as ‘Novel and Artistic Bricks or lumps for the reception, growth and propagation of ferns, mosses and other plants’. Known as Watsonian Patent Fern Bricks, they came in three sizes and could be hung up on their own, built into walls, or the smallest size bricks could be formed into a column under a glass case and placed indoors on tables. Dr Watson qualified as MD in Edinburgh in 1833 and worked in Liverpool, London and Dublin, before moving to Chester in 1854 where he remained until his death in 1876. His patent fern bricks were manufactured by the Garrett Brothers who traded from Brownhills, Burslem in Staffordshire, and were sold by appointed agents F. & G. Rosher of London.

Reasons for Listing

The Newstead Abbey fernery wall, built in the 1860s, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: it is a well-preserved and fascinating representation of the fern craze, one of the defining horticultural interests of the Victorian period;

* Design interest: it is an excellent example of a fernery structure in an appropriately rustic design intended to invoke the original primeval setting of ferns which had emerged around 130 million years before the first dinosaurs;

* Rarity: the fern bricks are an extremely rare survival, and they have remained in a well-preserved state with the exception of the detachable bowls;

* Group value: it has strong group with the fernery grotto and with the many listed buildings at Newstead Abbey, and forms an intrinsic element in the historic Grade II* registered park.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q66477729

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.

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