Summary

Walled garden built around 1780, with glasshouse and alterations of around 1880.

Description

Walled garden built around 1780, with glasshouse and alterations of around 1880.

MATERIALS: the garden walls are constructed of red brick. The glasshouse is timber-framed and glazed over a Suffolk white brick plinth.

PLAN: the walled garden is roughly square on plan, aligned north-north-west to south-south-east, with a central gated opening along its south side facing the mansion of Grove Park. It measures around 0.6 hectares in area. A range of glasshouses is centrally located along the interior of the north wall of the garden and extends slightly further along the west side where it is detached from the wall; the central section of the glasshouse is canted.

DESCRIPTION: the walled garden was constructed around 1780 and is roughly square on plan with red brick corner piers, and walls around 3m in height laid in monk bond, coped with an oversailing course. Generally, the walls were raised by an additional metre or so around 1880; the east side of the south wall was not raised. A variety of stepped and sloping buttresses have been added along the exterior and interior of the south and west walls. The central section of the north wall was raised to around 5m in height around 1880, when a tall lean-to glasshouse was added to the interior of the wall, with high-level segmental-arched window openings for ventilation. Behind the central section of the glasshouse, the wall is raised further with a short triangular gable containing a round window. A chimneybreast was added to the exterior of the north wall around 1880, at the junction between the tall lean-to glasshouse and attached single-storey range to the west.

There are four gated openings: the segmental-arched opening at the centre of the south wall has C20 wrought-iron gates with arrowhead finials to the two mid- rails; the segmental-arched opening at the west end of the south wall has double timber doors with wrought-iron strap hinges and nail studs; at the north end of the west wall are a segmental-arched timber-battened door and C20 window to a potting shed; and at the north end of the east wall a segmental-arched door opening containing a panelled door.

The range of glasshouses along the north wall appears to have been constructed around 1880 and comprises a central, double-height canted section, flanked by double-height glasshouses leaning against the north wall. The structures are timber-framed and glazed over a Suffolk white brick plinth. The central canted section has double glazed doors, fixed windows to the lower level, bottom-hung casement windows to the upper level, a decorative wind vane and some decorative ridge finials (incomplete). The interior of the canted section has wrought-iron tie beams with decorative drop finials, and a mechanical system for opening the top windows. The attached, double-height lean-to glasshouses have a glazed door to each of their east and west sides. Attached to the west end is a single-storey glasshouse, detached from the wall, with a saltbox roof, red brick rear wall, and a timber-framed glazed door on the west side.

A small rectangular-plan potting shed is attached to the exterior of the north end of the west wall, and has a lean-to roof with corrugated-sheeting, red brick walls, a flat-arched timber door to the south side, and a six-paned window to the west side.

History

Grove Park may have originated as the medieval manor of Stikeland, with a house known as ‘Burtons’ built around 1500 where the walled garden now stands. Burtons was considered one of the most important houses in the parish and stood adjacent a wood called ‘The Lady’s Grove’. The house was purchased by Eleazar Davy (c.1724-1802) in 1772 and was greatly enlarged by him between around 1777 and 1778. Grove Park in its present form was remodelled for Davy and a substantial house built which became known as The Grove, and later as Grove House. In 1775 the footpath across the park was closed, suggesting the parkland was being formalised at that time, and is shown on Hodskinson’s Map of Suffolk (1783). Around 1785 the park was extended to the south-east to meet the turnpike road (now the A12).

It is most likely that the walled garden was built during Davy’s ownership around 1780. Its distinctive square plan form is shown on the 1839 Tithe map, with a rectangular-plan structure along the east half of the north wall. The walled garden is recorded on the Tithe apportionment as a ‘garden’, bounded on all sides by a plantation.

Grove House was acquired around 1865 by Thomas Lomax, a wealthy barrister, who was credited in White’s Suffolk Directory in 1874 with restoring and much improving the mansion and laying out new gardens. He was also responsible for changing the property’s name from Grove House to Grove Park, and for the extensive heated greenhouses that survive along the north wall of the walled garden. The 25-inch Ordnance Survey (OS) map surveyed in 1883 and published in 1884 shows the walled garden with a long range of glasshouses along the interior of the north wall, with a central projecting bay on axis with the central path and south gateway. The OS map shows paths through the four gate openings (which all survive), and the single-storey potting shed attached to the exterior of the north end of the west wall. A sales advertisement for the estate in 1935 recorded that the kitchen garden was well stocked with wall espalier and standard apples, pears etc, numerous gooseberry and raspberry canes, two asparagus beds, a range of heated glasshouses containing vines, Muscat of Alexandria, peach and nectarines, Victoria, Duke of York and Elruge and a small, detached forcing house. The small, detached forcing house (shown on the 1884 OS map) stood near the northwest corner of the garden, however was demolished in the late C20.

Reasons for Listing

The walled garden and glasshouse at Grove Park are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a multi-phased and impressive structure, constructed in two phases around 1780 and 1880;
* for the architectural quality and scale of the construction, illustrating the design ambitions and social pretensions of the owners in the late C18 and late C19;
* for the high proportion of historic fabric that survives in the red brick walled garden and glasshouse.

Historic interest:

* as a key design element of the historic designed landscape of Grove Park, which has evolved over at least 250 years;
* for the relatively early date of construction of the walled garden, which pre-dates the proliferation of detached walled gardens in the mid-C19.

Group value:

* for the strong functional and historic group value they hold with the Grade II listed country house at Grove Park. Together they form a strong ensemble of designated heritage assets of historic significance.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)