walled garden

Square-plan walled garden, built c. 1850, having square-plan entrance tower to east elevation. Yellow brick walls, laid in Flemish bond, having yellow brick capping. Stepped pilasters to exterior of east elevation. Rubble stone to base of west wall. Walls to south and north elevations recently rebuilt. Square-headed door opening to south elevation of tower, with rendered reveals and cast-iron gate. Round-headed opening to tower and to west elevation, with yellow brick surrounds, and wrought-iron gates set within screens with wrought-iron tympanums. Yew hedges flanking pathway to centre of garden and to west entrance. Situated within complex of more recent walled gardens to north and rose garden to west.

Benjamin Lee purchased Thornhill Estate with his brother, Arthur, in 1835 and renamed it St. Ann’s Estate after an adjacent holy well. He set about enhancing and landscaping the grounds, and constructed several Classical and rustic follies. This walled garden was added to supplement an earlier walled garden which adjoined the rear of the house, to the east of this site. The yew hedges, which survive in good condition, are of particular note and are an interesting example of formal garden design in the nineteenth century. They suggest that this garden may have been employed as a pleasure garden as well as providing food for the house.