Monument record 4549/4/1 - Second Walled Garden at Backford Hall

A sub-rectangular walled garden with a northwest to southeast dividing wall. The dividing wall cuts the garden in to two parts of roughly one third and two thirds. In the smaller part, the map depicts a paths which follows the circumference of the garden. In the larger garden, there is a similar circumference path, but also two paths aligned ninety digress and crossing in the centre. In both gardens trees flank the paths (1).

Elements of the walls to the first walled garden may have been incorporated into the later walled garden. The northern, eastern and dividing walls are still extant, but their structure differs. In part this may be from the re-use coping stones from the first walled garden (CHER 4549/5/1), but the presence of a curved re-enforcement to the northern and dividing wall, but not the eastern wall, may suggest a more complex development of the garden. In addition it is possible that parts of the northern wall are survivals from the earlier garden. The doorway between the two parts of the garden survives (2).

Presumably created as part of the remodelling of the gardens in 1857 (3).

In the early 1970s the drive was closed and a new access road built through the walled gardens from Gordon Lane. In addition, two houses and an office block were built in this area. Although considerable lengths of the wall survive in good condition, these are partially obscured by the late 20th century office buildings. An original entrance in one of the walls is consistent with the central access depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st edition (4).

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<2> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R 08/08/2012 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

<3> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol.2 p.366 (Book). SCH1389.

<4> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2011 onwards, Research and Recording Report, Backford Hall (Report). SCH6655.