Landscape record 15738/2 - Former Garden of The Beeches, Malpas

<1> Howard Dickenson, 2010, St Joseph's College: Historic Landscape Assessment, R3049 (Client Report). SCH5416.

The Beeches was built in the 1880s. Construction must have taken place at much the same time as that of the aqueduct from Lake Vyrnwy in North Wales to Liverpool. This was also constructed in the 1880s and it runs beneath the garden of not many metres from the main house. The house and its grounds all lie within the Conservation Area and contribute to its character.

Visitors and guests would have walked or have been driven past lawned areas edged by fine trees and shrubs to the main entrance. Formal steps still lead down from the entrance terrace to the tennis lawn, walled gardens and woodland walks. The well-sheltered and generously planted gardens have a clearly defined edge where domestic landscaping ends and the farm-land commences and continues into the distance. It is a design which provides a series of ìoutdoor rooms for activities associated with the house and which also provides shelter in an otherwise fairly exposed location on a knoll above the Cheshire plain.

<2> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2015 - 2021, Cheshire Gardens Trust Research and Recording Chester City Reports (Unpublished Report). SCH9313.

A single large, private residence with a lodge by 1910. Included woodland plantations surrounding the grounds, a conservatory, drive, glasshouses, walled garden and orchard.

Current form: plot and features remain including walls and steps of the walled garden but require repair and maintenance. Being developed with retention of many mature trees; some of the historic design will be retained as communal landscape rather than being completely developed and subdivided.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ4847 1898 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

"The Beeches" House, Lodge and gardens first appear on the 2nd edition OS map of 1898