Monument record 1281/3/2 - Ashley Hall Kitchen Gardens

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58382 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Wall of Kitchen Garden to south of house. Seventeenth and eighteenth century. Red English garden wall bond brick, with stone gate piers and wall cappings. Three surviving walls of approximately twelve to fifteen feet with canted buttresses to rear wall. East wall has central eighteenth century gate piers of ashlar with moulded flat caps. Two wrought-iron gates. Rear wall has seventeenth century central openings with basket arch and outer relieving arch with rubbed brick voussoirs.

<2> Donald Insall Associates, 2019, The South Range, Ashley Hall, Tatton Estate, Altrincham WA14 3QA: Heritage, Design and Access Statement, p.2 (Client Report). SCH9143.

The Kitchen Garden Wall appears to be part of a later development of the grounds in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, The Ordnance Survey map from 1877 (see 5) shows the grounds within the walled garden as an orchard. By the time of the 1882 Ordnance Survey map (see 8) some of these areas had been rearranged into formal gardens and, by 1898 (see 6), some glass-roofed buildings appear to the south of the hall, likely to be greenhouses in association with the creation or reconfiguration of a kitchen garden.

<3> Bryant, A., 1831, Map of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH2114.

This map depicts a rectangular enclosure to the south of the hall.

<4> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 20/2, 1838 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

This map depicts two rectangular enclosures to the south of the hall. The southern enclosure contains a small square building towards its western end.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7684, 1877 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

This map depicts the walled garden, with probable fruit trees at its northern end and in a line along the western side. A further L shaped garden is located to the east which contains two small buildings, possible individual fruit trees and coniferous trees. To the south of these gardens, and wrapping around the western side of the walled garden, is a further garden, again containing some probable fruit trees, and a building with an attached glasshouse in the south-western corner. A small range of buildings is located between the hall and the walled garden.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7684, 1898 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

A new range of buildings and glasshouses have been constructed at the end of the walled garden, replacing the existing buildings. This map depicts some paths in the garden to the east and the glasshouse in the southern garden has been removed. No trees are depicted.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ7684, 1909 (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

This map depicts an orchard in the southern garden.

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1881-2, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 6 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ78SE, 1882 (Maps and Plans). SCH2474.