Summary
Early-C17 and C18 garden walls with later repairs and patching to the rear of Marske Hall, including attached storage buildings.
Reasons for Designation
The garden walls and attached storage buildings to the rear of Marske Hall are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Functional: through their layout and use of brick, these walls clearly demonstrate the function of a walled garden in creating a micro-climate for the growth of less hardy fruit and vegetables;
* Date: they retain a significant proportion of pre-1840, as well as pre-1700 fabric;
* Group value: they have strong group value with Marske Hall and its associated structures
History
These walls were constructed to enclose the gardens to Marske Hall (Grade I). The site, which originally housed the manor house of Marske, was bought by William Pennyman in 1616. He constructed the Hall in 1625; the majority of the walls are likely to have been erected at the same time. In 1650 the Lowther family bought the estate; this was due to the fine and limitations inflicted upon James Pennyman, a Royalist, for his involvement in the battle against Oliver Cromwell. The estate was purchased by the Dundas family in 1762; this change of ownership may have spurred the insertion of the dividing wall between the two sections, dated to the C18. The gardens are suggested as having been for recreational use, as well as being used for kitchen gardens and an orchard. The walls have undergone patching and repair work since the time of their construction. This may have included the buttresses to the dividing wall, demonstrated by the combination of materials (which appear to have been reused from elsewhere on site) and the lean the wall was subjected to before its stabilisation.
The Hall had several uses during the C20 until Lord Zetland, Earl of Dundas, donated it to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation in 1961. The gardens are described as having been donated to the Foundation in 1970 by Lord Ronaldshay. Since this time garden structures and sheltered housing have been inserted into the southern of the two walled gardens; this necessitated the removal of a section of original walling to the south. The north wall was lowered during the 1990s; the upper courses have since been reinstated using later handmade bricks. Detached metal supports similar to those used on the adjacent walls were also attached on the south face for additional support. At the time of writing planning approval and Listed Building Consent had been granted for the construction of bungalows within the north garden; these are intended to be built against the walls.
Details
MATERIALS: squared sandstone and brick.
PLAN: the walls enclose two rectangular plan gardens to the north of Marske Hall. The storage building is set in the south-west corner of the southern garden; this breaks through the wall and projects into the yard of Marske Hall.
EXTERIOR: the south boundary of the garden has a high stone wall with two courses of gabled coping with roll moulding. The inner face is supported by three wide stone buttresses with sloped coping to two offsets. The wall is interrupted by a C20 gateway to sheltered housing set within the garden. The section of wall to the east was removed to make way for this new build, although the stonework appears to have been reused in later garden walls and as a building plinth.
The west and east walls in both gardens have lower courses of stone and the remainder of brick with gabled stone coping.
The west wall is ramped up at the north end of the south garden. There are four buttresses to the south garden and three to the north; the latter section is supplemented by modern steel supports. There is a blocked flat-headed doorway to the south end, infilled with stonework.
The east wall has modern steel columns supporting the inner face and stone buttresses on the external face to Hall Close. The section to the south garden is partly obscured by later building.
The north wall is of stone to the lower courses and brick above, with modern steel columns on the inner face. The upper courses have been rebuilt using later handmade bricks. The eastern section of repair had not been completed at the time of inspection, as planning permission had been granted for access to be knocked through in this area.
The cross wall separating the two gardens is of brick with gabled stone coping. It is stepped up towards the west, before a drop in height at the western end. There are five buttresses to the north face; these are a mixture of stone, brick and a combination of the two. The east end stops short to provide an opening between the two gardens, and there is a round-headed brick opening to the west.
The storage building at the south-west corner is single-storey, of squared sandstone with a renewed pantile roof. There are stone corbels to support the stone gable coping. There is a boarded door in the east elevation facing the south garden and a small four-pane window in the north gable end. In the section which projects into the yard there is a matching window to the east elevation and a boarded door to the south gable end.
INTERIOR: the interior of the storage building was not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a lean-to brick shed with missing roof coverings, most probably C19, sits adjacent to the round-headed opening within the north garden. It is largely plain internally save for some metal hooks driven into the garden cross wall, which forms the rear wall of the shed. There is a chimney stack to the south east corner with evidence of fittings for a stove.
