Shannon Gates and Crinkle Crankle Wall at Broke Hall

Summary

A vernacular crinkle-crankle wall forming the north-eastern boundary of the walled garden at Broke Hall, built between 1792 and 1838, with a set of gates constructed in 1859 using salvaged timbers from the HMS Shannon.

Reasons for Designation

The Shannon Gates and crinkle-crankle wall at Broke Hall, Suffolk, a vernacular crinkle-crankle wall forming the north-eastern boundary of the walled garden at Broke Hall, built between 1792 and 1838, with a set of gates constructed in 1859 using salvaged timbers from the HMS Shannon, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the crinkle-crankle method of construction, exhibiting local distinctiveness in its form, materials and craftsmanship;
* for the high quality of the design of the gate, with its symmetrical layout and scrolling neo-Jacobean fretwork.

Historic interest:

* for the association with the HMS Shannon, from which its timbers are reputed to be sourced, and the ship’s nationally celebrated naval history.

Group value:

* for the relationship to the Grade II* Broke Hall, home of ‘Broke of the Shannon’.

History

Broke Hall, also known in its early history as Cow Hall, was the home of the Broke family from 1514. It was first acquired by Richard Broke (d.1529), a Tudor courtier who was knighted and became Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1526. The C16 house was rebuilt in the mid-C18. In 1792, under the ownership of Philip Bowes Broke, the house was again remodelled, to the designs of James Wyatt, and new designs for the landscape were proposed by Humphry Repton.

Repton’s proposed location for a kitchen garden corresponds with that of the walled garden still extant today (2023). The walled garden was certainly in place by 1838 when it was mapped in the tithe apportionment for the parish of Nacton. Its north-eastern wall was constructed in a crinkle-crankle form.

In 1801 Broke Hall passed to Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke (d.1841). Sir Philip was a naval hero of exceptional standing, he commanded the HMS Shannon in the War of 1812 and secured a famous victory over the US frigate Chesapeake, described in the ODNB as the ‘finest single ship action in the history of naval warfare under sail’. When the Shannon was finally broken up in 1859 the ship’s timbers were recycled to produce an elaborate gateway gifted to Sir George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton. J.G. Brighton wrote of the gates and their origin in his 1866 biography of Philip Broke, at which time the ship's figurehead also stood in the house. The Shannon Gates were originally placed at the end of a yew walk to the east of the walled garden but were eventually relocated to the walled garden’s northern crinkle-crankle wall.

The term 'crinkle-crankle' refers to a variety of sinuously curving serpentine brick walling most commonly associated with gardens. The undulating form provides structural rigidity without the need for buttresses or massed brickwork and allows the wall to be constructed with the thickness of a single brick (in this instance the wall is two-bricks thick). The sheltered hollows created by the shape of the walls were found to provide good conditions for plant cultivation. Walls of this type are most likely to be found in East Anglia. Examples are found less frequently elsewhere in the south and south-west of England and are rare in the north. They are often associated with Suffolk and the term 'crinkle-crankle' is believed to have originated as a Suffolk dialect term, but they may exist in similar numbers in Norfolk.

Both the gates and wall are understood to have undergone repairs in the early C21.

Details

A vernacular crinkle-crankle wall forming the north-eastern boundary of the walled garden at Broke Hall, built between 1792 and 1838, with a set of gates constructed in 1859 using salvaged timbers from the HMS Shannon.

MATERIALS

The wall is constructed of hand made red bricks laid in monk bond and the gates are made of oak.

DESCRIPTION

The wall runs from the north to the east corners of the walled garden in seven undulating bays. It is lower at the eastern end where there is evidence of localised repair.

The Shannon Gates stand within the western part of the wall, where the brickwork ramps downwards to meet the outer gate posts.

The gates are built of oak reputedly salvaged from the HMS Shannon in 1859. They comprise two large carriage gates flanked by smaller pedestrian gates. There are four gate posts, each with corner buttress details and octagonal caps. The pedestrian gates have six panels, each filled with decorative boards, and three fleur de lys finials. The larger carriage gates each have two large diagonally boarded panels at their base, and two large upper panels of scrolling neo-Jacobean fretwork. They are surmounted by scrolling openwork. They are hinged with iron straps.

Sources

Books and journals
Bettley, J, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk: East, (2015), 435-436
Williamson, Tom, Suffolk’s Gardens and Parks: Designed Landscapes from the Tudors to the Victorians, (2000), 103-104, 134
Brighton, J.G., Admiral Sir P.B.V. Broke, Bart. K.C.B., etc.: a memoir, (1866), 439-440

Websites
'Broke, Sir Philip Bowes Vere, first Baronet', by J.K. Laughton, revised by Andrew Lambert in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (May 2009), accessed 13/09/23 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/3495
'Broke, Sir Richard', by J.H. Baker in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (January 2008), accessed 13/09/23 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/3496

Other
Adkinson's Estate map 1768
Map from Repton's Red Book for Nacton 1792
Ordnance Survey map 25", published 1881
"Suffolk’s Unforgettable Garden Story Site Record" - Suffolk Garden's Trust, 2023

End of official list entry

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