Walled garden at Holbrook House

Summary

Crinkle-crankle walled garden to Holbrook House, built in the late C18 or early C19.

Reasons for Designation

The crinkle-crankle wall at Holbrook House is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a well-preserved example of a crinkle-crankle wall, a regionally distinctive variation in walled garden design that is found predominantly in East Anglia, and especially in Suffolk;
* the undulating form of the wall is visually arresting, and the brickwork demonstrates particularly skilled craftsmanship;
* the alignment of its highly ornate gates with the entrance to the rebuilt Holbrook House creates an ensemble of evident aesthetic quality.

Historic interest:

* in its use of fewer bricks as a response to the Brick Tax, it directly illustrates the national influence of economic conditions on architectural style and development.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the Grade II listed Holbrook House, and with the almost fifty other listed buildings on the site of the Royal Hospital School, all designed by Buckland and Heywood.

History

The term 'crinkle-crankle' refers to a variety of sinuously curving serpentine brick walling most commonly associated with gardens. It is not known exactly when they were first introduced in England but, according to an article in ‘Country Life’, it could have been during the C17 when Dutch engineers were hired to assist in the draining of the Fens to transform the marshes into farmland. Instead of building straight walls two bricks thick, the Dutch walls were only one brick thick and wavy, negating the need for buttresses or massed brickwork. They required shallower foundations which were more adaptable to the soggy, wet, and unstable conditions; and the alternate convex and concave curves offered less of an exposed target to the winds that blew across the flat Fens.

The fewer bricks that were needed to build a crinkle-crankle wall was a distinct advantage after the introduction of the Brick Tax in 1784; and there was considerable experimentation in their construction in the late C18 and early C19. Bricks were made bigger to reduce the impact of the tax, but the government responded by imposing a standard size on bricks in 1801, ten inches by 5 by 3, and doubled the tax rate on larger bricks. As larger bricks were no longer a means of avoiding the tax, designs requiring fewer bricks became even more preferable. The first half of the C19 (the tax was abolished in 1850) thus became the heyday of the crinkle-crankle wall, and most of the surviving examples date to this period.  The sheltered hollows created by the shape of the walls were also 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 where those that are dateable are, at their earliest, late C18 or early C19. In 1813 Arthur Young, the famous agricultural writer, commented on this type of walling in Suffolk as being ’not common elsewhere’. His comment that ’the introduction of this method [of walling] is not of sufficient date, to ascertain it satisfactorily’ implies that it was a new practice.  

The earliest available map on which the crinkle-crankle wall at Holbrook House is shown is the Tithe Map of 1838, although the wall is likely to have been built in the late C18 or early C19. It appears to have been built in two phases with the crinkle-crankle walls on the south-west and south-east sides being earlier that the straight walls along the other two sides. The Tithe Map shows the long rectangular shape of the wall but its distinctive crinkle-crankle form is not indicated. It is located a short distance south of Holbrook House (demolished in the 1930s) and is bordered by an area of woodland to the north and east. This woodland may have been planted as a shelter belt to help mitigate the effects of strong and cold winds on the garden, or the siting of the walled garden may have taken advantage of an existing area of woodland. The next available map evidence is that of the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1882 which shows a pathway around the inner edge of the walled garden and two glasshouses on the long north-east wall (since removed). Along the outer edge of the south-west wall is a long narrow strip of land which is bordered on the other side by a line of trees. It is very likely that this was a slip garden, an area of land around the main walled garden that was prized as a profitable area for growing, gaining a degree of shelter from the wall, that was well-suited to growing hardy root vegetables.

In 1921 the Holbrook estate was donated by its owner Gifford Sherman Reade (1846-1929) for the site of a new Royal Hospital School, in recognition of the protection the Royal Navy provided to his tea cargoes from Assam during the First World War. His generous gift was, in his own words ‘to ensure that the British Navy should never lack for material to keep her in the forefront of the navies of the world.' The Royal Hospital School (RHS) was founded in 1712 at Greenwich to provide an education for the sons of seamen. It is maintained by the ancient Royal Charity known as Greenwich Hospital which was established under Royal Charter of William and Mary in 1694. The new school was designed by Buckland and Heywood and laid out on agricultural land to the south-west of Holbrook House. This was later demolished and a new house, also called Holbrook House, was built for the Superintendant (now known as the Headmaster), on an alignment with the walled garden. The kitchen garden originally supplied the school, but is now part of the garden belonging to the Headmaster’s house. Holbrook House is listed at Grade II, along with almost all of the original school buildings, except for the main range and the chapel which are listed at Grade II*.

Details

Crinkle-crankle walled garden to Holbrook House, built in the late C18 or early C19.

MATERIALS: the walls are built of handmade red brick, with the exception of a rebuilt section in machine-made brick at the north end of the south-west wall. The south-east and south-west crinkle-crankle walls are laid in stretcher bond with a coping of chamfered brick. The remaining two walls are laid in a variation of Flemish bond: the north-east side has two stretchers and a header, and the north-west side has three stretchers and a header, both with saddleback coping.

PLAN: the walled garden is oriented south-east to north-west on gently sloping ground to the north-west. It has a long rectangular plan with a small wing on the north-west corner.

EXTERIOR: the main entrance to the walled garden is on the short south-east crinkle-crankle wall, which is aligned with the front door of Holbrook House. Ornate double-leaf wrought iron gates are hung between brick gate piers surmounted by stone lion heads, flanked by short raking buttresses. Similar buttresses are positioned at intervals on the inner side of this wall, whilst tall, stepped buttresses support the long south-west crinkle-crankle wall on its inner side. Tall, shallow buttresses are positioned along the inner side of the short, straight north-west wall. The long straight north-east wall has pockmarks in the brick and the remains of white wash, indicating that fruit trees were attached and trained on it.

There are three other entrances to the garden: on the north-west side, and at the northern end of the north-east and south-west sides. It is very likely they are in the original locations as they align with the paths shown on the 1882 map, although the plank and batten doors with long strap hinges and latches are not original.

The path running around the inner edge of the walled garden is laid in basketweave brick on the north-east side and crazy paving on the south-west side, with short flights of concrete steps at the southern end. None of these materials are original, although the paths are in the same position as shown on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map. The garden is laid to lawn with flower borders and some fruit bushes at the northern end.

Sources

Books and journals
Hudson, Jules, Walled Gardens, (2018)

Websites
Martin Fone, ‘Curious Questions: What is a crinkle-crankle wall?’ (14 May 2022), accessed 7 December 2023 from https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/curious-questions-what-is-a-crinkle-crankle-wall-242562

Other
J. O’Neill, ‘Walls in Half-Circles and Serpentine Walls’, Garden History, vol. 6 no. 3, Winter 1980, 69-76.

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