MARTIN O’ROURKE

CONSERVATION – REGENERATION [email protected] tel: 0044(0)789506383

61 Beacon Rise Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8AX

The Walled Garden, Bramston’s Roding Lane

A Heritage Appraisal and Approach to the repair and Restoration of the Heritage Asset

January 2018

1 Purpose of the Report This report aims to describe the extent, condition and heritage significance of the walled garden situated to the north of Branston’s, Roding Lane, Chigwell. A survey of the existing walls and their condition will be described. Methods of repair and restoration will be indicated that are appropriately sympathetic to the conservation of the heritage asset.

2 Site History

This walled garden forms part of the curtilage of Bramston’s, a house on the east side of Roding Lane, north of Chigwell village. The walled garden is situated to the north west of Bramston’s house.

Sir Eliab Harvey Nugent (1750-1830), of HMS Temeraire at Trafalgar, bought Chigwell Manor in the later 18th century. After his death he left the property to his daughter Elizabeth. She married Thomas William Bramston (1796-1871) of Skeens Hall . Chigwell Manor passed to his son, Thomas Harvey Bramston, until 1881 when it passed to Alfred Savill (1829- 1905). Two generations of the Bramston family lived on this ancient site.

The Tithe Award of 1839 shows Thomas William Bramston as owner of 6 acres held by Owen Sparrow with 18 acres of “garden piece” retained by Bramston. There was also a further 4 acres and a stock yard. Thomas Bramston’s 18 acres, together with the substantial walled garden would have supported stock, arable and fruit/vegetable gardening. A now-lost drawing of 1873 illustrated “Old Manor Farm Chigwell showing a timber framed house with clustered stacks of Tudor date.” (History of Chigwell Erith)

2nd Edition O.S. 1896

O.S. Map 1940

The present Bramston’s was built in 1908 for the owner Lawrence Savill. He was the son of Alfred Savill (1829-1905), a chartered surveyor and one of the founders of the present-day Savills surveying practice. The site of Bramston’s contains the site of the 17th century Tudor Chigwell Manor house, which was abandoned when the current Chigwell Manor was built to the south west by Richard Norman Shaw in 1876 for Alfred Savill (now the Metropolitan Police Sports & Social Club). The original medieval manor house had been located to the north of the Tudor manor house. The remaining medieval moated site was obliterated during the construction of the RAF base in 1937 which also took most of Bramston’s land. The Tudor manor house had been abandoned when the current Chigwell Hall was erected. The empty Tudor house was demolished shortly before Bramston’s was built.

3 The Walled Garden The walled garden to the north west of Branston’s pre-dates this 1908 house by up to 200 years. It is of impressive scale, occupying about one third of the house grounds. It now contains mature trees, an orchard and hedged enclosures, contained by a brick wall of substantial form and height.

Three sides of the wall (west, north and east) are 3700 high and built in local red brick, laid in Flemish bond and lime mortar. The wall is topped with a brick on edge coping. The south wall, for the majority of its length, has been reduced to 1500 high, probably when Bramston’s was built in 1908 to provide a view. About one third of the south wall at the eastern end has been removed with a change in ground level marking its original position.

4 Heritage Significance Growing vegetables, fruit and flowers in walled gardens was widely practised in the grounds of larger houses. The temperature within the enclosure can be several degrees higher than outside as shelter is provided from driving wind. The walled garden at Bramston’s is a particularly extensive and impressive landscape feature of heritage significance, both as an 18th century garden construction and as a memory of the earlier Chigwell Hall. The Bramston walled garden must be amongst the largest in the county.

The establishment and growth of English villages is historically linked with manorial land holdings. The form and development of Chigwell Manor and its grounds have been an important contributor to the growth of Chigwell, with the walled garden being an impressive and significant survival of manorial life and land management before the building of the present Chigwell Hall.

5 Repair and Restoration Any reassessment of the use of the Bramston’s site should include a programme of repair and restoration for this important historic garden structure: 1) Some sections of the wall need to be repaired or partially rebuilt (e.g sections of upper wall and copings) to secure structural integrity. This must be carried out in matching bricks, laid in matching bond. All work must be by hand tools to avoid the damage that may be caused by machine tools.

2) Where repointing is necessary, joints should be carefully raked out by hand to a minimum of twice the height of the joint. Repointing to be 1.2.9 (1 cement. 2 hydrated lime 9 washed sharp sand) with a flush profile finished with a bristle brush just before set to raise the grit.

3) Special care is needed to ensure that retention of existing fabric, sensitively repaired, is always preferred to replacement brickwork.

4) A plan highlighting the areas and types of repair should be drawn up for the full extent of the garden, indicating appropriate repair and conservation techniques in each instance.

5) Following the repair and conservation of the structure, a suitable landscape plan should be drawn up to ensure a sympathetic and sustainable ongoing use for this important heritage asset. As well as new planting the plan should indicate the retention of the existing mature trees and apple orchard.