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Newhailes, Walled Garden

Walled Garden (Late 18th Century)

Site Name Newhailes, Walled Garden

Classification Walled Garden (Late 18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Newhailes House; Kitchen Garden

Canmore ID 123536

Site Number NT37SW 168.07

NGR NT 32546 72496

NGR Description Centred on NT 32546 72496

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/123536

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council East Lothian
  • Parish Inveresk (East Lothian)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District East Lothian
  • Former County Midlothian

Summary Record (January 2013)

The Walled or Kitchen Garden lies immediately to the west of Newhailes house, north of the stables. It is trapezoid in plan, open on the eastern side, ca. 180m long and 50m wide at the northern end. It was built at the end of the 18th century to supply fruit and vegetables for the house.

The west wall of the Kitchen Garden forms the estate boundary and for most of its length comprises three bands of masonry:

• base band c.1.40m high in good quality random stone rubble

• middle band c.1.45m high in red brick with headers every 3-4 courses

• top band varying from nil at the highest part of the garden near the doocot to c.2.0m high in the north-west corner of the inner garden, in a similar bond as that below but in a larger brick.

The top course was added later and created a level wall top, where the wall height previously remained constant in relation to the slope. The main west-to-east wall enclosing the inner garden is entirely in the same brick and at the same height of c.4.8m, with an ashlar-dressed gateway (1.12m wide x 2.42m high) leading to the outer triangular part of the garden to the north. Once in this area, the west wall drops down in a quadrant to its ‘original’ height, comprised of only the lower two bands. It is possible that these two bands are contemporary throughout the wall, as the rubble base band is unlikely to have been able to support such a high wall if originally conceived as a low boundary wall. A small section of the wall contains flues (similar to those of the Flower Garden) and this heated wall would have allowed more exotic produce to be grown.

The high wall sections have a flat ashlar cope, while the lower wall is finished in brick with a mortar fillet. A few brick courses at the far north end of this wall have collapsed, but otherwise the wall is in fair condition for its age although requiring maintenance and repair.

The south-eastern end of the garden is occupied by the Dovecot and the glasshouse complex. The complex comprises five glasshouses and one lean-to building; four of the glasshouses were designed by Mackenzie and Moncur in the 1890s and are fairly typical example of their work. The lean-to building is also contemporary with them, although of a much more basic build. A later lean-to glasshouse to the north was built in the mid-20th century. The five glasshouses all consist of the same construction technique: red brick footings with timber rafters supporting the main roof structure and framing with louvered roof lights and side lights, with a simple ventilation system of wheel, levers and cogs, to carefully operate the windows at both the top and, for Glasshouse 1, the side windows. The main piping system that survives today is probably also a later addition when the heat could be piped from an exterior source rather than having an in-situ boiler to heat them

In 2011 the glasshouses underwent a detailed photographic and measured survey.

(Information from the National Trust for Scotland January 2013)

Archaeology Notes

NT37SW 168.07 3255 7253

NT 3269 7250 A major programme of monitoring, evaluation and architectural recording was undertaken at the mansion house and within its surrounding policies during conservation works between June 2000 and August 2001.

Fruit store. A part-ornamental, part-functional garden building located at the NE end of the Long Garden (N of the mansion). An evaluation trench was excavated across the threshold of the entrance revealing floor levels and recent collapse deposits within. An assessment of the structure was undertaken, identifying a principal first and two lesser secondary phases of construction that related to the reordering of the functional space behind the ornamental blind facade.

Lady's Walk. A 0.5m wide trench was laid across this substantial mid- to late 18th-century raised walkway running NE-SW across open parkland to the N of the mansion. It was revealed to have been formed of two 1.8m-high skins retaining an earth core. The skin to the NW is of brickwork in English garden wall bond, while that to the SE is of mortared rubblework. A cambered upper surface - possibly originally grassed - and a lateral drainage channel were also identified.

Flower Garden. A series of evaluation trenches examined details of the Flower and Long Gardens just to the NW of the mansion. This revealed that the two had formerly been divided by a brick wall aligned NE-SW. Details of various garden paths were identified, as was the line of the N part of the curving Flower Garden wall. An evaluation trench located at the rear (N) side of a ruined later 18th-century glasshouse revealed the brick-lined 'oven pit' associated with its internally heated wall. This still contained a supply of coal, a stoke shovel and its cast-iron oven door.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

T Addyman 2001

Walled garden. The extent of the walls, including the foundations, was established, and showed that the recesses were perhaps for bee boles or the cultivation of plants.

Archive to be deposited in East Lothian SMR and the NMRS.

Sponsor: NTS.

A Daly 2003

Architecture Notes

NT37SW 168.07 3255 7253 (Terraced Walk to N of house 32707 72814)

Activities

Standing Building Recording (February 2012 - April 2012)

An archaeological photographic and measured sketch building survey was required due to the damage and weathering of the upper courses of brick in the northern garden wall at the Garden Centre within the estate. These works were commissioned by Daniel Rhodes of the National Trust for Scotland in advance of and in conjunction with works carried out by masons in the repair of the wallhead. The work was undertaken in February and March 2012.

The work enabled the flue systems, construction and fittings to be recorded and better understood.

Further historic building recording is recommended for the section of brick wall at the base, in the areas of the fireboxes if these are to be either repaired or blocked.

The date for the wall construction is placed within a time bracket of 1853 - 1893 based on style of brickwork and from map evidence.

The sophisticated flue system was fed by 6 firepits and was part of a reorganisation of the gardens for fruit production. Visual design was concentrated on the south facing elevation, with a fine door surround and elevation that was covered in fruit trees,

The Flue system seems to be largely intact – based on visual inspection of the upper flues, vertical flues and via open flue holes - and with cleaning, would be functional.

Carried out by Connolly Heritage Consultancy.

On behalf of the National Trust for Scotland.

Geophysical Survey (7 January 2014 - 10 January 2014)

NT 3256 7257 A geophysical survey was undertaken, 7–10 January 2014, of the former kitchen garden at Newhailes. The survey consisted of 21 grids, each 20 x 20m and recorded part of a possible circular enclosure, possible floor deposits of seven structures within the site, and identified

the location of a boiler house or furnace associated with a heated wall, which formed part of the nursery beds. More recent features relating to use of the site as a plant nursery were also recorded.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland

Christine Rennie - GUARD Archaeology Ltd

(Source: DES)

Excavation (20 April 2015 - 24 April 2015)

GUARD Archaeology Limited were commissioned by The National Trust for Scotland to undertake an archaeological topsoil strip, map, excavate and recording works at the Kitchen Garden in Newhailes. Musselburgh. The evaluation trenches in Area A identified a series of brick and rubble drains possibly relating to the areas use as a walled garden. A series of furrows were also visible pre dating the rubble drains

and the construction of the walled garden. In area B a brick foundation was visible running north-south across the westen side of the garden possibly indicating an earlier boundary wall.

Information from GUARD Archaeology Ltd.

Excavation (5 October 2015 - 9 October 2015)

This report sets out the results of the second half of an archaeological evaluation undertaken by GUARD Archaeology, on behalf of The National Trust for Scotland on the kitchen garden at Newhailes, Musselburgh, East Lothian. During the course of the topsoil strip a number of features were revealed relating to previous use of the walled garden. Gravel paths, a low stone built linear feature, the remnants of a storage shed and four stone built structures probably boiler rooms were recorded abutting the north side of the hollow brick partition wall sub-dividing the north end of the kitchen garden. Part of a large in-filled ditch and two animal burials likely to pre-date the garden were also recorded.

Information from GUARD Archaeology Ltd.

Excavation (15 February 2018)

Addyman Archaeology undertook rapid assessment of two garden features on the Newhailes House and Estate, in February 2018. The works concerned the exposure, cleaning and photographic recording of a Beeston Junior Boiler connected to the extant glasshouse, and a stone-lined flue on the course of the heated wall dividing two areas of the western walled gardens. The boiler dates either from the late 19th or earlier 20th centuries. The flue provided the heating for the heated wall.

Information from OASIS ID - addymana1-310056 (E Skinner) 2018

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