Description

SX 69 NE SOUTH TAWTON

1/179 Kitchen garden walls immediately
north-east of Wood House

GV II

Kitchen garden walls. 1899-1905 by Thomas Mawson. Granite rubble, carefully chosen
to appear as walls of crazy paving with some granite ashlar dressing, some slate
coping, some slate and brick dressings and slate roof to the service rooms and glass
roofs to the hot and green houses.
Plan and description: large kitchen garden built across a gentle slope facing north-
east with a series of service buildings at the north-west end including the mens
shed, tool shed, mushroom and forcing shed, seed store, fruit room and a 2-storey
boiler room and potting shed. All these are granite with brick dressings and have
timber casements with glazing bars and plain carpentry and joinery detail. In front
of these are a series of glass-roofed structures inlcuding the peat house, vinerys,
palm house, plant houses and cold frames; all glazed iron-framed structures, mostly
on granite footings but some on brick (now disused). A lane separates the kitchen
garden and its associated garden from Wood House (q.v.). The most noteworthy
feature is the watering well or fountain in the north corner. Behind it the outer
wall is higher than the rest with ashlar coping and series of small corbels. In
front, that is to say, backing onto the house's service courtyard and facing into
the kitchen garden, the watering reservoir is contained within a semi-circular
retaining wall and was fed through a fountain in a blocked round-headed alcove
defined by blocks up-ended slates set at alternative angles. The massive keystone
here once included a bronze lion's head tap. The doorway to right of this has a
round head and ovolo-moulded surround and contains the original door. To left,
running parallel with the house the wall has flat-topped granite coping (some of it
collapsed). Once past the house (where there is another doorway from the main
formal garden) the walling reverts to slate coping.
The kitchen garden is enormous and intended to produce an income rather than simply
feed the household. It is part of an extensive landscaping scheme conceived by
Mawson to go with the rebuilding of Wood House (q.v.). Mawson himself considered
the whole one of his major achievements.
Source: T H Mawson The Art and Craft of Garden Making, (5th edition) includes
copious notes and illustrations of Wood House.

Listing NGR: SX6552996078

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26399935

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)