Walled Garden And Associated Buildings At Chillingham

The walled garden and associated buildings date from the late 18th or early 19th century and form part of the Chillingham estate, situated within a Registered Park. The garden has a roughly square plan, oriented north-south, and is divided from east to west into two unequal rectangles. The south wall is constructed of dressed sandstone, while the remaining walls are handmade brick in English Garden Wall Bond, all topped with sandstone copings. Ashlar gate piers with chamfered plinths and pyramidal tops support a cast iron gate with arrowhead finials, centrally located on the south wall. The exterior of the south wall is faced in dressed sandstone. The brick walls are up to 5 metres high and feature brick buttresses at regular intervals; the south wall is lower. A central dividing wall features a monumental entrance with a semi-circular arched head, a plain projecting rectangular surround, a heavy cornice, and a vertical boarded wooden door. A semi-circular arched gateway with a vertical boarded wooden door is located centrally in the rear north wall, with further openings near the northern and southern ends of the west wall and one in the east wall. Greenhouses, with largely destroyed glazing but fairly complete timber structure including wooden gutters, extend along the entire south side of the central wall, with a metal plate on one door reading "W RICHARDSON & CO DARLINGTON”. A series of moulded clay, cream, square chimneys are situated along this wall, often in pairs, and are associated with an internal heating system. Additional greenhouses in a similar condition and chimneys are visible along the top of the outer north wall. Behind the outer north wall are buildings of dressed sandstone with monopitch slate or corrugated iron roofs, some partially collapsed. These buildings appear to have served as a boiler house (with boiler and pipework intact), a midden for manure, tool sheds, plant preparation areas and potting sheds. A late 20th-century cottage is built into the east wall towards its southern end; a window and a door breach the wall, and a small strip of the garden immediately adjacent is owned by the cottage. The cottage itself, excluding its rear wall, is not considered to be of special interest.