Kitchen Garden Walls With Attached Sheds At Mere Hall

These are kitchen garden walls with attached sheds, dating from around 1800. The walls are constructed of red brick in a Flemish stretcher bond, topped with stone flag copings. They stand approximately 4 metres high and form a continuous trapezoid shape; the south wall measures 125 metres in length, while the north wall is 95 metres long. The north wall is hollow, with a slight increase in height in the centre, and includes recessed panels to allow access for flue cleaning.

A series of brick sheds are built against the outer side of the walls. In the centre is a one-and-a-half-storey range, likely contemporary with the walls themselves, with other sheds – including boiler rooms and a privy – extending to both sides. The western sheds remain intact, but those on the east side are roofless. The roofs are mainly replacement asbestos sheeting, with slate roofs at the west end. Two original single doorways provide access to the garden interior along the north wall, alongside a later, widened entrance. Single doorways also offer access through the east, west, and south walls.

A short wall, dating from the 19th century, extends approximately 10 metres from the north-west corner of the garden, likely intended to define a slip garden along the west side.

The kitchen garden is situated approximately 120 metres south-west of Mere Hall. A quadrangular stable courtyard stands about 10 metres from the north-east corner of the garden, connected by a wall. All three structures probably date from 1798-1805, a period when the Brooke family was improving the house and park, utilising the services of Samuel and/or Lewis Wyatt. The main house was subsequently destroyed by fire, and its remains were repaired and modified in the 1830s by the Lichfield architect Thomas Johnson. A 19th-century Home Farm lies 300 metres to the north-east of the garden, and a 19th-century hay barn – converted into a house around 2000 – is situated 50 metres north of the north-east corner of the garden. The garden has lost all of its original glasshouses, including those that formerly stood against the north wall.

This is an intact range of brick enclosure walls with significant group value, relating to Mere Old Hall and the wider estate buildings and park.