The Peach Wall

The Peach Wall

A heated kitchen garden wall dating to the early 19th century, built of red hand-made brick with squared stone foundation and sandstone dressings. The wall is rectangular in plan with curved corners, measuring approximately 51 metres by 41 metres. The long north-east side and shorter north-west side remain intact, with a short section of the south-west side surviving; the south-east side is truncated just beyond the east curved corner.

The wall is constructed in English garden wall bond on a coursed, squared stone foundation (visible along part of the outer elevation of the north-west side) with ashlar coping. The external ground level is lower than the interior, so wall heights vary along its length. The structure is of double-skin construction, with the north-east and north-west stretches each containing three rows of interconnecting flues running along their lengths.

The outer elevation of the north-east side rises approximately 3.5 metres, stepping up at the north corner to around 4 metres. Eight stepped buttresses project along the outer length, beginning at the east curved corner, with occasional squared stone tie blocks set into the wall face. Between the third and fourth buttresses is a projecting rectangular brick fireplace with two small hearth openings at ground level. The wall above the fireplace is slightly battered before returning to vertical. Three rows of flues are accessible via small cavities with segmental-arched heads, distributed along the length in vertical rows though not always precisely aligned. Most cavities have been blocked with hand-made bricks, though those to the right of the eighth buttress remain open with brick rebates. The east curved corner shows a ragged truncation where the wall returns into the south-east side. The north curved corner steps out a further brick's width below the second row of flues. Projecting courses coped with slates continue along approximately half the outer elevation of the north-west side to where the entire wall height steps out. Another projecting rectangular brick fireplace stands at the north corner, coped with slates and having two small openings at ground level (now blocked), with vertical rows of flues on each side (all now blocked).

The outer elevation of the north-west side is approximately 4 metres high, rising to about 5 metres at the right-hand end before stepping down to around 4 metres at the curved west corner. The stepped section on the left has four regularly spaced vertical rows of three flues each. A single-storey lean-to shed constructed of similar brick stands to the right of centre, with some later rebuilding to its south-west wall and a corrugated asbestos roof. Its front elevation has a wide inserted opening with wooden double doors and a single doorway to the right with a plank door. At the left-hand end is a wide doorway with a monolithic stone lintel with pecked dressing, now blocked with white brick. Two vertical rows of flues (now blocked) and an open single upper flue are visible here. The wall is whitewashed to the line above the upper flues. At the right-hand end stands a projecting rectangular brick fireplace (now blocked). Beyond lies a truncated wall, possibly a boundary wall, projecting north-easterly, with a lower level of cobbles and rough hand-made bricks above, later heightened with better-quality hand-made bricks.

The outer elevation of the south-west side is approximately 4 metres high, stepping down to about 3 metres, with no flues.

The inner elevation of the north-east side has small brick-sized openings regularly spaced two rows of bricks below the coping. The inner elevations of the north-west and south-west sides are plain brick walls with no apparent features.

The wall is associated with Stalmine Hall, an early 19th-century house apparently built for the Bourne family. A marble memorial in the adjacent church commemorates James Bourne of Stalmine Hall, who died on 28 November 1816. The wall was heated by small fireplaces that sent heated air and smoke up serpentine flues, a method employed from the early 18th century onwards and superseded from the mid to late 19th century by hollow walls heated with hot water pipes. The 1890 Ordnance Survey map shows a glass house against the inner elevation of the south-west side, no longer present. More recently, a mobile home residential site has been established partially within the walled garden.