Tower And Attached Walls Forming Enclosure To Kitchen Gardens To Osmaston Manor

The tower and attached walls form an enclosure for the former kitchen gardens of Osmaston Manor. Built in the late 1840s by Stevens of Derby, the structure features red brick, coursed squared rock-faced limestone, and sandstone dressings. The walls create two enclosures: a rectangular one to the north and a polygonal one to the south. The red brick walls are topped with stone copings and rock-faced limestone piers that have bracketed caps, with taller entrance piers at both the north and south ends. A similar cross wall divides the two enclosures, which include brick lean-to sheds with slate roofs and coped gables featuring moulded kneelers. The south-facing walls of each enclosure show remnants of lean-to glass houses made of wood and cast iron, with the walls designed to accommodate heating purposes.

At the center of the cross wall stands a tall stone-faced tower, which has a noticeable batter at its base and low buttresses on the west and east sides, adorned with carved scrolls. There are steps leading up to a round-arched entrance on the north side, with two slit windows above and a moulded stringcourse. The top stage of the tower features a three-bay Italianate open arcade on each face, along with a similar decorative blind arcade below it, topped by another moulded stringcourse and a parapet. Inside, the walls are circular and made of brick, containing a spiral cast iron stair that encloses a circular brick chimney. The tower was originally used as the outlet for the central heating system and for all the fireplaces in Osmaston Manor, which had an innovative heating system that directed all chimney flues underground to a single main flue.