Garden House and low brick garden wall is a Grade II listed building in the Central Bedfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 21 May 2012. House.

Garden House and low brick garden wall

WRENN ID
sacred-soffit-poplar
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Central Bedfordshire
Constituency
Mid Bedfordshire MP: Blake Stephenson (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
21 May 2012
Type
House
Address
Garden House and low brick garden wall, Wrest Park, Silsoe
OS grid reference
TL 088 355
Coordinates
52.00776, -0.41613
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Garden House is a two-storey building with attics and cellars, located at the north-west corner of a walled garden. It is constructed from cream-colored brick and features slate mansard roofs. The house projects from the garden wall and has a single-storey range extending behind the north garden wall.

The exterior displays rusticated quoins on the ground and first floors, with prominent string courses marking the divisions between these levels and between the first floor and the attics. The north and west elevations each have one sash window on the ground and first floors, while the east elevation has a sash window on the first floor only. These windows are topped with segmental arches that feature pronounced keystones and a recess below the sill. All three elevations include oval windows in the attics, designed as eyebrow dormers. The south elevation, which serves as the entrance, has two casement dormer windows flanking a broad chimney stack. Access to the Garden House garden is through a door in the west garden wall, located just south of the house. The single-storey range to the east has two sash windows and one door beneath a segmental arch. The entrance to the house is through a small single-storey wing on the south elevation.

Inside, the single-storey entrance wing contains a bathroom to the west of the front door. The staircase is directly opposite the front door, leading to a room with a fireplace and a kitchen in the single-storey range to the east, and a living room with a fireplace to the west. The layout of the first floor and attic mirrors that of the ground floor, featuring one large room above the living room and a smaller room to the south. The first floor lacks surviving fireplaces, while the attics contain two chimney breasts or blocked fireplaces. All remaining interior details are plain.

The southern boundary of the garden is marked by a low brick wall.

Local climate

Garden House and low brick garden wall sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Coachman's Cottage and attached Stables, Coach Houses and Outbuildings Grade II 109 m
  2. Walled Garden immediately West of Wrest Park House, including Linking Screen Wall Grade II 165 m
  3. Bath House and Cascade Grade II* 211 m
  4. Mermaid Basin at west side of South Parterre Grade II 225 m
  5. Italian Garden Structures including Statue of Ceres, Curb Stones, Entrance Piers, Gatepiers and Gates Grade II 227 m
  6. Orangery, Steps and Four Cherub Statues on Pedestals Grade II* 249 m
  7. 2 Roman baths immediately in front of the terrace of Wrest Park House (to East and West) Grade II 281 m
  8. Four Statuary Groups in the South Parterre (also known as the French Garden) south of Wrest House, depicting Aeneas and Anchises, the Abduction of Helen of Troy, Venus and Adonis and Meleager and Atalanta Grade II* 302 m
  9. Wrest Park House and service block comprising pavilions, clock tower and the dairy Grade I 317 m
  10. Railings, gates, piers and urns to south side of South Parterre (also known as the French Garden) Grade II 335 m