Orchard House With Garden Wall And Orchard Wall

Orchard House with Garden Wall and Orchard Wall

A house and walls of conjoined garden and orchard built in 1764 for Lord Petre, situated 330 metres south-west of Thorndon Hall. The structures are contemporary with the hall and form part of the same historic estate development.

The Orchard House is a red brick building with a slate roof, a 3-window range of 2 storeys featuring a dentilled eave and central pediment with a hipped roof. The ground floor has a blocked central doorway now fitted with a segment-headed window with glazing bars (4 by 4 panes). The outer bays have undergone 19th and 20th century rebuilding and contain ground floor segment-headed windows with glazing bars (3 by 4 panes) and similar first-floor windows. The centre bay has a first-floor segment-headed window (3 by 4 panes). The north rear elevation reflects the south front, though windows have been replaced with PVC casements and the central door is blocked with a segment-headed window on each side (2 by 2 panes). Single replacement windows appear in each rebuilt end (east 4 by 2 panes, west 2 by 2 panes), and the first floor has a central segment-headed window (3 by 3 panes). A 20th century red brick extension in similar segment-headed style projects from the east end. To the east of the house, a 20th century extension masks the orchard wall. To the west, there is a segment-headed doorway through the wall to the garden beyond, and a 20th century wide doorway with sliding doors.

The rectangular Orchard House sits centrally in the wall common to both garden and orchard. The orchard walls form a rectangle measuring 130 metres by 100 metres with the main axis aligned south-west to north-east. They are constructed in red brick with Flemish bond and some burnt headers, standing 4.2 metres high. The walls feature opposed internal and external shallow buttresses at 5.7 metre intervals and are battered at the top. The coping is simple stone which, on the east and west sides, steps down the hill-slope in 16 steps falling to the south. The corners are curved. A principal gateway with simple piers stands at the north end of the west wall, though some 19th century rebuilding is evident. Minor simple doorways exist at the north end of the east wall and the south end of the west wall.

The garden walls form a smaller rectangle measuring 55 metres by 40 metres, set centrally against the north side of the orchard on the same axis. Like the orchard wall, they are constructed in red brick but without buttresses. The coping comprises shaped and sloping bricks with single stepping on the west side. Principal gateways stand at the south ends of the east and west walls, with stone copings and high included stone blocks resembling imposts. The east gateway is now blocked with a half-height wall. Two simple 20th century doorways exist at the north-east angle, one in the north wall and one in the east wall.

Symmetrically positioned in the north wall either side of the Garden House are two brick semicircular niches large enough for seats, with the walling thickened around them and coped back to the wall above. Round-headed arches have stone imposts and keystones. The western niche has been cut through by a 20th century doorway. The walling between the niches and the house has been reworked in the 20th century. A 20th century flat-roofed single-storey room stands at the north-west corner of the garden.

The south side of the garden facing north contains 18th century single-storey brick lean-tos with slate roofs. To the west of centre is a passage with a doorway fitted with stable doors and two 3 by 3 paned metal casement windows. To the east of centre are three fixed 20th century casement windows, with some rebuilding of the wall evident.

The Garden House stands originally on the north side of the garden wall with similar construction to the Orchard House, but it has been considerably altered and is not included in this listing.