Garden Walls,And Pier At North West Corner At Gilston Park

The garden walls and pier at the northwest corner of Gilston Park were built in the 18th century and reconstructed in 1851 by P C Hardwick for John Hodgson Esq, as noted by the date on the Gardener's Cottage at the southwest corner. The tall red brick walls, which are 13.5 inches thick and constructed in Flemish bond, feature heavy flat slate coping slabs. At the northwest corner, there is a taller square pier nearest the drive, topped with moulded stone capping and a ball finial. The inner face of the walls has pilaster buttresses at intervals, and older brickwork includes sandy red bricks with large pebbles and irregular vitrified headers. Sloping buttresses have been added to the inner face of the west wall. The outer face of the north wall has pilasters in the area where the wall has been raised for 19th-century greenhouses inside. The brick courses follow the natural slope, and the north and south walls are supported over a brook by round arches. A door in the south wall features a flat gauged arch. Although the Gardener's Cottage has been much altered and is not of special interest, the large rectangular walled kitchen garden is significant as a late example of this traditional feature associated with English country houses.