Garden Walls and Features of the Terraced Garden (Including Ivy Cottage) Approximately 30 Metres North of Groombridge Place is a Grade I listed building in the Tunbridge Wells local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 October 1954. A Post-medieval Garden, cottage.
Garden Walls and Features of the Terraced Garden (Including Ivy Cottage) Approximately 30 Metres North of Groombridge Place
- WRENN ID
- final-panel-nettle
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Tunbridge Wells
- Constituency
- Tunbridge Wells MP: Mike Martin (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 October 1954
- Type
- Garden, cottage
- Period
- Post-medieval
- OS grid reference
- TQ 532 376
- Coordinates
- 51.11792, 0.18873
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The garden walls and features of the terraced garden, including Ivy Cottage, are located approximately 30 meters north of Groombridge Place. This formal garden was likely established in the second half of the 17th century and has undergone several changes since its creation. The garden is terraced and enclosed on three sides—north, west, and east—by tall walls constructed from various materials. The lower section of the west wall and much of the east wall are made of brick, while the remainder of the west wall is sandstone, with the lower part being coursed and the upper part more rubbly. The north wall consists of large blocks of sandstone, partly topped with brick, and features large stone buttresses on the inside. A central gateway with square section piers and ball finials is also present.
The terraces are supported by sandstone revetments, and paths ascend via a series of sandstone steps. The garden includes various features such as stone urns, and notably, on the top terrace, there is a probable 18th-century fountain and a sundial. The sundial has a sandstone baluster-like stem and a brass dial inscribed with the name of Nathaniel Witham of London, dated 1716. Ivy Cottage, situated on the west side, was created by enlarging a late 17th-century garden pavilion. It is now a two-room cottage facing west, dating from the 19th century and renovated around 1980. The southern room is an extension, built of Flemish bond brick with decorative burnt headers on the front, while the remainder is timber-framed and clad with peg-tile. The cottage has a two-window front featuring various 19th and 20th-century casements, and the doorway to the left contains a possibly 18th-century two-panel door. The left section is the original pavilion, which is square in plan, two storeys high, constructed of Flemish bond red brick with decorative burnt headers, and has a peg-tile roof. It features a chamfered plinth and a flat band at the first floor level.
These garden features are significant to the visual appearance of Groombridge Place.
Local climate
Garden Walls and Features of the Terraced Garden (Including Ivy Cottage) Approximately 30 Metres North of Groombridge Place receives an average of 760 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 67% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 57% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 65% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- 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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