Walled Garden At Hances Cottage And Beel House

Walled Garden at Hance's Cottage and Beel House

The garden walls enclose a polygonal walled garden of early 19th-century date with later 19th-century modifications. The walls are constructed largely of red hand-made bricks with some vitrified blue bricks incorporated in an ad hoc manner rather than to form a pattern. Later 19th-century red bricks are also present.

The garden encloses an area of approximately 3,810 square metres (0.38 hectares). The substantial garden walls comprise: a north-east wall of battered appearance, approximately 73 metres long; a north-west wall of 26 metres; a south-west wall of 96 metres; and a south-east wall of 20 metres. The bond lacks uniformity, with different courses containing different combinations of headers and stretchers, topped with simple brick header copings. The north-east wall is the highest at approximately 3.5 to 4 metres.

A gateway flanked by shallow brick piers and topped with a flat brick head provides access immediately north-west of Hance's Cottage. Further gateways are situated to the south and north-west. The internal faces are supported by raking brick buttresses. Raking brick buttresses support the internal face. Modifications to the north-west and south-west walls indicate repairs, rebuilds, and added upper courses. Some late garden buildings utilize the wall as their rear wall but are not of special interest.

Comparison between the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1877 and modern aerial photographs shows that pathways running parallel but inside the wall in the western part of the site remain in their historic positions.

The walled garden was probably associated with Beel House to the north-west, to which Hance's Cottage was formerly an ancillary building. The same polygonal boundary, tapering to the north-west, is shown on the 1877 Ordnance Survey map, which also depicts lines of trees, a network of paths, glasshouses, and sheds towards the south-east end. It most probably functioned as the kitchen garden to Beel House. Beel House is a small county house (Grade II*) in a park of 17th-century origins, considerably aggrandised and enlarged in the early 19th century, a period contemporary with the walled garden's construction. Stretches of walling with vitrified blue brick inclusions date to the early 19th century, although the north-west and south-west walls show later 19th-century modifications. Close to the terminus of the south-east wall is a later brick pier with stone coping.

A potting shed with the date 1867 on its eastern gable indicates late 19th-century modifications to the garden. Glasshouses, garden sheds, and a cross-wall at the south-eastern end are also present but are not of special interest.

Hance's Cottage (Grade II) is a timber-framed property of probable 16th-century origin. In the early 20th century it was occupied by the gardener and chauffeur for Beel House before becoming a private dwelling in separate ownership from 1954 onwards. In 1986 the walled garden was subdivided and the north-western half was sold back to Beel House, the two gardens now separated by a lower 20th-century wall with a central fence. This boundary is not of special interest. The garden was formerly used for commercial growing as 'Beel House Nurseries' but is now a domestic garden to both properties.