Former Walled Garden, Seacourt, Maxwell Gardens, Maxwell Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 3LE

Former Walled Garden at Seacourt

A substantial walled garden built around 1865, formerly part of the Seacourt estate and now containing a modern housing development (Maxwell Gardens) within its walls. The garden was contemporary with the main house at Seacourt, built for Foster Connor, a Belfast linen merchant. The architect is unknown, though James Hamilton and Charles Lanyon have both been suggested. The builders were Henrys, who also constructed the Albert Bridge in Belfast. The property appears in valuation records from 1866 onwards, with the valuation rising from £80 to £180 between 1866 and 1870, indicating construction continued through this period.

The walls stand approximately 6 metres high and are constructed of random rubble stone with red brick in parts. The structure is distinguished by unusual embellishments in a variety of styles, rare for a utilitarian structure and indicating the quality and status of Seacourt. The north and east faces feature crow-stepped crenellations. The inner face of the north section is built in red brick (English garden wall bond) and is the only part of the internal wall now visible from a public place. A round archway roughly at centre is fitted with a modern steel gate.

The east face bounds the Seacourt development, partly overlooking the formal gardens and partly enclosing private yards. The wall slopes upward to the south following the site's topography, with rises articulated by a variety of crenellated rubble stone and rendered turrets, some with pinnacles. The remaining part of the south section is ivy-clad and contains a segmental-headed doorway with a modern timber door set in a moulded ashlar stone surround with keyblock.

The west section has rough brick copings, slightly ramped in places as it slopes down to the north, rising again with simple brick and rubble stone piers. A segmental-headed brick-infilled opening, originally formed in brick, is present, along with a further opening with recent rubble stone infill. There is a socket with stone lintel, possibly formerly containing a niche. The north-west corner is articulated by a projecting rubble stone pier terminated by a three-stage diminishing sandstone pinnacle with offsets. To its left, facing north, is a full-height bowed projection with overhanging crenellated parapet supported on brick brackets and featuring arrow loop openings with red sandstone lintels or sills.

An aerial photograph of uncertain date shows the walled garden complete with greenhouses against the west and south-facing walls and a rectangular pattern of paths and beds, presumably containing vegetables, herbs and fruit bushes. The south section has been largely removed to facilitate the housing development. According to local records, a tower set at the north-west corner was built at the turn of the twentieth century to watch yacht racing, and is still present as a bowed projection with crenellations. Two further towers set into the boundary wall may also have served the same purpose.

The walled garden is located to the north side of Maxwell Road, west of the main house at Seacourt and its formal gardens. The north side overlooks the Bangor to Belfast coastal path, and the interior is now a cul-de-sac of modern dwellings. A large housing scheme introduced into the walled garden within recent years has obscured much of it from public view and has compromised the overall group and planned setting of the Seacourt estate.

The next owner of Seacourt, Samuel Cleland Davidson of the Sirocco Works, acquired the property in 1895 and carried out repairs and alterations, with the valuation rising to £285 by 1915 (later lowered to £260 following appeal).