Garden and

Park Structures
Listing Selection Guide
Summary
Historic England’s twenty listing selection guides help to define which historic
buildings are likely to meet the relevant tests for national designation and be included
on the National Heritage List for England. Listing has been in place since 1947 and
operates under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. If a
building is felt to meet the necessary standards, it is added to the List. This decision is
taken by the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
These selection guides were originally produced by English Heritage in 2011: slightly
revised versions are now being published by its successor body, Historic England.

The DCMS‘ Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings set out the over-arching criteria
of special architectural or historic interest required for listing and the guides provide
more detail of relevant considerations for determining such interest for particular
building types. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/principles-of-
selection-for-listing-buildings.

Each guide falls into two halves. The first defines the types of structures included
in it, before going on to give a brisk overview of their characteristics and how these
developed through time, with notice of the main architects and representative
examples of buildings. The second half of the guide sets out the particular tests in
terms of its architectural or historic interest a building has to meet if it is to be listed.
A select bibliography gives suggestions for further reading.

This guide looks at buildings and other structures found in gardens, parks and indeed
designed landscapes of all types from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. They
include, among much else, park walls, gates, screens and lodges; statuary; temples
and seats of all kinds (often termed follies); structures for the manipulation of water;
walled kitchen gardens; and ornamental glasshouses.

First published by English Heritage April 2011.

This edition published by Historic England December 2017.

All images © Historic England unless otherwise stated.

HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/

Front cover
Capability Brown’s ridge-top Rotunda of 1754 at
Croome Court, Worcestershire. Listed Grade I.
Contents
Introduction..........................................1

1 Historical Summary......................2

1.1 Before the eighteenth century. . ...................2

1.2 The early eighteenth century. . .....................4
1.3 The mid-eighteenth century to early
nineteenth century.......................................5
1.4 Georgian to Victorian . . ..................................5
1.5 The twentieth century..................................8

2 Specific Considerations................9

2.1 Buildings of pleasure. . ..................................9

2.2 Buildings of utility and decoration. . ..........13
2.3 Extent of listing...........................................18

3 Select Bibliography....................19

3.1 General garden history...............................19

3.2 Garden buildings and features..................19
3.3 Lodges.........................................................19
3.4 Public parks . . ...............................................19
3.5 Walled gardens.. ..........................................19
3.6 Periodicals. . .................................................19

Acknowledgements.............................20
Introduction
This selection guide is devoted to individual built structures found in gardens
and parks, rather than the designed landscapes themselves; those are treated in
separate selection guides (see below). Designed landscapes is now a well-established
omnibus term to describe landscapes created to provide aesthetically pleasing
settings for private houses, institutions and facilities (such as waterworks). It includes
private urban gardens, public parks, town squares and public walks, and municipal
cemeteries, as well as allotment gardens. The landscape parks of the eighteenth
century that were set out around country houses in an idealised ‘natural’ manner
were hugely influential throughout Europe and North America and are considered to
be among England’s most important contributions to art and design. Planned green
open spaces in our towns and cities make a major contribution to the quality of life.
All designed landscapes are likely to contain buildings and other hard landscaping
features such as balustraded terraces that will often make a positive contribution to
the overall character of the place. This selection guide helps identify which structures
meet the test of special interest for listing.

Inevitably, there is overlap with other listing The designed landscapes within which garden
selection guides. Monuments and mausoleums buildings stand (like many of those mentioned
are covered in that for Commemorative below) may be included on the Register of Parks
Structures. Fountains, hard surfaces and other and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England,
items are covered in Street Furniture. Some part of the searchable National Heritage List. The
categories of landscape buildings, such as criteria for inclusion on the Register are set out in
boathouses, are also covered in Sports and four guides: Rural Landscapes, Urban Landscapes,
Recreation Buildings and seaside structures Institutional Landscapes and Landscapes of
appear in Culture and Entertainment Buildings. Remembrance. With early designed landscapes
For stables see the selection guide for Suburban where the remains are mainly below-ground or
and Country Houses and for home farms (which survive as earthworks scheduling has generally
could be incidents in a landscape as well as an been the preferred designation option; here the
architectural expression of an enlightened and criteria are set out in the scheduling selection
improving landlord) Agricultural Buildings. guide dealing with Gardens.

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1 Historical Summary
1.1 Before the eighteenth century (Warwickshire). Upstanding buildings associated
with gardens and parks remain extremely rare even
The greater medieval castles, palaces, houses throughout the Tudor period. This is because they
and monasteries had gardens designed both for were often of impermanent construction, or
pleasure and for the cultivation of vegetables and underwent thorough remodelling in later centuries.
herbs. They were formally laid out and equipped Very occasionally, houses that declined in status
with garden walls, arbours, benches, fountains, (perhaps because the principal family seat was
and even banqueting halls detached from the moved elsewhere) retain features that were not
house proper. Sometimes archaeological or other modernised, such as the terraced walls and steps
evidence may be sufficient to allow for accurate at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire (listed Grade II*; Fig 1).
re-creations to be made, as at Kenilworth Castle Such survivors are very precious.

Figure 1
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. The Grade II* listed
terracing and steps.

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Figure 2
Bradgate Park, Leicestershire (landscape registered
Grade II). The park wall, with the bank of an earlier
pale alongside.

‘Little parks’ were semi-natural pleasure gardens In the decades to either side of 1600 increasingly
close to the house and anticipated the informality large and imposing country houses started to
of later centuries. Great houses sometimes lay within appear, outwardly designed to impress with
still wider designed landscapes, intended to set them displays of symmetry, carving, and ranges of
off and impress visitors, with artificial moats and glinting windows. Complementing these were
lakes: Bodiam Castle (Sussex) is a good example. usually formally arrayed garden courts, entered by
These landscapes most often survive as earthworks impressive gateways (from the later seventeenth
and archaeology, rarely with standing buildings. century with elaborate wrought iron gates and
armorial overthrows), and defined by balustrades
Scheduling has generally been used to designate or other decorative walling, sometimes with
the best examples of earthworks. Deer parks, pavilions or summerhouses at their corners to
some 3,000 of which are documented in the provide shelter and views over the gardens and
Middle Ages, usually lay in open country and the wider estate beyond.
were enclosed by pales (banks topped by paling
or hedges; Fig 2). Lengths of pales sometimes The fashion for such formal landscapes, largely
survive as field monuments and again, very good influenced by Italian Renaissance and French
examples may be scheduled. Medieval parks were Baroque gardens, took off apace after the
also occasionally defined by walls which, as at Restoration in 1660. Garden compartments about
Dartington (Devon), are eligible for listing (here at the house, defined by hard landscaping or clipped
Grade II). Park lodges are discussed below. hedges, were extended into the countryside

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 1.2 The early eighteenth century

Influential opinion, and garden fashions, now

began to move away from such rigidly ordered
planning. Cleaner sight lines were favoured
in gardens, and the ha-ha or sunken wall was
introduced to allow an uninterrupted view from
house and gardens across to the landscape
beyond. Classically derived temples, statues and
columns appeared, sometimes intended to convey
political ideas or philosophies to the
well-educated visitor: pre-eminent among these
are the grounds of Stowe, Buckinghamshire,
primarily laid out between the 1720s and the
1750s. Lodges or other architectural features such
as triumphal arches marked the main entry points
to designed landscapes.

The 1730s and 1740s saw a relatively short-lived

fashion for so-called Rococo gardens featuring
serpentine or curvilinear paths, shell-decorated
grottoes, and especially garden buildings and
Figure 3
bridges in the Classical, ‘Gothick’ or Chinese
Bedford Square, London Borough of Camden, laid out
in 1775-80 (landscape registered Grade II*). Railings, (Chinoiserie) styles. Complete landscapes
gates, lamp standards and a garden house in and of this type were relatively rare: Painswick,
around it are listed. Gloucestershire (several garden structures
and features listed Grade II and II*), is among the
outstanding examples, although many gardens
gained individual features. Many Rococo features
beyond by linear avenues of trees or rides through were insubstantial – often made of softwood
woodland. Within the garden, parterres might – and survivals are relatively unusual, and
be laid out – symmetrically divided patterns accordingly likely to be strong candidates
created through beds cut in lawns, low hedging, for designation.
and gravel and coloured stones. Water was
sometimes used for fountains, jets, and cascades, In towns, the houses of the well-to-do generally
or at greater houses carried into below-ground had small pleasure gardens behind, and in
grottoes set with statues of river gods. After the microcosm these could reflect broader garden
Glorious Revolution brought William and Mary to fashions. Summerhouses or gazebos set on
the throne in 1688 Dutch Baroque garden fashions the end wall (for guidance on garden walls see
from the Low Countries became fashionable; the selection guide on Town Houses) were the
parterres became more complex, elaborate commonest structures.
topiary became popular, and greater use was
made of lead urns and statuary (which may be Public walks and open spaces
individually listed), much drawn from Classical Residential squares began to be laid out in
mythology. Good examples of garden buildings London in the seventeenth century, and during
and hard landscaping of this date, as encountered the eighteenth started to appear in cities like
at Westbury Court, Gloucestershire, with its Bristol (Queen’s Square, 1700) and Bath (Queen
pavilion, gazebo, statuary and walls (variously Square 1728). These squares (for example Fig 3)
listed Grade II), are rare. were sometimes public, but in other cases formed

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private communal gardens, accessible only to summerhouse to provide shelter. Kitchen gardens
residential key holders. Public squares often multiplied too and became more complex as
acquired statuary and other memorials, along world exploration, technological developments
with seats (sometimes roofed) and other street in propagation and increasingly exotic tastes
furniture such as bollards and lamps (discussed in expanded the range of what was cultivated. But
the Street Furniture selection guide). It was also their heyday came a little later (see below).
mainly during the eighteenth century that town
commons and other urban open spaces were
occasionally provided with public tree-lined walks 1.4 Georgian to Victorian
and hard landscaping. Linear public gardens, with
houses set back from the road, grew in popularity The rise of the garden
in towns like Cheltenham and some seaside Landscape parks were criticised for reducing
resorts in the early nineteenth century. interest around the house. People wanted
grounds to walk in, shrubs and flowers to provide
colour, scent, and seasonal change, and a degree
1.3 The mid-eighteenth century to of shelter and privacy from the world beyond.
early nineteenth century Around 1800, the influential Humphry Repton
(1752-1818) re-introduced raised terraces around
Landscape parks the house to separate it from the grounds beyond.
Informal landscapes evolved rapidly from the Sometimes these were decorated with elaborate
middle of the eighteenth century, most notably flower urns. Pleasure grounds comprising flower
under the influence of Lancelot ‘Capability’ beds, lawns, shrubberies and walks, sometimes
Brown (1716-83). Huge numbers of landscapes with edged pools, summer-houses, statuary
around houses were transformed, or laid out and other architectural features, became
from scratch, in an idealised ‘natural’ manner, commonplace between the house and park.
with pasture ground running uninterrupted from The 1820s Swiss Garden at Old Warden,
the house (animals being kept at a distance by Bedfordshire, shows the Regency picturesque
an unseen ha-ha) into gently undulating grounds landscape – a style often called the Gardenesque
studded with clumps of trees and with the world – at its busiest, with structures and flower beds
beyond screened by plantation belts around the set close together to enliven the garden route.
park edge. The key feature of interest was usually
a lake in the middle distance, ideally contrived In the second quarter of the nineteenth century,
to resemble a great river curving through the some gardens (such as Wrest Park, Bedfordshire;
park. Buildings and structures played a key role Fig 4) reverted to the severely formal fashions
too. Eyecatchers added variety and interest of the seventeenth and earlier eighteenth
to the wider landscape and exceptionally, as centuries with terraces, balustrades, vases,
at Stourhead, Wiltshire, these adhered to an basins and fountains, elaborate steps and
over-arching iconographic scheme. The whole gateways, seats, summerhouses, and statuary.
landscape was likely to be bounded by a wall Some of these latter features, vulnerable to the
or railings, with gateways watched over by elements, were industrially produced, moulded
gatekeepers’ lodges. Such landscape parks are from terracotta, Coade stone, or cast iron. Other
reckoned among the country’s most important fashions included the world garden, as still to be
contributions to European civilization. While seen at Biddulph Grange, Staffordshire, where
landscaped parks of this sort are generally individual garden compartments were laid out
associated with great country houses, even a with structures and planting to conjure the sense
modest gentleman’s house, rectory, or merchant’s of India, China, or Egypt.
villa might be set in an informal few acres of
grass and specimen trees defined (at least to the Supplying the needs of the household was the
front) by an imposing wall and with some form of walled garden where vegetables, fruit and flowers

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were grown. It was generally enclosed within tall of stone fruit such as peaches and nectarines,
brick, or brick-lined walls (although local variants together with figs and vines. The number and
of stone or cob can be found), creating its own range of glasshouses expanded enormously from
secure micro-climate. From the mid-eighteenth the 1840s as glass became cheap. The gardener
century it was usually placed away from the main often lived ‘on site’ in a relatively commodious
house, and sometimes concealed by a shrubbery house set alongside the walls.
or plantation belt. South-facing slopes were
favoured and sometimes the south wall was Public parks and institutions
omitted to allow frost to ‘roll off’. Exceptionally In the 1830s, concerns about urban overcrowding
walls were made strongly sinuous (‘crinkle-crankle and the condition of the poor, as well as the
walls’) to improve the micro-climate for fruit. The desire for urban embellishment and greater public
north wall (which, being south-facing, got the enjoyment of the outdoors, resulted in the public
most sun) might be hollow and contain horizontal parks movement. Town parks, funded from the
flues through which passed air heated by furnaces rates, began to be laid out in large numbers, and
housed in sheds to the rear to aid the growing by the end of the century were common. Victoria

Figure 4
Wrest Park, Bedfordshire (landscape registered Grade I). beyond Thomas Archer’s Pavilion of 1709-11.
The restored mid-nineteenth century parterre, with Listed Grade I.

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Figure 5
Dartington Hall, Devon (landscape registered Grade II*).
Henry Moore’s Reclining Woman of 1947. Listed Grade II.

Park in Bath, designed by Edward Davis in 1829, or along the gorges where rivers debouched. In
was among the earliest. Overall design concepts all, street furniture such as benches, lamps and
were borrowed from the rural parks of the gentry shelters was integral; this context adds to any
with boundary walls, gate lodges, shelters and inherent interest it may have. Institutions such as
seats, inter-weaving paths for exercise, specimen hospitals, workhouses and lunatic asylums, which
trees, one or more lakes, and mass bedding, but proliferated in the mid-nineteenth century, were
with communal buildings such as bandstands similarly set within extensive landscaped grounds,
thrown in. Such parks have been systematically with severely formal gardens near the main
reviewed by Historic England with designation buildings, and more informal, park-like, grounds
on the Register of Parks and Gardens generally beyond: all sought to enhance the effectiveness of
confined to the earlier, and best surviving, the institution through appropriate planting and
examples. Not dissimilar public gardens – often design, which would benefit inmates. Shelters,
linear, backing a promenade – were also a feature sometimes decorative, were often a feature
of seaside resorts from early in Victoria’s reign of these landscapes. These grounds provided
as the places where sea bathing had become employment and exercise for inmates as well as
fashionable a generation before were developed pleasing aesthetic surroundings. Again, the best
with hotels and ever-more infrastructure for examples have been designated on the Register,
the visitor. Some were ingeniously adapted to complemented by listing of any structures of
steeply sloping sites, whether at the base of cliffs special interest.

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1.5 The twentieth century which are so integral to the Lutyens-Jekyll garden
of 1904-9 at Hestercombe (Somerset) are listed
Formal gardens enjoyed a revival in the Edwardian at Grade I. Many gardens made provision for
period, especially where they complement sporting activities, and tennis courts and outdoor
larger houses and institutions. Designers like swimming pools (which became popular in the
Thomas Mawson (1861-1933) and Sir Reginald early twentieth century) were often provided
Blomfield (1856-1942) continued to employ with changing rooms and summerhouses.
steps, balustrading, verandahs and formal pools
and basins around the house drawing on the The mid and later twentieth-century designed
historic gardens of Italy, classicism, and the landscapes that have attracted the greatest
Beaux-Arts style. At the same time architects attention are those associated with new towns
like Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1914) and C.F.A. and post-war renewal such as Plymouth, with
Voysey (1857-1941) created garden settings and its Civic Square (1962) by Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900-
features in a so-called English Vernacular style 96), or large-scale housing developments such
to complement relatively modest houses in the as the Barbican in the City of London (both
same idiom. Planting was informal, with flowing these sites are designated on the Register).
herbaceous borders as popularised by William A theme that is common to many of these is
Robinson (1838-1945) and Gertrude Jekyll (1843- the presence of specifically commissioned
1932), but set within a framework of paths, statuary and sculptures, many of which are
pergolas, terraces, hedging, seats and sundials. of exceptional interest. Some rural designed
Generally there was formality close to the house landscapes similarly integrate bold modern
and informality beyond, but even here distinct artworks: Henry Moore’s Grade-II listed
design elements could be expected such as wild reclining figure of 1945-6 at Dartington Hall
gardens with stone paths, stone lined streams (Devon; Fig 5), placed on a terrace above the
and bridges (as at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, medieval tiltyard, shows the combination of
and Hidcote in Gloucestershire). In the years art and landscape at its most impressive.
around 1900 there was a sudden enthusiasm
for Japanese Gardens involving the very precise In public parks the late twentieth century saw
use of stone, water, shelters, and ornaments like the removal of much existing play equipment
lanterns, some imported and others made in due to health and safety concerns. A rare
Britain. Garden structures and features of this listing of playground equipment of whatever
period may be listed if of sufficient quality, and date is the Grade II concrete Play Sculpture
their inclusion within a registered landscape will of about 1960 by John Bridgeman at Curtis
generally add interest; the walls, paving and steps Gardens, Acocks Green, Birmingham.

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2 Specific
Considerations
Some structures associated with designed landscapes are important in their own right.
Others are quite minor, utilitarian or unobtrusive but nonetheless make a contribution
to the aesthetic quality or the functioning of the whole and help us interpret the
landscape. While such minor elements may not always warrant individual designation,
they may assume greater significance when they lie within the best parks, gardens, and
other designed landscapes.

Historically, many of the best-known structures in incidents along the circuits that ran through polite
designed landscapes were dismissed as ‘follies’, landscapes. Even structures which were essential
architectural oddities of little merit. There is now to the maintainance of the estate economy (for
much greater appreciation of the quality of such instance, kitchen gardens and home farms) could
buildings and the role they play as key incidents be architecturally embellished and be places the
in subtly planned landscapes, as eyecatchers and discerning visitor was taken to.
destinations on carefully conceived routes.

Turning to specific types of structures in 2.1 Buildings of pleasure

parks and gardens, these fall into two broad
overlapping categories: ones of pleasure and Columns, obelisks and pyramids punctuate
ones of utility. Among the first are eyecatchers, gardens and landscapes from the seventeenth
designed principally for architectural and visual century on (Fig 6); they frequently bore
effect (ruins, temples and columns), along with iconographic messages which add to their
those buildings erected specifically to view them interest. In parks of the mid-eighteenth century
and the wider landscape (for instance, summer romantic ruins became fashionable. A few were
and banqueting houses, and belvederes). Many real: most were new (Fig 7). Always of interest,
other structures were largely for whimsy and the grandest examples like the Folly Castle of
entertainment (for instance, hermitages and 1768-70 at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire (listed
grottoes), although many parkland structures Grade II*) will merit a high grade. Temples
could provide shelter from rain or sun or a were dotted around parks: normally they are
pleasing halt for refreshment to be served. Classical, like that now at Cobham Hall, Kent,
The second category contains buildings that designed by William Chambers (listed Grade II)
may be described as functional (dairies, deer but occasionally Gothic, Chinese or even ‘Hindoo’
houses, bridges, shelters), but which were styles are encountered. These are always unusual
often embellished so as to create architectural and even more recent examples will probably

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Figure 6 Figure 7
Hawkstone, Shropshire (landscape registered Grade I). Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall (landscape registered
The Monument, erected in 1795 to celebrate Sir Richard Grade I). The hilltop Gothic Ruin of 1747, a true folly.
Hill, Lord Mayor of London. Listed Grade I. Listed Grade II.

warrant listing. Occasionally, eyecatchers made listable. There was a revival in their popularity in
political or family statements, and this may add to the later nineteenth century: intrinsic quality of
their historic interest. workmanship and their contribution to important
landscapes should guide selectivity, and where a
Elaborate gates and ornamental screens, often high grade may be warranted. Statuary, urns and
with heraldic displays of statuary and armorial other features such as sundials and astronomical
overthrows, controlled access to landscapes and devices were integral to the formal gardens and
to zones within and between garden and park; landscapes of the later seventeenth century. From
relatively commonplace in the late seventeenth the eighteenth century foundries and potteries
and eighteenth centuries these are usually began to mass-produce garden furnishings and

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sometimes marks and stamps help identify and and were sometimes retained in later schemes.
date these. Survivals are fairly common but have They include pools, canals, rills (or artificial
often been moved or introduced from elsewhere. streams; Fig 8), fountains, and cascades. The
Nonetheless, pre-1850 examples will generally grander schemes, especially, could include
merit designation; later examples will be judged grottoes, discussed below among buildings with
on aesthetic quality, rarity and date. Being located a recreational purpose. The significance of any
within a registered park will strengthen the case; such structure is enhanced if it forms part of
so will being in their original position. a contemporary complex, as notably found at
Rousham, Oxfordshire. Long unimpeded views
Water features were prominent within the from house and garden to the wider landscape
formal gardens and landscapes of the later were afforded by ha-has, ditches usually with
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, a brick or masonry near-vertical inner face,

Figure 8
Rousham, Oxfordshire (landscape registered Grade I):
the serpentine rill, cold bath and grotto (all listed
Grade II*),elements of William Kent’s celebrated mid-
eighteenth century landscape.

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intended to keep stock from the pleasure with sport. Medieval hunting lodges, usually sited
grounds around a house without the need for on an elevated location towards the centre of the
intrusive fencing. First appearing in England in park, often contained a large and well-lit first-
the seventeenth century, early or monumental floor room used for refreshment and spectacle
examples may be listable, as will those with strong (Fig 9). Typically these became farmhouses
group value. when parks were enclosed and turned over to
agriculture; little-altered examples, especially, are
Some buildings served as vantage points. Stands rare and deserving of designation, sometimes at
to provide an elevated viewpoint for spectators a higher grade. Hawking towers, like that of 1611
to the hunt (hence the modern term ‘grandstand’) at Althorp, Northamptonshire (listed Grade I), are
are often elaborate and are invariably listed: they even rarer; again, these generally stand on an
form the earliest surviving buildings associated elevated site.

Figure 9
W hitcliffe Park, Berkeley, Gloucestershire (landscape
registered Grade II*). Park House of about 1800, a
deliberate echo of earlier lodges and hunting towers.
Listed Grade II.

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Figure 10 Figure 11
Eyton-on-Severn, Shropshire. The surviving banqueting Hungerhill Allotments, Nottingham (landscape registered
house of about 1607 which overlooks the Severn Valley. Grade II*). A late nineteenth-century allotment shed with,
Listed Grade II*. inside, planked walls and a fireplace, marking it out as
more than a utilitarian store. Listed Grade II.

Turning to elevated structures nearer the house, used more as pleasure gardens than for vegetable
banqueting houses enabled family and favoured growing, contained summerhouses. Very occasionally
guests to take refreshment whilst enjoying the these survive and may merit designation, like the
view (Fig 10). Their construction largely ceased Grade II late nineteenth-century allotment shed on
after the mid-eighteenth century and all (unless very the Hungerhill Allotments, Nottingham, a Grade-II*
substantially altered) are eligible for listing. These registered landscape (Fig 11).
are among the garden and park buildings which
sometimes had carefully fashioned interiors; where
these survive, designation at a high grade may be 2.2 Buildings of utility and decoration
warranted. Belvederes (from the Italian ‘beautiful
to see’), gazebos (from the bastard Latin for ‘I will Entrance lodges appear from the later
gaze’) and summer-houses are often difficult to seventeenth century both for security and to give
differentiate (Symes’s A Glossary of Garden History the passer-by or visitor a hint of the quality of the
is an essential guide to terminology): typically family and its house. Generally small but often
belvederes are prominently sited and highly visible elaborate (and often designed to anticipate the
while gazebos are smaller and stand at the corners of architectural achievement of the greater house
inner courts. Again, interiors can be elaborate. Even beyond), they survive in large numbers: many
early nineteenth-century urban allotment gardens, thousands were built up to the early twentieth

13
Figure 12
R ushton Hall, Northamptonshire (landscape registered
Grade II*). The early nineteenth-century gate lodges.
Gothic, and rather old fashioned for the date. Listed
Grade II.

century. Architectural quality will be a key factor particularly where registered; and where a wall
when assessing them for listing, together with runs through or defines a conservation area.
the degree of alteration. Their importance is Factors which may count against a wall are
enhanced if the accompanying park is registered where it is of a relatively late date (probably later
(Fig 12). Similar principles apply to lodges at the eighteenth century or later); is of poor-quality
entrance to public parks and cemeteries. Victorian materials or construction; no longer survives to its
park keeper’s shelters are now rare, and may full linear extent, and has lost gates and/or lodges;
warrant designation too. and where the designed landscape it defined is
lost or heavily degraded.
Park walls similarly survive in large numbers, and
as with entrance lodges considerable discretion Bridges were often ornamental, sometimes
will need to be shown in listing recommendations. designed to be seen rather than carry serious
Factors in a wall’s favour will include a relatively traffic, as with Vanbrugh’s Grade I-listed Grand
early date (the walling of parks proliferated in the Bridge at Blenheim Palace (Oxfordshire). Pre-1850
later eighteenth century); high-quality materials examples will generally be listable; later examples
and construction, including coping; association only if they are architecturally elaborate, have
with lodges and gates, especially where listed; technical interest (for instance, in their use of
association with a surviving designed landscape, iron or concrete) or are essential elements in

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Figure 13
Knightshayes Court, Devon (landscape registered part of William Burges’s work there of about 1870.
Grade II*). The walls of the kitchen garden – local Listed Grade II.
purple rubble stone bedded in red cob mortar,

an important landscape. Exceptionally paths square or rectangular plan), elaborate doorways,

and surfaces will have a decorative role (for copings, bee boles, and careful construction
instance, in the use of flags, sets and steps) or can also be relevant.Gardens which survive in a
be innovative, like the ‘glascrete’ – river pebbles fairly complete state with features such as heated
bound into a wearing surface – at Elvaston walls, glasshouses (for which see below), hotbeds
(Derbyshire); these may be listable if integral or pine pits, and other attached structures such
to a wider design, especially if this is registered as north-wall sheds, fruit stores and perhaps
(see too the Street Furniture selection guide). a gardener’s house, will tend to have greatest
Elements of walled gardens will be potential interest. If the walled garden is not intact as an
candidates for listing if they form part of a wider ensemble (as is far more often the case than not)
estate ensemble, especially if it is a registered individual structures may still, in themselves, be
landscape and the ‘big house’ survives (Fig 13). An of special interest.
early date, especially predating the proliferation
of detached walled gardens in the mid nineteenth The growing of orange trees in tubs was introduced
century, will strengthen the case for inclusion. to England in the mid-sixteenth century and light,
Considered design as displayed in plan-form (that airy and heated orangeries were erected to
is gardens which have other than the standard over-winter them. They were generally of brick

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 in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century;
the case for designation will be stronger if they
complement a listed house.

Other produce-related buildings include game

larders, usually designed to be cool and well
ventilated and sited down-wind from the house
and walled garden (Fig 14). Examples survive
from the eighteenth century, and some are
architecturally decorative. Pre-1850 larders will
generally qualify for designation as will elaborate
later examples such as that at Holkham, Norfolk
(listed Grade II). From about 1600 below-ground
icehouses were built in the grounds of country
houses, usually brick-lined and typically with the
profile of in inverted egg. Ice, harvested from a
pool or lake, would be packed in to the icehouse
in the winter months. This would then be taken
to the kitchen as needed over the course of the
year (the ice would keep a full year) to help keep
perishable goods cool. By the later eighteenth
century virtually every country house had one. In
the past many were scheduled; today, listing is the
preferred option. Degree of survival, architectural
elaboration of the entrance or façade, and relative
Figure 14
date (generally eighteenth century) will be the
Walcot, Shropshire (landscape registered Grade II).
key considerations. As with all ancillary buildings,
The nineteenth-century game larder. Listed Grade II. the structure’s place as part of a surviving house
and estate complex will be a key consideration.
Ornamental dairies were not uncommon in mid to
late eighteenth-century landscapes, a place where
ladies of the house might assist with pastoral
(sometimes stone) with tall windows to the front tasks such as butter-making. They contained tiled
and sometimes sides, typically opening to the interiors for ease of cleansing, and were designed
ground to allow tubs to be carried straight in. to be kept cool. Often picturesque in treatment,
Roofs were tiled or slated. The expanse of glass like the Grade II* listed 1770s Gothick example
can make them among the most attractive garden at Sherborne Castle, Dorset (complete with reset
buildings, as is the case with vinehouses too. In Roman mosaic), they can occupy key positions in
the 1840s cheaper glass led to a proliferation of gardens and can be listable in a high grade.
glasshouses, principally, but not exclusively, in the
kitchen garden for camellias, cucumbers, orchids The provision of a reliable source of clean water for
and other exotica foodstuffs as well as bedding greater households became an increasing concern
plants which characterise Victorian gardening. in the post-medieval centuries. Structures such as
Examples predating 1850 will usually merit well houses and conduit heads were sometimes
individual designation but greater selectivity must designed to be more than purely functional.
be exercised after that date, as many greenhouses
were of standard construction. Free-standing Buildings to house birds and animals include
flower houses, also purchased from catalogues, menageries and aviaries, which became
became popular in affluent middle class gardens fashionable from the mid-eighteenth century,

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especially to house the then exotic pheasant. or complete examples, especially pre-dating
Early and decorative examples will generally be 1850, will be listable: the hunt complex of 1810 at
listable; survival rates are poor, however, owing Brocklesby, Lincolnshire (listed Grade I), by James
to their light and ephemeral construction. Deer Wyatt is of particular note.
sheds to store fodder are often simple buildings
but may have architectural pretensions when Dovecotes and structures associated with rabbit
used as eyecatchers. Where they are associated warrens are treated in the Agricultural Buildings
with a court, paddock, wall or ha-ha they should selection guide. Again, buildings with a utilitarian
be considered as a group. Likewise, kennels function were often given at least a façade which
(always an element of high status complexes, and was ornamental, and sited to be enjoyed.
provided expressly for foxhounds as fox hunting
became fashionable in the earlier eighteenth Numerous buildings in landscapes were erected
century) were sometimes ornamental; elaborate for recreational purposes, and more consideration

Figure 15
Croome, Worcestershire (landscape registered Grade I).
The grotto of 1765-7 by Capability Brown following
restoration. Listed Grade II.

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is given to these in the Sport and Recreation and exotic surfaces decorated with quartz, shells,
selection guide. These include fishing pavilions, bones and colourful minerals: the late Georgian
sited alongside lakes and watercourses from the example in Margate, Kent (listed Grade I), now
seventeenth century, which were sometimes surrounded by housing, shows the sophistication
provided with elaborate forms to be enjoyed from these structures could attain. Most hermitages
a boat or from a vantage point. Comparable too and grottoes will be listable; especially where
are boathouses, which survive in considerable internal decorative schemes survive in good
numbers from the eighteenth and nineteenth condition a higher grade may well be warranted.
centuries; notable twentieth century examples
include Noah’s House (listed Grade II*) of 1930 Bandstands appeared in public parks in the 1860s
in the Modern Movement style at Cookham and concerts soon became popular: by the end
(Berkshire). Cold baths and plunge pools often of the nineteenth century few parks lacked one.
had medicinal uses. Few baths pre-date about Most were probably purchased from commercial
1700 – that at Carshalton, London Borough manufacturers and cast iron was the most popular
of Sutton, of about 1720 (listed Grade II*) is a material. Bandstands remain relatively common,
particularly monumental survival. By the end and discretion should be used in selecting
of the century cold, or plunge, pools became examples for designation; quality, rarity, date, and
fashionable and relatively common. Essentially condition will all be factors, as may its location
masonry tanks and of various plan forms, pools and the significance of the park itself. Again,
could be open to the elements or covered by bath registration will add weight to the case.
houses. The fashion waned in the early nineteenth
century, with the preference for outdoor The 27 life-size Crystal Palace dinosaurs (listed
swimming. Where such structures pre-date 1850 Grade I), survivors from an exceptional High
they will usually be listable, as will later examples, Victorian pleasure ground created in the early
including early twentieth-century swimming 1850s, show the singularity park features could
pools, which often have strong architectural merit sometimes attain.
and sometimes decorative changing rooms. As
ever, inclusion in a registered landscape will add
weight to any case. 2.3 Extent of listing

Two rare building types fall outside categories of Amendment to the Planning (Listed Buildings and
utility and decoration. In each case, their primary Conservation Areas) Act 1990 provides two potential
purpose was to appeal to the visitor’s imagination ways to be more precise about what is listed.
and induce a frisson of awe. This could be brought
on through human and natural agents. Hermitages The empowerments, found in section 1 (5A) (a)
accommodated an aged hermit (in reality often a and (b) of the 1990 Act, allow the List entry to
retired family servant), and were popular features say definitively whether attached or curtilage
in well-visited Georgian Romantic landscapes. structures are protected; and/or to exclude from
They sought to appear rustic and self-built, the listing specified objects fixed to the building,
of boulders, branches, moss and thatch, or features or parts of the structure. These changes
else rocky and awesome. Grottoes are known do not apply retrospectively, but New listings and
in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth substantial amendments from 2013 will provide
centuries, as at Wilton, Wiltshire (listed Grade this clarification when appropriate.
I) but reached their heyday in the eighteenth:
Painshill (Surrey) and Croome (Worcestershire; Clarification on the extent of listing for older
Fig 15) have fine examples too. A few were built lists may be obtained through the Local
in the nineteenth century, but by then fashion Planning Authority or through the Historic
had moved on. Many invoked the underworld via England’s Enhanced Advisory Service, see www.
the incorporation of water, statues of river gods, HistoricEngland.org.uk/EAS.

< < Contents 18

3 Select Bibliography
3.1 General garden history Howley, J, The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland (1993)
Creighton, O, Designs Upon the Land: Elite Landscapes
of the Middle Ages (2009) Jackson, H, Shell Houses and Grottoes (2001)

Downing, S J, The English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860 Jackson-Stops, G, An English Arcadia (1992)
(2009)
Jekyll, G, Garden Ornament (1918, reprinted 1982)
Elliot, B, Victorian Gardens (1986)
Jones, B, Follies & Grottoes (1974)
Harris, J, The Artist and the Country House from the
Fifteenth Century to the Present Day (1996) Lambton, L, Beastly Buildings (1985)

Henderson, P, The Tudor House and Garden (2005) Symes, M, Garden Sculpture (1996)

Jacques, D, Georgian Gardens: the Reign of Nature Van Lemmen, H, Coade Stone (2006)
(1990)
White, R, Georgian Arcadia: Architecture for Park and
Longstaffe-Gowan, T, The London Town Garden (2001) Garden (1987)

Mileson, S A, Parks in Medieval England (2009) Woodfield, P, ‘Early Buildings in Gardens in England’, pages
123-37 in Brown, A E (ed), Garden Archaeology (1991)
Strong, R, The Artist and the Garden (2000)

Symes, M, A Glossary of Garden History (2006) 3.3 Lodges

Mowl, T, and Earnshaw, B, Trumpet at a Distant Gate
Waymark, J, Modern Garden Design: Innovation since (1984)
1900 (2003)

Tim Mowl is the lead author on a county by county

3.4 Public parks
series of books on historic parks and gardens. To date Conway, H, People’s Parks: The Design and Development
volumes have appeared on Cambridgeshire and the of Victorian Parks in Britain (1991)
Isle of Ely, Cheshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire,
Herefordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Conway, H, Public Parks (1996)
Somerset, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and
Worcestershire. Many other counties have coverage
by other authors. 3.5 Walled gardens
Campbell, S, A History of Kitchen Gardening (2005)
3.2 Garden buildings and features
Buxbaum, T, Scottish Garden Buildings: From Food to
Folly (1989) 3.6 Periodicals
The key periodical is Garden History, published twice a
Davis, J, Antique Garden Ornament (1991) year by the Garden History Society.

English Heritage, Durability Guaranteed: Pulhamite

Rockwork – Its Conservation and Repair (2008) 3.7 Websites
Parks & Gardens UK is the leading on-line resource
Headley, G, and Meulenkamp, W, Follies (1990) dedicated to historic parks and gardens across the
whole of the United Kingdom. Its website is
Hopwood, R , Fountains and Water Features (2004) www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/

< < Contents 19

Acknowledgements
Images
© Historic England
All images except those listed below

© Other
Cover and Figures 1 to 10, 12 to 15: Paul Stamper

Figure 11: STAA Ltd

< < Contents 20

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Publication date: April 2011 © English Heritage
Reissue date: December 2017 © Historic England
Design: Historic England