19th century walled kitchen garden and associated structures at St Osyths Priory (EHER 80503)

Contrary to the listing, the walled kitchen garden dates from the late 19th century, as do the associated structures.

February 2023. Level 3 building survey. The bothy at St Osyth’s priory is a gardener’s bothy, a purpose-built small cottage-like dwelling, that provided accommodation for the estate’s gardeners. The bothy is located on the southern wall of the garden. It is a single-storey, rectangular building. It measures approximately 16.8m by 3.3m. The roof is mono-pitched, sloping to the north, and clad in slate. There is a red brick chimney located on the western half of the roof. The bothy is constructed from red brick laid in Monk bond. The southern elevation incorporates the 19th century garden wall, also constructed from red brick but laid in Flemish bond. Also incorporated into the structure of the bothy is an earlier wall, constructed from red brick laid in English bond and located abutting to the northern side of 19th century garden wall. The brick size indicates a construction date of between the 16th and early 18th centuries, although the use of English bond points to a date earlier in the proposed range. The garden remained unchanged between 1874 and 1897, after which time the glasshouses, boilerhouse and raised beds were added. The boilerhouse is small square building which is single storey with a basement level and is roughly 4.0m by 3.8m. It is located on the north-east corner of the garden wall on the exterior of the garden. The roof of the boilerhouse is mono-pitched, sloping to the north-east, and clad in slate. Deterioration has caused slates to be lost from the lower portion of the roof. This area has been covered with chicken wire. The southern wall of the garden has been constructed adjacent to an earlier garden wall that starts and ends outside the garden. The earlier wall is built from smaller red bricks than the rest of the walls, indicating a probable date of 16th to 17th century. The wall is wider and shorter than the 19th century garden wall and is likely first represented on the 1762 estate plan. Much of the earlier wall is obscured by vegetation in the garden but, as the bothy has been constructed over the wall, it is visible inside the building. The primary function of the high walls was to shelter the garden from wind and frost, but they also segregated the estates’ gardeners from the pleasure grounds, allowing them to continue working uninterrupted. Walled gardens were at their peak productivity during the 19th century, after which their popularity declined due to the increase in foreign imports. The walled garden at St Osyth’s Priory has originally been proposed to be 18th century in origin but the cartographic evidence disputes this. Mapping indicates the garden walls and bothy were actually constructed sometime between 1858 and 1874. It seems likely the walled garden was initiated by Sir John Johnson, a London corn merchant, who purchased the priory in 1863 and made substantial changes the priory and grounds. <1>