Monument record 112/1 - Formal Gardens, Lyveden New Bield

Earthworks of a formal garden at Lyveden New Building, laid out from the 1590s by Sir Thomas Tresham. The plan of the gardens was drawn up by George Levens, Tresham's steward, surveyor and clerk of works. Work began on a moated orchard and contemporary letters refer to elm, sycamore, and walnut walks. The garden covers an area of 170 metres wide and 530 metres long, divided into areas known as the Upper, Middle and Lower Gardens. The Lower and Middle Gardens are aligned on the Old Bield, the Upper Garden on the New Bield. Many of the features within the Lower Garden are only visible on area photographs and include remains of an unfinished formal garden. The Middle Garden comprises a moat, walks and mounds. The Upper Garden is laid to lawn. The grounds at Lyvenden New Bield are on the Register of Parks and Gardens Grade I.

{6} Site of an old manor of the Treshams of Rushton.

{12} The manor of Lyveden was acquired by Thomas Tresham (d 1471) of Rushton shortly after 1450. Over the following century the Lyveden estate was gradually extended, and a licence to impark was granted in 1540. In the later Middle Ages the practice of law and service at Parliament brought the family wealth and prominence. In 1560, on the death of his grandfather, the family estates passed to Thomas Tresham (1545 1605). Knighted in 1575, Tresham was reconciled to the old religion by Jesuits in 1580, and thereafter suffered fines and imprisonment for the cause. His new adherence to Catholicism was proclaimed in two allegorical buildings, Lyveden New Bield, and the Triangular Lodge near Rushton. At Lyveden, where what became known as the Old Bield probably served as a country retreat, work began in 1596 on a cruciform banqueting house at the head of a great new garden. This garden was probably designed by Tresham himself, who in 1604 was commissioned to landscape grounds in Cirencester. Work was still ongoing at the New Bield in 1599, but may well have stopped when Sir Thomas was imprisoned in 1600. Five years later, and only a few months after his father’s death, his eldest son Francis was imprisoned because of his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. The Rushton estate was sold in 1614 and the family retrenched at Lyveden, the Old Bield being much enlarged in the early C17 by Sir Lewis Tresham (d 1639). His son William died childless in 1643, and Lyveden then changed hands several times. By 1719 the Old Bield had been reduced in size and was occupied by a tenant. The Old Bield and the greater part of the registered area remain in private hands; the New Bield however has been owned by the National Trust since 1922 when on the break up of the Lyveden estate it and 11ha of land were purchased by public subscription.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The garden remains are elements of an original scheme 170m wide and at least 530m long, orientated north/south with the Old Bield at the north-west corner and projecting east at the south-east corner to include the New Bield and the garden which surrounded it. When first described in detail, by C C Taylor in 1972 (Archaeol J), the gardens were divided into three - Upper, Middle and Lower - for descriptive purposes, and those names are retained here. The Lower and Middle Gardens are aligned on the Old Bield, the Upper Garden on the New Bield. The northernmost section of the garden, the Lower Garden, is a rectangular area 170m x 400m. Only the major elements have survived C20 ploughing (it remained under arable cultivation in the later 1990s), although other elements, now largely ploughed out, have been observed on earlier air photos. On the lower, flatter slopes east and south-east of the Old Bield were six long, low scarps cutting across ridge and furrow, interpreted by Taylor as the main divisions of an unfinished formal garden. To the south of the site of these minor scarps is a larger one, 2m high, which returns south at its west end, probably the remains of an unfinished terrace intended to separate the two halves of the Lower Garden. Above this, on the gentler northern slope, air photos show rows of pits, presumably for trees or bushes, either side of a central, axial path.
The Middle Garden is the best surviving part of the garden. Intended as a ‘Water Orchard’, it comprises an almost square area of flat ground, 130m x 130m, bounded on the south, east and north by a water-filled moat or canal c 10m wide and 1.5m deep. The canal on the west side, where there is what appears to be an older moated complex, seems never to have been completed. The water was retained in the canals by a low bank to the east and especially by a dam of three terraces to the north, on the crest of the valley. At either end of these terraces, along the top of which is a flat walk c 5m wide, is a large mound, each of which, although eroded, recognisably comprises two truncated pyramids, one on top of the other. These northern mounds are balanced by others at the south-west and south-east corners of the Middle Garden, spirals 40m in diameter and c 5m high. These act rather as bastions to the interior of that compartment, with the south arm of the moat swinging around their circumference. The north and east sections of the Middle Garden including the south-east spiral mound were cleared of scrub in the 1990s; in 1997 a strip of woodland remained along the south moat.
The Upper Garden, south-east of the south-east spiral mount, was that surrounding the New Bield. It is now (1997) lawn. The building itself stands on a slight mound surrounded by the remains of a ditch or alley c 5m wide and 0.5m deep. A deep communications trench runs from the centre of the south side of that ditch to the door into the building’s basement kitchen.
The documentary evidence indicates work began on the construction of the New Bield in 1596. In 1597 good progress was reported on the ‘west square’ of the moat and the ‘moated orchard’. Later in 1597 the diameter of the plot for the garden lodge that is the New Bield was ordered by Tresham to be 108 yards square, the same letter ordering the ‘deep alleye’ which ‘shall serve to walk in’ around the mound to be 10 12 feet wide and 3 4 feet deep. Other instructions relate to eight large arbours (apparently within the area defined by the alleys), a bowling green to the north of the New Bield and how to make gravel paths, and show that the moat (around the Middle Garden) was intended to serve as a fishpond. Taylor suggests that work may have stopped soon after because of Tresham’s financial commitments elsewhere. Even if so, it would seem unlikely that his son Lewis would have left the gardens unattended when, probably c 1615, he began to transform the Old Bield.

{18} Detailed description of the historical development of the site is given.

{21} "… a walk leading to the house which is planted with witch-elms… several walks pointing from the house and planted with sycamores and elms…".

{22} A long raised terrace with a mount at each end, adjoining a 'canal', is part of a 'water orchard' extending some way up the hill behind Lyveden Old Building and devised by Sir Thomas Tresham in the late 16th century.

{23} As described by authy {22}. Published survey (25" undated) to be amended by Field Surveyor.

{24} Mounds at either end of the north bank are square and have flat tops, whilst those to the south are round with double berms and are much larger. Surrounded by water they are linked to the other ponds by wet ditches. The system is incomplete on the west where only the ends of the large ditch seem to have been dug. Ditches and ponds to the west have now been filled in and the area levelled. The island itself has been ploughed but is now left and has a fairly heavy covering of weeds. Much broken stone is evident and a few sherds of medieval pottery were seen. See annotated 25" survey. 1:2500 survey. No change.

{25} Garden remains (SP 982859 - 982853) situated between Lyveden Old and New Bields, on the south side of the Lyveden Valley. The site comprises the unfinished remains of an elaborate garden with terraces, mounds and moats which was constructed by Sir Thomas Tresham between 1597 and 1604.

{31} Geophysical survey was undertaken in the area by MOLA in 2024. Despite relatively weak responses, the survey identified several ditchesas well as an area probably relating to clearance prior to building work immediately around the footprint of the building, and a portion of a probable small road. The survey also detected two areas of medieval to post-medieval ridge and furrow.

<1> Brown, AE & and Taylor, CC, 1973, The Gardens at Lyveden, p.154-60 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN55282.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP98NE17 (unchecked) (Index). SNN443.

<3> STEANE J.M., 1977, The Development of Tudor and Stuart Garden Design in Northamptonshire, p.397 (unchecked) (Article). SNN69732.

<4> 1979, Uncertain, (unchecked) (Series). SNN58063.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP98NE5 (unchecked) (Index). SNN443.

<6> Page W. (ed), 1930, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire- The Borough of Northampton, p.186 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100370.

<7> Anthony J., 1979, Gardens of Britain, p.118 (unchecked) (Series). SNN34164.

<8> STEANE J.M., Uncertain, p.383 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN54653.

<9> ISHAM G., 1964, Northampton Antiquarian Society, (unchecked) (Minutes). SNN54652.

<10> Mowl T.; Hickman C., 2008, The Historic Gardens of England: Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Series). SNN106082.

<11> Ordnance Survey, 1950s, Ordnance Survey 2.5 Inch Series (General), SP98 (unchecked) (Map). SNN54933.

<12> Stamper P., 2000, Lyveden New Bield (Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England), (checked) (Report). SNN106559.

<13> Finch M.E., 1956, Five Northamptonshire Families, p.68-79 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN106560.

<16> Colvin H., 1995, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects (1660-1840), p.367+783 (unchecked) (Book). SNN54451.

<17> Eburne, A, 2008, The Passion of Sir Thomas Tresham: New Light on the Gardens and Lodge at Lyveden, p. 114-134 (Article). SNN114880.

<18> Prentice J., 2011, An Archaeological Evaluation Within the Moated Orchard at Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire, September 2011, (unchecked) (Report). SNN107897.

<19> STEANE J.M., 1967, EXCAVATIONS AT LYVEDEN: 1965-1967 (Interim Report). SNN48569.

<20> Malone, S J, 2011, Land at Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire: Geophysical Survey (Report). SNN110621.

<21> Ordnance Survey Map (Scale/date), 6" 1958 (Map). SNN112944.

<21> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.372 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77326.

<22> English Heritage, Heritage Protection Advisor, Heritage Protection Adviser, 29th September 2010 (Report). SNN114849.

<23> Seaman, B H, 1962, Field Investigators Comments, F1 BHS 27-APR-1962 (Note). SNN113373.

<24> Seaman, BH, 1969, Field investigators comments, F2 BHS 12-SEP-1969 (Notes). SNN111907.

<25> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 8/Site 22 (Series). SNN77379.

<26> Perkins, J L, 1997, Report on an archaeological measured survey at Middle Garden, Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN114881.

<27> RCHME, Undated, RCHME Inventory: Northamptonshire I (North-East), 890168 (Archive). SNN113295.

<28> Taylor, H and Vickers, P, 2014, Lyveden Old Bield, New Bield and Gardens: Conservation Management Plan (Report). SNN116214.

<29> Newman, M, 2001-2, Mud, mud, glorious mud…. Environmental archaeology and the Elizabethan garden of Lyveden New Bield (Article). SNN116215.

<30> Dix, B., 2000, Archaeological Monitoring of the Moat De-silting 2000, Lyveden New Bield (Report). SNN116216.

<31> Graham Arkley, 2024, Archaeological geophysical survey at Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire, June 2024 (Report). SNN116641.

Record last edited

Feb 10 2025 7:10PM