Monument record 1682/3/1 - The Great Garden, Kirby Hall

{1} As subsequently laid out, the Great Garden formed a rectangular enclosure which was encompassed by terraces around its north and west sides with free-standing walls elsewhere.

{3} The northernmost compartment, or Great Garden, was laid out anew in the 1990s following excavation and documentary research, and comprises a 120m long quartered lawn with gravel paths in a style typical of late C17 cutwork derived from a style at Longleat. Across its north end is a raised terrace of c 1605-19, 20m wide, 3m high and 90m long, with a stone wall on its outer side and a brick wall on the inner. In the centre is a stone gateway. This was probably built c 1610-20 at the west end of the main cross-walk across the garden ( the position now occupied by the statue fragment: see below), was reworked by Nicholas Stone c 1640, and moved to its present position and blocked in 1694. The north raised terrace returns south as a 237m long and 12m wide terraced or ramped walk down the west side of the garden and to the Kirby Brook beyond. A broken statue stands on a plinth at the base of the walk at the end of the main east/west cross-walk across the garden. Another brick plinth lies to its south. In the centre of the south side of the Great Garden a shallow flight of steps leads down to the grass south terrace. At the west end of the terrace is a denuded raised mound, raised over the site of Kirby's church. The mound, originally rectangular, may have been constructed in the early C17, at the same time as the Great Garden.

Meanwhile, in 1685-6, the Great Garden was remodelled, with the walks being heightened, intricate new beds laid out, and mcuh garden statuary introduced. In 1693-4 the Great Garden was turned through a right angle to lie north/south from its original position, possibly to the advice of George London (d1714) who was at Kirby in 1693. Together with the removal of the wall along the south side of the Great Garden this produced a vista south to the Wilderness beyond.

<1> Dix B.; Soden I.; Hylton T., 1995, Kirby Hall and Its Gardens: Excavations in 1987-1994, p.315 (unchecked) (Report). SNN74020.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 60 (Series). SNN77380.

<3> English Heritage, 1984, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1984, Northamptonshire), (unchecked) (Report). SNN46781.

Record last edited

Aug 28 2014 5:02PM