Monument record 112/1/5 - The Middle Garden

Part of the unfinished gardens begun in 1596 by Sir Thomas Tresham. The middle garden was intended to be a 'water orchard'

{1} The unique garden remains at Lyveden New Bield were begun by Sir Thomas Tresham soon after 1597 but they were still incomplete when he died in 1605 and the whole site was abandoned. Fig.7.
The unfinished gardens at Lyveden New Bield were begun in 1597 by Sir Thomas Tresham. They are of great interest from an archaeological point of view. Not only do the canals, terraces with triple level paths, great circular mounds with spiral walkways and mounds of double truncated pyramidal form all still survive under the protection of modern copses, but other forms of archaeological investigation have added greatly to the picture. For though part of the gardens has been destroyed by modern cultivation, air photographs taken before this occurred show clearly that when the construction work came to an end, some of the half completed terraces lay on top of medieval plough ridges. More interestingly, the modern destruction, when combined with later air photography, revealed new and unknown details. In the centre of the intended garden air photographs showed two blocks of parallel rows of pits, separated by an axial pathway, all visible as crop marks. These pits are the holes for the trees of the great ‘wilderness’ or orchard, which was meant to divide the garden into two parts. Elsewhere on the same site, careful field walking on newly ploughed fields led to the discovery of an interesting pattern of strips of gravel set in the natural clay. These are paths of an elaborate knot garden, which was completely unsuspected before work began. These gravel paths have survived because of the way they were built. Sir Thomas, no doubt well aware of the heavy nature of the soil at Lyveden, wrote to his clerk of works in 1597 and instructed him to form such paths by digging trenches up to 1m deep and to fill them with gravel. This was to ensure that the ladies walking in the garden would keep their feet dry!

{2} "….to east is a pretty high mount encompassed with a broad deep moat with one entrance & near it are several smaller mounts with several walks pointing from house & planted with sycamores & elms";,Earthworks of post medieval gardens; unfinished remains of an elaborate garden with terraces & mounds & moats; constructed by Sir Thomas Tresham between 1597-1604; general earthwork survey over whole area of gardens [9885005] & more detailed survey for water gardens [9885013];,Formal gardens of 12ha to south of Lyveden Old Bield; they were begun in 1596 by Sir Thomas Tresham but were unfinished when work ceased in 1605; garden is in 3 parts; Middle Garden is moated with terraced bank & 2 mounds on north side; to south moat canal curves around 2 larger mounds each of which has spiral terrace walks;

{3} The garden remains comprise the unfinished remains of an elaborate garden with terraces, mounds and moats which was constructed by Sir Thomas Tresham between 1597 and 1604.

{5} The 1817 OS surveyor's drawings show that at this time only the northern arm of the moat was water-filled. It also clearly depicts the earthworks of the two large, southern, circular mounts.

{6} Earthworks and ponds of a large formal garden begun in the 1590s by Sir Thomas Tresham, the focal point of which was the New Bield, a banqueting house whose plan and decoration proclaimed its builder’s Catholic adherence.
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 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 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’. 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.

{7} The middle garden consists of earthworks and canals surrounding a flat area which may have been designed as a 'Water Orchard'. The gardens were begun in 1596 and work ceased in 1605 when he died and the gardens remained unfinished.

{9} An aerial photograph taken by the Luftwaffe in 1944 shows what might have been the original Tudor design for the garden at Lyveden New Bield, comprising ten huge concentric circles within the garden, measuring c120m across. Also refers to letters detailing plans for '400 raspberries and roses to be planted within Tresham's circular borders.' A number of interpretations of this layout are possible, including that of a labyrinth.

{9} No evidence of the former garden layout was identified during the geophysical survey.

{10} No evidence for the late C16th circular planting beds was found in Trench 1 and it is assumed that these had been removed by later ploughing.

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

<1> Taylor C., 1983, The Archaeology of Gardens, p.18+46-7 (checked) (Series). SNN41440.

<2> English Heritage, 1984, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1984, Northamptonshire), (checked) (Report). SNN46781.

<3> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.8 site 22 (unchecked) (Series). SNN77379.

<4> Brown, AE & and Taylor, CC, 1973, The Gardens at Lyveden, pp.154-60 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN55282.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1811-9, First Edition Ordnance Survey Surveyors Drawings, Sheet 269 (Map). SNN104902.

<6> Stamper P., 2000, Lyveden New Bield (Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England), (checked) (Report). SNN106559.

<7> Potter, P.C., 1987, Archaeological Survey: Lyveden New Bield, p.5 (checked) (Report). SNN77265.

<8> National Trust; Prentice, J. & Chapman, A., 2012, Luftwaffe Record of Lyveden's Labyrinth, p. 184-5 (Article). SNN108371.

<9> Malone, S J, 2011, Land at Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire: Geophysical Survey (Report). SNN110621.

<10> Prentice J., 2011, An Archaeological Evaluation Within the Moated Orchard at Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire, September 2011, p.13 (Report). SNN107897.

<11> Brown, K C, 1935, Lyveden New Building, Northamptonshire (Article). SNN110991.

Record last edited

Oct 23 2024 10:59AM