Monument record 112/1/6 - The Upper Garden

Element of the unfinished gardens begun in 1596 by Sir Thomas Tresham, located north-east of Lyveden New Bield.

{1} 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; Upper garden is on different axis & includes remains of a square mount upon which stands pavilion called New Bield; there is evidence of rectangular formal garden to north of pavilion.

{2} 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. 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! Fig.7.

{4} 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 north-east corner of the enclosure around The New Bield is shown as a slight L-shaped earthwork in the late C19th.

{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 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 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.
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 upper garden consists of an earthern plinth. The gardens were begun in 1596 but work ceased in 1605 when he dies and the gardens remained unfinished.

<1> English Heritage, 1984, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1984, Northamptonshire), (checked) (Report). SNN46781.

<2> Taylor C., 1983, The Archaeology of Gardens, p.46-7 (checked) (Series). SNN41440.

<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, 1880s, First Edition OS 6 Inch Mapping Series (18SE), (checked) (Map). SNN105804.

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

Record last edited

Oct 31 2024 8:44AM