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NANTWICH
Walled Garden Society was launched in June 2004 after our first
Secretary, Pat Fulford, woke up one morning and decided "I'm going
to save that garden". Sadly, she died before her dream could be
realised.
Her first step, with the help
of a group of
Nantwich residents, was to set up the Campaign to Conserve the Old
Walled Garden. The group wanted to save the site - which they regard as one of important historical interest
- from a proposed development for apartment buildings.
It wasn't
long before the campaign became a fully-fledged organisation, Nantwich
Walled Garden Society.
Why is the garden
important?
The Old Walled
Garden was once part of the gardens of Townsend House, built in Welsh Row
in
1580 by the Wilbraham family - the most significant family of
benefactors in Nantwich at that period. They lived in the house until
1780.
The family is mentioned in Hall’s History of Nantwich and played a
large part in the development of the town and in helping its poor. King James I stayed in Townsend House in 1617.
The garden is outlined in Hall’s history and all the
materials used in the making of the garden are extensively listed in
the Wilbraham archives which are at Rode Hall in Congleton, the present
home of Sir Richard and Lady Ann Baker-Wilbraham.
The Old Walled Garden consists of almost one acre of land surrounded by a
wall, which is listed as Grade Two by English Heritage. The garden is
situated behind the Old Police House off Welsh Row - although there is
no access through that part of the street. It can, however, be reached
via Red Lion Lane or King’s Lane. These old Nantwich lanes are about 400 yards from the
centre of the South Cheshire floral and market town.
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What are believed to be three bee
boles in the wall of the garden. |
Most
of the wall is still intact but is in urgent need of restoration. There
are three recesses in one wall, believed to be ancient bee boles where wicker bee hives were installed,
and part of one
gateway, which collapsed, remained on site. (It was later
suggested that the recesses were NOT bee boles).
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The old gateway a
few years ago... |
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. . . and
the same piece of land pictured a little later. A wire fence was
erected after this photograph was taken. |
A plan to build two blocks of apartments on this historic garden was refused by the Development Control Panel of
the former Crewe and Nantwich
Borough Council (now succeeded by Cheshire East Council). We were delighted, as a valuable piece of the town's history
could have vanished for ever
underneath a modern development. But that delight crumbled when the
original developers sold the site to a development company who submitted a new proposal to develop the
garden. (See this page for the latest news).
Nantwich
Walled Garden Society believes that any proposed development of housing on this small piece
of land would be detrimental to the town, which has already lost many of
its important historical buildings and sights to speculators and is at
present being overwhelmed by development.
In view of the significance of the important archaeological findings of
Roman remains found on Kingsley Fields, next to the garden, we believe that the
Old Walled Garden itself should also be the
subject of an archaeological survey. Who knows what important artefacts
would be discovered. With the departure of the
archaeologists (after the removal of historic artefacts) Kingsley Fields
became a large housing development.
It is the aim of the society to save and restore this garden and the surrounding wall
for the people of Nantwich and as a tourist attraction. This would bring
further trade to the town. We aim to restore the site to an
Elizabethan garden with many of the features which were there
originally, and to ensure its maintenance for future generations to
enjoy.
We understand that it is the responsibility of the developers of
Kingsley Fields to restore and reinstate the wall. We would like an
input into the way in which this is undertaken with the help of local
garden experts, English Heritage and the Garden History Society.
There is much support from other organisations (see the
Links page).
We are prepared to make every effort to raise the finance necessary to
build and maintain the garden as an Elizabethan sensory garden suitable
for the disabled and for all to enjoy. This should be a project for the
local community and by the local community but with expert advice.
A tribute to the late Pat Fulford can be
found here.
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