Record Details

Summary

The scheduled earthwork remains of a 16th century former water garden associated with Old Madeley Manor. The gardens were probably laid out for a member of the Offley Family as a setting for the mansion built by Thomas Offley on the site of the medieval manor and included a series of ponds, walkways, platforms and parterres.

Monument Type(s):

• FORMAL GARDEN (Established, Tudor to Elizabethan - 1500 AD to 1599 AD)

Associated Events:

• EST451 - Un-named event/activity
• EST1599 - An earthwork survey of Old Madeley Manor, Madeley, July to August 1991. (NRHE Name - RCHME: Old Madeley Manor)
• EST489 - Un-named event/activity
• EST2228 - A survey of the earthworks and standing remains at Old Madeley Manor.

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument 1009769: Site of Old Madeley Manor: a moated site with late 16th century house, gardens and a watermill

Full description

Formal Garden: A formal garden at Old Madeley Manor. The garden area has not been built over. <1> <2> <3>

A 16th century formal water garden, probably laid out for a member of the Offley Family as a setting for the mansion built by Thomas Offley on the site of the medieval manor. <4>

The house shown by antiquarian Robert Plot had a walled garden to the south and an outbuilding to the south-west. To the west of the house lies the remains of a water garden, probably of renaissance date, enclosed by a series of ponds and walkways. Two other ponds, which are though to have been part of this scheme, lie to the south of the garden enclosure.
The formal gardens shown by Plot adjoining the house to the south had principal walkways around the sides and through the centre, connected by a series of semi-circular paths. The principal walkways exist as low but reasonably well-defined scarps and form an enclosure circa 28 metres north to south by circa 45 metres east to west, with the southern side defined by another scarp. A number of subsidiary paths exist as extremely low scarps running parallel, and at right angles to, the remains of the principal walkways.
South-west of the ancillary building noted by Plot (which survives as a series of sandstone foundations to the south-west of the house and west of the garden) are a series of parallel mounds and channels. Their function is not entirely clear, being either garden features or associated with the later drainage of the area. On balance the latter suggestion seems more plausible, to help water down-slop into the moat and eventually the River Lea.
To the west of the moated enclosure area a series of features that form the remains of a formal Renaissance water garden. The area defined is similar to the manor house's moated enclosure, being almost 100 metres by 100 metres. The northern side of the garden is defined by a walkway which runs straight in an east to west direction, also forming the northern side of the moat. The average depth of the moat from the water's edge, which equates to the height of the walkway along this side, is 1.4 metres. The walkway is 160 metres long with a relatively level top and averages 6 metres wide. It is defined on its northern side by a ditch, averaging 10 metres wide and 1.6 metres deep and containing the River Lea. The river was canalised by the first quarter of the 19th century and its present course is shown on the Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 1" map. The straightness of its course at this point has led to suggestion, for which there is not evidence, that it follows the line of a Roman road.
Separating the moated enclosure from the gardens to the west is another walkway running in a north to south direction, at right angles to, and constructed at the same level as the walkway on the northern side of the garden. This walkway defines the western side of the moat, the depth of which (equating to the height of the walkway) is about 2 metres from the present surface at the southern end of the moat. South-west of the moat terminal, the eastern side of the walkway exists as a steep indented scarp with material mounded up along its edge, suggesting a number of phases of construction. The maximum height of this section of earthwork is 1.3 metres.
Running almost at right angles to north-south aligned walkway is another levelish area interpreted as a probable walkway defining the southern extent of the garden area. The sharpness of the scarp on the side of this walkway can be attributed to the drain that runs along the base of the slope. These two walkways surround a series of rectangular, steep-sided ponds, two on the eastern side and two on the southern side, which are bounded on their northern and western sides by two further walkways. These walkways are connected by causeways between the ponds, the two on the southern side appear to be original while that between the two ponds on the eastern side is a recent addition (though probably replaces an earlier causeway previously removed).
The present depth of the ponds on the eastern side is similar, both being circa 1.6 metres; the one to the north contains water while the southern pond is slightly marshy. The other ponds are dry, both are about a 1 to 1.2 metres deep from the top of the adjacent causeways. Both of the inner walkways are relatively level, one up to three metres wide, the other four metres. All the walkways widen, and surrounding the gardens are likely to have carried fences or hedges. It is unclear whether the hawthorns which principally line two of the walkways, formed part of a planting scheme, or whether they are later seedlings. The source of the material for these walkways are the ponds that bound them, together with the moat and the ditch which contains the River Lea.
The outer walkways surround a series of sub-rectangular platforms which formed the nucleus of a garden. These platforms are defined by channels that carried water, three running north-south, down-slope into a 0.70 metre deep channel that bounds the walkway on its own southern side, and by channels and drains running east to west. The platforms side in a series of level steps from north to south, matching the rise in the natural topography. The parterres to the west of the western channel are defined by an extremely low series of scarps. The depth of the central channel, equating to the height of the platforms, rises from 0.20 metres at the south to 0.60 metres at the north. It is evident that the channels dividing the platforms have been recut, and some probably realigned, after the gardens stopped being maintained when the manor house was vacated in the late 17th / early 18th century. It is therefore difficult to discern the original layout and isolate the changes in the planting scheme. At least two phases are apparent at the eastern end of the garden where a thin triangular platform, bounded on its eastern side by on of the north to south aligned channels, appears to be overlain by one of the inner walkways. The western scarp defining this walkway changes from a steep 0.70 metres high scarp at its northern end to an open 0.30 metre scarp towards the south, which maintains the levelness of the walkway as the natural topography rises. It is not clear what constituted the original western side of the garden. The present edge of this part of the site is the steep and straight sided north to south stream cut. Part of a brick structure at the western end of the east to west aligned walkway (on the northern side of the garden) is exposed in the stream cut and probably represents the remains of either a bridge or culvert. The bricks look to be post-17th century in date.
A level area immediately to the west of the east to west aligned walkway defining the southern extent of the garden, around which the stream is forced to deviate, is likely to have been part of the garden, perhaps the site of a building such as a summer house or temple or possible the site of a statue.
To enable such a water garden to function effectively it was essential that the water supply was regulated. To the south of the garden enclosure a valley, with a very pronounced fall on its eastern side, defines the remains of a pond which is now dry and clearly infilled on its western side. The southern extent of this pond has been destroyed by later activity in the valley bottom, while its northern side is defined by a dam, which appears to have been cut through by a later water channel. This pond was fed by a stream, now partially culverted. The pond provided a suitable head of water to maintain the flow through the gardens. It is likely that the water was carried by a series of channels, drains and culverts, which fed the ponds and the moat (which may have contained fish), as well as the channels that separate the platforms at the nucleus of the garden. The water then flowed out into the River Lea, either by means of culverts, indicated by linear depressions, most notably through the axial walkway on northern side of the garden, or into the channel west of the garden.
At the base of the valley, south of the moat and the garden enclosure there is a level rectangular area, thought to be a pond, that is defined on its southern side by the natural slope, to the north by the walkway defining the southern side of the garden, and by raised areas on its eastern and western sides. The position of the raised level area to the east, which coincides with the north to south alignment of the two extant ponds and may indicate that this pond also formed part of the garden layout. It was fed from the same source supplying the rest of the garden, and the water discharged by means of a channel, now partly occupied by later drains, which runs past and defines the southern side of the southern walkway and the gardens south of the house defined by a scarp. (SB, 09-May-2017) <5> <6>

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