Walled Garden

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An extensive mid-eighteenth century former walled garden, located on the perimeter of Portaferry settlement, on the fringes of Portaferry House (HB24/01/105) demesne, of which it was formerly a part. Now accommodating local authority recreation grounds and aquarium. The garden is on a ziggurat plan, having a sloping aspect to south-east. There are two enclosures, comprising the main enclosure and a second narrow enclosed strip running the full width of the main garden at south.

Original walls are retained to north and west, comprising rubble masonry, partially snecked, with handmade internal facing bricks laid in Flemish bond and bedded in lime mortar. The brick sections are studded with iron nails for training creeping fruit trees. No coping is evident with the exception of an isolated area of cement coping to W; there are isolated sections of rebuilding to upper reaches. Original openings consist of a wide elliptical arched entrance in the north wall (from which the main house is visible), plainly detailed with a modern metal gate, and a segmental-headed voussoired pedestrian doorway in the west wall (north side), now infilled with modern brick. The east wall has been rebuilt using modern materials, and the transverse dividing wall has been replaced by the aquarium building (c.1990).

Walls to the secondary enclosure are random rubble masonry throughout, and abut a sixteenth century tower house at the south-east corner. There is no coping or detailing, and some sections have been rebuilt in modern masonry. View partially obscured due to perimeter planting.

Setting:
The garden slopes markedly from north to south, but has been fully re-landscaped to accommodate a bowling green, caravan park and recreation ground, with no evidence of original layout remaining. The only remaining garden building is a mono-pitched bothy, now abutting the aquarium building. It has an artificial slate roof, random rubble walling, replacement rainwater goods and openings. To west, there is woodland and a public path, with attractive views over the eighteenth century parkland
setting to west, and Strangford Lough, Audleystown, and Castleward to south.

Walling: Rubble stone and brick

Historical information

The former walled garden is first shown on a map of the Savage Estate, prepared by Patrick O’Hare in 1799 for Andrew Savage Esq. This source illustrates the main garden which is bounded to south by a wall running along the northern wall of the current Aquarium; an additional walled area is depicted to south, captioned 'Nursery'. The main garden is also depicted on measured survey carried out by O'Hare in 1775 - this shows some aspects and the general scope of the main garden, but it provides no context or any details of the landscaping arrangement, and does not provide any primary evidence relating to the existence of the 'Nursery' section at this time.

From the eighteenth century, almost all demesnes were furnished with a kitchen garden, which provided the family, servants and staff with fruit and vegetables all year round, as well as flowers for the house. The peak of their production was between 1800 and 1930, after which the rise in imported produce and streamlined marketing brought about their decline. With the dominance of the informal ‘naturalised’ landscaped parks from the mid- eighteenth century, it became necessary to conceal the more functional aspects of the garden in a screened location which would permit unspoiled enjoyment of the designed vista, particularly from the main house. From this time, kitchen gardens were increasingly located at a distance from the house, and their location and aspect was often carefully planned to maximise the topographical benefits.

Functioning as the pleasure gardens of Portaferry House (c.1750; HB24/01/105), the map of 1799 shows that the gardens were arranged in a formalised manner, comprising a network of linear paths which lined the internal perimeter and intersected various lawns; this pattern endured until the early-mid 20th century. The distinctive ziggurat arrangement of the west and north-eastern wall-sections, was purposely designed to maximise the amount of wall space exposed to the sun, creating favourable micro-climate which enabled the growth of wall fruit. The map of 1775 notes that the single linear walls to the south-east and south-west were constructed of stone, whilst those of a ‘zig-zag’ form, were ‘brick fronted’, as was common in walled gardens due to the thermal properties of red-brick. Both maps (1775 & 1799) indicate that the main entrance was via an arched gate-screen to the north-east, which connected to a path leading directly to Portaferry House to the north. A smaller archway in the south-western wall, led to the 'Nursery' section, which abutted to the north-west of the castle. This section of the garden remained sub-divided from the main garden until at least the mid 20th century.

The combination of stone exterior and brick interior was typical of walled gardens in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and brick was commonly used particularly for south-facing walls, as is the case here. The topography also slopes to the south-east, which is also representative of walled garden design. Elements of the wall to south, in the absence of any cartographical information, may relate to the castle, which served as the seat of the powerful Savage family from the medieval period until the mid 18th century. The gardens/parts of the walls may have been erected to serve the nearby castle, during the latter period of its habitation, when the need and fashion for heavily fortified tower houses was in decline. Additionally, on the 1799 map, an open area to the south of the ‘Nursery’ is captioned ‘Old Garden’, and this was likely to have once formed an additional part of the castle’s garden/s.

In the valuation records, the walled garden was valued as part of Portaferry House. In Griffith’s Valuation (c.1860-63), the combined value of the whole estate was £530, a figure which remained largely unchanged until the re-valuations of the mid 20th century. A gardener’s house was added to the south-western corner in 1887 but there were no changes to the valuation.

Captioned the ‘Castle Garden’ on the first edition OS map (c.1834), three small service buildings are shown in the centre and a T-shaped pond was added to the southern corner during the early 19th century. Valuation maps from the mid-late 19th century show the southern third of the garden contained numerous planting beds, which were formalised to create an array of intricate shapes such as stars, hearts and diamonds. Contemporary OS maps indicate that there was little alteration to the overall form of the garden until the mid 20th century, except for changes to the service buildings.

Following redevelopment in recent decades the area has been opened to the public and now contains a tourist and recreational area, featuring an aquarium, playground, caravan park and gardens.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI D552/B/3/3/66 - Plan and Aspects of Patrick Savage of Portaferry Esq.'s Garden, by Patrick O’Hare (c.1775)
2. PRONI D552/B/3/3/1A – Patrick O’Hare Plan of Portaferry Town from the Nugent Papers (1799)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map (1834)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/32/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1860)
5. PRONI OS/6/3/32/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1899-1900)
6. PRONI OS/6/3/32/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1920)
7. PRONI VAL/1/B/36 – First Valuation Records (1834)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/8 – Griffith’s Valuation (1860-63)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/18/20A-F – Annual Revaluations (1863-1929)
10. PRONI VAL/12/D/3/31/A – Annual Revisions Maps (c.1860-1935)
11. G.F. Armstrong, G.F. ‘The Savage Family in Ulster’ London, (1906)
12. Bell, Phillip, G, Brett, C.E.B, Matthew, Sir Robert, ‘Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford’ UAHS, Belfast (1969)
13. Day, Angelique & McWilliams, Patrick (eds) ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’ QUB, Belfast (1991)

Online Sources
1. ‘Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest, Northern Ireland’ (www.doeni.gov.uk/.../hg_register_of_parks_gardens_demesnes_of_special_ historic_interest.pdf)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Remains of the former eighteenth century walled garden of Portaferry House, located on the perimeter of Portaferry town, adjacent to the sixteenth century tower house, and now in use as local authority recreational grounds. While the former garden includes elements that are representative of eighteenth century garden design, such as a southern-sloping aspect and brick faced, south-facing inner walls, the context has been substantially altered, and substantial areas of the original fabric have been rebuilt. Much of the original context of Portaferry House remains intact, and, while the remaining garden walls contribute to the legibility of the wider historic landscape setting, as an entity it is incomplete and compromised by changes to setting and fabric.