Garden at Three Gables (also known as No 17 Biddenham Turn, Compton House, Barringer)

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

Three Gables is located on the east side of Biddenham, a village on the western outskirts of Bedford. The garden is situated on the north side of Biddenham Turn. It is on level ground and occupies an area of roughly three quarters of an acre. The rectangular plot is c60m in width and 50m in length, and the house is set back from the road by c25m. The garden is bounded on the south (front) side by a yew hedge with topiary at irregular intervals which was planted c10-15 years ago. The east side is bounded by a wooden post and rail fence and tall yew hedge, except for the south end which has a holly bush. The north and west sides are bounded by a paling fence.

Entrances and Approaches

The garden is approached from the south through a wide wooden gate in the yew hedge slightly to the left of centre in the position of the original field entrance.

Principal Building

The Grade II-listed Three Gables is an Arts and Crafts house constructed of local red brick with a clay tile roof covering. It has two storeys with steeply pitched roofs and varied elevations, the principal south elevation being distinguished by three prominent gables. The house has an asymmetrical plan with loggias on the south, east and west sides.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The garden is divided into sections which all have a different character. The layout of the western side was influenced by the existing field pattern. The drive therefore follows the original curve of the boundary as it winds northwards to the house, and is lined on the left with shrubs, including buddleia, hydrangea, and box, some cut into topiary. Roughly parallel to the drive on the west side is a tall hawthorn hedge, probably the original field hedge, which continues in a north-westerly direction almost to the end of the plot.

At the northern end an archway has been cut, aligned with the north wing of the house. To the right of the drive, in front of the house, is a rose garden in the shape of a bottle neck which has intricate shaped beds divided by narrow lawn paths. The rose garden is lined on the east and west sides by holly hedges with bee hive domes cut at regular intervals. The unusual shape was adopted in order to accommodate the field boundary on the left and the mature cypress tree on the right. At the southern end of the rose garden a stone bird bath is set in a square of low box hedge. At the northern end there is paving in front of the house which contains two millstones and continues around the east side of the house featuring another millstone at the northern end. The paving is original but was re-laid c20 years ago.

To the left and right of the rose garden are grass paths along the southern boundary lined with shrubs and trees, including box and silver birch. To the left, the spinney in the south-west corner contains some mature trees predating the garden, including sweet chestnut, oak and hornbeam, as well as shrubs and topiary planted at a later date. A grass path meanders through the spinney.

The south-east corner of the garden is occupied by a long rectangular tennis lawn which has flower borders along the north and west sides and a herbaceous border along the east side (which replaced the original pergola). A tall yew hedge at the northern end divides the lawn from the orchard in the north-east corner. The orchard retains original apple, plum and pear trees, and in the middle has four borders divided by stone paving which were created in the late C20/ early C21. On the west side of the orchard the flower border in front of the house is edged with a low box hedge and original shaped ceramic tiles.

Along the west side of the garden, to the north of the spinney, there is a kitchen garden which has partly been laid to lawn. The garage built out of the materials from the outbuildings occupies the north-west corner, and just in front there is a mature oak tree that was retained from the former field.

Reasons for Designation

The Arts and Crafts garden at Three Gables, laid out in 1900 to the designs of Charles Edward Mallows, is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

• Designer: it is by an accomplished garden designer and architect of national repute whose work is well represented on the List;
• Design interest: it is a highly significant work that embodies Mallows' fundamental ideas about garden design and is one of his earliest designs for a ‘garden house', an integrated approach to planning in which he evinced great skill. The design of the garden is carefully integrated with that of the house to create an open and dynamic relationship between the inside and outside space;
• Intactness: with the exception of the kitchen garden in the northern section, the garden encompassing the rose garden, spinney, tennis lawn and orchard, together with the paths, boundaries and trees, survives in the same form as depicted on the original plan;
• Rarity: it is not only a rare and important survival of a suburban Arts and Crafts garden but is the only known example of a garden of this scale by Mallows to have survived in anything like its original condition;
• Influence: it was featured extensively in the contemporary architectural press and, together with the house, forms an ensemble of considerable importance as the best surviving example of Mallows' influential ‘garden houses';
• Historic interest: it has a particularly close association with Mallows as not only did he design it for his future father-in-law but he came to live there himself: his son remembers him working extensively from home. Mallows also died at Three Gables, being prematurely cut off in his prime;
• Group value: it has strong group value with the Grade II listed house and forms part of an important cluster of five Arts and Crafts houses in Biddenham by Mallows and Baillie Scott, three of which are listed.

Edited: May 2022