Hill Close Gardens

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

A group of mid-19th-century detached urban pleasure gardens which retain several 19th-century summerhouses.

Hill Close Gardens are situated c 160m south-west of the centre of Warwick, to the south of Linen Street, an early C20 residential street which leads west from Bowling Green Street to Warwick Race Course on Lammas Field. The c 1.25ha site comprises nineteen individual plots containing an average of 500 square metres which are now (2000) divided by hedges of hawthorn, holly and privet, brick walls and iron railings. It is likely that all plots were originally enclosed by hedges, although individual ownership from the 1860s led to a greater diversity of boundary treatment. Today the majority of the site is enclosed by green-painted metal security fencing c 3m high.

The eastern plots which remain in separate ownership are enclosed to the north by a property in St Paul's Terrace, and to the south by the race course stables. To the east, these plots are today enclosed by temporary fences which separate them from the Westgate Hotel which is the subject of redevelopment. The site occupies a west-facing slope which falls from the eastern boundary to the Common Brook which forms the western boundary. From the higher, eastern plots there are extensive westerly views across the race course and properties in Linen Street to agricultural land west of Warwick.

Entrances and Approaches

The site is today (2000) approached from a service lane which leads c 50m south from Linen Street at a point c 30m east of its junction with St Paul's Terrace to reach a pair of wide, late C20 green-painted metal gates. Similar late C20 metal gates lead into the opposite end of the service lane from an area of open space, Bread and Meat Close, to the north-west of St Paul's church, which is approached from Friars Street (the A4189 road) c 130m south of the site. There is a further passage leading from Linen Street to a pedestrian gate in the perimeter fence at a point opposite the junction of Linen Street with Cocksparrow Street. A pedestrian gate from St Paul's Close gives access to the plots in the north-east corner of the site, while the eastern plots which remain in separate ownership from the remainder of the site are approached from a gate at the southern end of St Paul's Close. This leads to a service lane which extends c 40m south on the axis of St Paul's Close.

Gardens and Pleasure Grounds

The garden plots are arranged in five blocks of various length which run from north to south. Service lanes or paths separate the three western blocks, while a further service lane runs between the two most easterly blocks. Plots in the second and third blocks from the east share a common boundary, and are not separated by a path. Late C20 clearance of undergrowth on the site has revealed many of the boundary hedges of hawthorn, privet and holly which enclosed the gardens, together with a C19 brick wall to the east of plot 25 and C19 spiked iron railings to the north of plot 12. The gardens retain a collection of mature standard fruit trees, some of which are of C19 origin, while some new fruit trees have been planted (late C20) on cleared plots in the positions of trees indicated on the 1886 OS map. A large mature vine is trained on metal posts and wires parallel to the southern boundary of plot 25.

Clearance has revealed the late C19 path layout in some gardens (plots 17, 18), while elsewhere the late C19 path layout is now (2000) in the process of reinstatement. The southern half of plot 19, adjacent to the southern boundary of the site, is today used as a nursery area, with the remains of a late C19 or early C20 range of brick and timber glasshouses and frames surviving on the west side of the plot. Some10m south-west of the western entrance to the site from Linen Street, a mid C20 metal and timber shed is today used as a garden office, while further mid and late C20 sheds stand on plots 23 and 24 which have remained in continuous cultivation to the present day. Today only the most western group of gardens, plots 29(31, remain in an overgrown condition.

Eight brick-built summerhouses of various designs survive on the site. Of these, that on plot 18 dates from before 1851 (Board of Health map), and four on plots 7, 17, 19 and 25 from before 1866 (plan annexed to 1866 deed; three are listed grade II). Two further late C19 summerhouses are shown on the 1886 OS map (that on plot 5 listed grade II), while a further building was constructed c 1900. All the summerhouses occupy sites at the eastern end of their plot, so exploiting views across the race course and Common. The summerhouses were decorative buildings, equipped variously with fireplaces, stoves, gas lights, and, in one case, a 'patent earth commode'. The remains of two other buildings survive comprising a mid C19 brick bothy and a late C19 or early C20 brick-built pig-sty on plot 16.

Two C19 inventories show that the Hill Close Gardens had a recreational as well as a productive role, and this continued into the 1920s, although during the early C20 the growing of vegetables had increased in importance. This process was encouraged by the Dig for Victory campaign during the Second World War, and austerity during the 1940s and early 1950s. Today (2000) the gardens as revealed through late C20 clearance and reclamation closely reflect the layout shown on the 1886 OS map with summerhouses of various designs, mature fruit trees, complex path systems and terraces.

Maps

• Warwick Castle Estate Plan, 1786 (Warwickshire County Record Office)
• Warwick Castle Estate Plan, 1806 (Warwickshire County Record Office)
• Board of Health Map for Warwick, 1851 (Warwickshire County Record Office)
• Plan annexed to Deed of 1866 (CR2818), (Warwickshire County Record Office)
• Preliminary Masterplan for Hill Close Gardens, (Plinke Landscape 1998)
• OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1887; 2nd edition published 1905; 3rd edition published 1926; 1938 edition
• OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1886; 2nd edition published 1905; 3rd edition published 1925

Archival items

• Valuations of gardens and associated fittings and fixtures at Hill Close Gardens, 1878(1920 (CR2433/31), (Warwickshire County Record Office)
• Photograph, aerial view of Hill Close Gardens from the south-west, 1927 (private collection)

Description written: January 2000

Amended: May 2000

Edited: December 2000, March 2022