pedestrian entrance from farm buildings to walled garden For the 3rd year in a row Ashbrook Estate opened its doors for the European Heritage Open Day, and this year the Beresford-Ash family had asked me to facilitate a heritage walk of the walled garden of Ashbrook House. Below you'll see some pics from the day (with glorious Derry sunshine)..
former head gardeners house
original windows
head gardeners potting bench
pot shelving in work shop
magnificent yew tree
one of the largest costs was the brick for building walled gardens The south facing wall was the location for the large greenhouse in the walled garden, and the rest was covered in espallier pear trees, like can be seen here at Glenarm Castle. A large beech hedge ran across the middle of the walled garden and the top area was planted as an orchard, this area now is small allotment area and home to 2 new beehives.
 the outside of the walls were just made from local sourced stone |  2 new additions to the Beresford-Ash family.... |
where espalier fruit trees would have been
The current large entrance to the garden was always there, and was how machinery and the likes was brought into the garden, this was the former walkway where guests and visitors to the garden would gain access to the garden. Mrs Bereford Ash tells stories of how the family were very proud of their roses and every guest to the house would be led to view the gardens. There would have been 6 full time gardeners, which was reduced to 2 by the garden finished being a functional kitchen garden area in the early 1980's, and was let out to the current tenant - Ashbrook Garden Centre, a social enterprise.
chimney in former greenhouse
Peculiar for me is the situation of this former greenhouse, on an East facing wall. It was heated-as can be seen from the chimney marks left on the wall (see above), its intriguing what this was for, perhaps a propagating house or something.
There are so many questions relating to the walled garden in my mind, Mrs Beresford-Ash is currently researching some pictures showing off the walled garden in its prime, so I look forward to hopefully sharing more history and details of the garden in good time.
There are so many questions relating to the walled garden in my mind, Mrs Beresford-Ash is currently researching some pictures showing off the walled garden in its prime, so I look forward to hopefully sharing more history and details of the garden in good time.
cream teas on the lawn
