Gardens of the Middle Ages
Castles and aristocratic houses often stood within extensive designed landscapes which featured moats and other forms of water management. A particular type of medieval designed landscape was the ‘little park’, noted especially in the C14 and C15, which differed from the usual type of deer park. Most ‘little parks’ stood close to the house, or were overlooked by it, and appear to have been semi-natural pleasure grounds which provided a pleasing setting with animals and birds to watch and hear and probably somewhere to walk. Two dozen or more have been identified, most associated with grand castles and houses; many more are suspected.
Carisbrooke Castle (SM, LB I) is a motte-and bailey fortification of medieval date with a further eastern enclosure defined by prominent ditches and ramparts, both being surrounded by a Late-Elizabethan bastioned trace. The eastern enclosure, subsequently modified to form a bowling green for Charles I, may have originated as a C16 defensive circuit. However, it is possible that the eastern enclosure was formerly a medieval pleasure ground or ‘little park’ although the lack of documentary evidence and the absence of hereditary lords at Carisbrooke Castle after 1293 perhaps make this unlikely.
Some castles and great houses in England had small but elaborate pleasure gardens of a type known as the hortus conclusus, or herber. Documentary sources (mainly continental) indicate that in the C13 and C14 their features could include turf benches, trellis work screens, tunnels and arbours, fountains, pools and rills, specimen trees and a wide range of sweet-smelling flowers and herbs in beds.
There are no surviving physical remains of elaborate pleasure gardens of this type on the Isle of Wight but documentary evidence exists for such gardens at Carisbrooke Castle.
Contemporary documents record a ‘herbary’ (i.e. a herber) at Carisbrooke Castle in 1270 and also a new ‘arbour garden’ laid out at the castle by Isabella de Fortibus in 1287/8 (the term ‘arbour’ here being synonymous with ‘herber’). Isabella also laid out a kitchen garden although this appears to have been outside the castle.
The herbary garden at Carisbrooke Castle appears to have been located close to the great hall. The new arbour garden created by Isabella de Fortibus was located close to the Chapel of St Nicholas in the general area of the ‘Privy Garden’ recently remodelled by English Heritage. However, the medieval arbour garden would have been much smaller than the existing garden.
After the death of Isabella de Fortibus in 1293 the crown exercised direct control of the Island through the appointment of captains and governors. This royal influence inhibited the growth of powerful independent aristocratic families locally and therefore restricted the potential for ostentatious display including the creation of parks and gardens. However, despite the scarcity of evidence for medieval pleasure gardens on the Island other than those of Isabella de Fortibus at Carisbrooke Castle, it is likely that medieval manor houses would have had small enclosed spaces for growing vegetables and herbs.
Chale Manor House (LB II*) - later known as Chale Abbey although it was never a monastic building - is one of the oldest domestic buildings on the Isle of Wight. The house is located beneath St Catherine’s Down near the southern tip of the Island. It was built in the 1330s by John de Langford, the Constable of Carisbrooke Castle, possibly incorporating part of an earlier house and has C15, C16 and C19 alterations and extensions. A deed dated 1337 records a garden in Chale belonging to de Langford and his wife Johanna but it is not known whether this garden was associated with the manor house. The present walled garden is first shown on an Ordnance Survey drawing of c. 1793.
The medieval moat at Wolverton Manor, Shorwell (SM) may have been the site of a house preceding the present manor house but it has been suggested that moated sites sometimes contained gardens rather than dwellings. Geophysical survey of the moat’s interior in 1977 found evidence for only a small structure in the NE corner which tends to support an interpretation of the site as a garden. However, if it ever was a garden, this could have been of post-medieval rather than medieval date.
The contribution of monasteries to medieval horticulture was enormous. These institutions were in the forefront in the cultivation of vineyards, orchards, pleasure gardens, herb gardens and vegetable gardens. Religious houses held much land on the Island in the Middle Ages, most notably Quarr Abbey which was founded in 1132 close to the Solent shore in the east of the Island. Quarr was the only medieval monastery on the Isle of Wight although several priories existed.
The enclosure wall and fragmentary remains of buildings relating to the medieval Quarr Abbey (SM) survive to the east of the modern abbey. This site was excavated in the late C19 but no garden areas were identified. An earthwork survey in the late C20 recorded medieval fishponds to the south of the abbey.
The only documentary evidence of a garden associated with Quarr Abbey is contained in a reference to an abbey servant named John Bullock, first employed in 1492. He and his widowed mother were to live in the ‘Gaestn Hall’ which had its own garden that reached from the abbey’s north enclosure wall as far as a pond called the ‘Hors pole’. This would have been a productive rather than an ornamental garden.
The Cartulary of Carisbrooke Priory refers to the monks’ orchard and to ‘tithes of garden produce’ but there is also a reference concerning two acres of land held by the monks from Robert Oglander in return for an annual rent of one pound of cumin.
Towns were founded on the Isle of Wight in the medieval period by William Fitz Stur at Brading, by the de Redvers family at Yarmouth and Newport and by the bishop elect of Winchester at Newtown. These towns were laid out with ‘burgage plots’ which may have included space for growing herbs and vegetables.
The medieval town of Newport (CA), founded in the C12, is first depicted on a plan inset into John Speed’s 1611 map of ‘Wight Island’. This shows schematic indications of gardens but does not accurately depict the burgage plots associated with individual properties. Orchards are indicated in certain areas within the town and to the south of it. John Lea’s 1689 map of Newport shows more detailed representations of gardens but, once again, these do not correspond with the burgage plots and are probably schematic.
Newtown (SM, CA) was laid out on the rural estate of Swainston in the C13 and ultimately failed to become established as a town. The plots of land assigned to inhabitants at Newtown were similar to the tofts (house and garden plots) found in medieval villages.
The tofts laid out at Newtown survive as small plots delineated by hedges and provide the only surviving physical evidence for medieval productive gardens on the Isle of Wight. However, these tofts are perhaps more similar to allotments than to modern gardens. Plants grown within the tofts may have included kale, leeks, parsley, parsnips, turnips, beans, peas, garlic, onions and a variety of herbs for use in pottage (thick soups or stews) or for medicinal use. ‘Salad’ plants may have included annual plants such as borage, marigold and poppy.
Castles and aristocratic houses often stood within extensive designed landscapes which featured moats and other forms of water management. A particular type of medieval designed landscape was the ‘little park’, noted especially in the C14 and C15, which differed from the usual type of deer park. Most ‘little parks’ stood close to the house, or were overlooked by it, and appear to have been semi-natural pleasure grounds which provided a pleasing setting with animals and birds to watch and hear and probably somewhere to walk. Two dozen or more have been identified, most associated with grand castles and houses; many more are suspected.
Carisbrooke Castle (SM, LB I) is a motte-and bailey fortification of medieval date with a further eastern enclosure defined by prominent ditches and ramparts, both being surrounded by a Late-Elizabethan bastioned trace. The eastern enclosure, subsequently modified to form a bowling green for Charles I, may have originated as a C16 defensive circuit. However, it is possible that the eastern enclosure was formerly a medieval pleasure ground or ‘little park’ although the lack of documentary evidence and the absence of hereditary lords at Carisbrooke Castle after 1293 perhaps make this unlikely.
Some castles and great houses in England had small but elaborate pleasure gardens of a type known as the hortus conclusus, or herber. Documentary sources (mainly continental) indicate that in the C13 and C14 their features could include turf benches, trellis work screens, tunnels and arbours, fountains, pools and rills, specimen trees and a wide range of sweet-smelling flowers and herbs in beds.
There are no surviving physical remains of elaborate pleasure gardens of this type on the Isle of Wight but documentary evidence exists for such gardens at Carisbrooke Castle.
Contemporary documents record a ‘herbary’ (i.e. a herber) at Carisbrooke Castle in 1270 and also a new ‘arbour garden’ laid out at the castle by Isabella de Fortibus in 1287/8 (the term ‘arbour’ here being synonymous with ‘herber’). Isabella also laid out a kitchen garden although this appears to have been outside the castle.
The herbary garden at Carisbrooke Castle appears to have been located close to the great hall. The new arbour garden created by Isabella de Fortibus was located close to the Chapel of St Nicholas in the general area of the ‘Privy Garden’ recently remodelled by English Heritage. However, the medieval arbour garden would have been much smaller than the existing garden.
After the death of Isabella de Fortibus in 1293 the crown exercised direct control of the Island through the appointment of captains and governors. This royal influence inhibited the growth of powerful independent aristocratic families locally and therefore restricted the potential for ostentatious display including the creation of parks and gardens. However, despite the scarcity of evidence for medieval pleasure gardens on the Island other than those of Isabella de Fortibus at Carisbrooke Castle, it is likely that medieval manor houses would have had small enclosed spaces for growing vegetables and herbs.
Chale Manor House (LB II*) - later known as Chale Abbey although it was never a monastic building - is one of the oldest domestic buildings on the Isle of Wight. The house is located beneath St Catherine’s Down near the southern tip of the Island. It was built in the 1330s by John de Langford, the Constable of Carisbrooke Castle, possibly incorporating part of an earlier house and has C15, C16 and C19 alterations and extensions. A deed dated 1337 records a garden in Chale belonging to de Langford and his wife Johanna but it is not known whether this garden was associated with the manor house. The present walled garden is first shown on an Ordnance Survey drawing of c. 1793.
The medieval moat at Wolverton Manor, Shorwell (SM) may have been the site of a house preceding the present manor house but it has been suggested that moated sites sometimes contained gardens rather than dwellings. Geophysical survey of the moat’s interior in 1977 found evidence for only a small structure in the NE corner which tends to support an interpretation of the site as a garden. However, if it ever was a garden, this could have been of post-medieval rather than medieval date.
The contribution of monasteries to medieval horticulture was enormous. These institutions were in the forefront in the cultivation of vineyards, orchards, pleasure gardens, herb gardens and vegetable gardens. Religious houses held much land on the Island in the Middle Ages, most notably Quarr Abbey which was founded in 1132 close to the Solent shore in the east of the Island. Quarr was the only medieval monastery on the Isle of Wight although several priories existed.
The enclosure wall and fragmentary remains of buildings relating to the medieval Quarr Abbey (SM) survive to the east of the modern abbey. This site was excavated in the late C19 but no garden areas were identified. An earthwork survey in the late C20 recorded medieval fishponds to the south of the abbey.
The only documentary evidence of a garden associated with Quarr Abbey is contained in a reference to an abbey servant named John Bullock, first employed in 1492. He and his widowed mother were to live in the ‘Gaestn Hall’ which had its own garden that reached from the abbey’s north enclosure wall as far as a pond called the ‘Hors pole’. This would have been a productive rather than an ornamental garden.
The Cartulary of Carisbrooke Priory refers to the monks’ orchard and to ‘tithes of garden produce’ but there is also a reference concerning two acres of land held by the monks from Robert Oglander in return for an annual rent of one pound of cumin.
Towns were founded on the Isle of Wight in the medieval period by William Fitz Stur at Brading, by the de Redvers family at Yarmouth and Newport and by the bishop elect of Winchester at Newtown. These towns were laid out with ‘burgage plots’ which may have included space for growing herbs and vegetables.
The medieval town of Newport (CA), founded in the C12, is first depicted on a plan inset into John Speed’s 1611 map of ‘Wight Island’. This shows schematic indications of gardens but does not accurately depict the burgage plots associated with individual properties. Orchards are indicated in certain areas within the town and to the south of it. John Lea’s 1689 map of Newport shows more detailed representations of gardens but, once again, these do not correspond with the burgage plots and are probably schematic.
Newtown (SM, CA) was laid out on the rural estate of Swainston in the C13 and ultimately failed to become established as a town. The plots of land assigned to inhabitants at Newtown were similar to the tofts (house and garden plots) found in medieval villages.
The tofts laid out at Newtown survive as small plots delineated by hedges and provide the only surviving physical evidence for medieval productive gardens on the Isle of Wight. However, these tofts are perhaps more similar to allotments than to modern gardens. Plants grown within the tofts may have included kale, leeks, parsley, parsnips, turnips, beans, peas, garlic, onions and a variety of herbs for use in pottage (thick soups or stews) or for medicinal use. ‘Salad’ plants may have included annual plants such as borage, marigold and poppy.