Heritage Project: ( 4354 ) Kirkleatham Walled Garden
Client: Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council
Architect: IDPartnership / Colour
Main Contractor: Metnor Construction
Services: Design and build of water features
Installation: 2018 – 2021
Project Description:
The Kirkleatham Walled Garden sits with the Kirkleatham Estate in Redcar & Cleveland and it is one of Yorkshire’s most significant heritage assets with its twenty-four Grade I and Grade II listed buildings wrapped in ample, stunning countryside. In 2015 Redcar & Cleveland Council formed a masterplan to regenerate an area of the Kirkleatham Estate that had not been used for thirty years; working with award-winning architect practices IDPartnership and Colour to develop a scheme that would breathe life and sustainability into vacant indoor and outdoor spaces on the Kirkleatham Estate. The project encompasses a car park, cafe, tearoom, shop, an events pavilion and a visionary walled garden featuring activity areas, a maze, formal gardens and greenhouses and horticultural allotments to maximise on-site growing, land-based practical skills and produce.
Challenge:
A trench of 256 metres was required to fuel the network of picturesque water features within the Kirkleatham Walled Garden.
Metnor Construction carried out the extensive repairs, restoration and repointing of the Grade II listed wall, completing all works with salvaged brickwork from the estate to ensure all elevations retained their original heritage status.
Success:
The restoration of the Grade II listed walled garden at Kirkleatham gained planning permission and Metnor Construction was appointed as main contractor.
Ustigate were delighted to join Metnor Construction on site to commence the development of the Kirkleatham Walled Garden, initially inheriting a barren landscape without vegetation. The scene was set and it was Ustigate’s time to deliver a combination of water features that would enlighten and enhance everyone’s experience at Kirkleatham. The plant room was assembled at Ustigate’s manufacturing department at Gravesend in Kent whilst all excavations were carried out and transported to site when all pipe work and services were in place and ready to connect. The plant room has a permanent residence at Kirkleatham’s plant sales area.
Water now flows throughout the Kirkleatham Walled Garden, serving as a stimulating and uplifting pulse from top to toe. There are nine elements altogether; an indoor rill that leads to the outdoor courtyard pool and rill east and rill west that lead to source pool A, B and C and a lily pond in the cottage garden. There is also a water play area stationed nearest to the maze, restaurant and shop.
The rill water journey begins indoors and leads outside to run the entire length of the Kirkleatham Walled Garden. It is an impressive, eye-catching feature that engages visitors to look beyond and appreciate the magnitude of the great outdoors all around them.
All five of the pools are beautiful and sitting proud with their brick paver body, and sandstone edge. Movement and acoustics are delivered to the garden via the rill of great distance, cascading water between the pools and bubbling jets of varying heights.
The fountain in the lily pond is 1.5 metres tall and controlled by an anemometer in windy conditions.
LED lighting has been installed to illuminate the features at night.
The water play area is a meandering walkway and a splash pad concept comprising of eighteen multidirectional water jets in a zero standing water environment. The playful “popping” water jets are programmed to run on a sequence to conserve water and provided with an activation bollard to increase the interactive fun. The splash pad watercourse offers a playscape that is accessible to all, and it is environmentally friendly; supplied with a Ustigate water management system that enables mains fed water to be captured after play and repurposed for irrigation.
A superb choice of materials is evident and fluent throughout the Kirkleatham Walled Garden. York stone has been used to create footbridges across Kirkleatham’s rill feature and in and around Kirkleatham’s splash pad you will find circular shapes of brown timber decking, a natural rill formed from cobbled granite stone, a breedon gravel path, and a rapeseed coloured wetpour. The hard and soft landscaping is incredibly complementary and what was once a barren landscape is now a natural and warm atmosphere enriched with water features, trees, hedges, lawns and shrubs.
A magnificent and precious part of Kirkleatham Estate has now been regenerated and the masterplan in its delivery has proven successful. The Kirkleatham Estate is a national treasure that invites everyone to gather and discover, with an inspiring Walled Garden where young and old can live, learn, play and grow.
History:
Kirkleatham is a charming village in North Yorkshire, with historical significance that dates back 1,300 years. There are records that reveal the Danes settled in the village in 450 50 750 AD, a listing in the Domesday Book of 1086, and it was four generations of Turner family that established one of the best collections of Georgian-style buildings in England at Kirkleatham between 1623 and 1783.
Much of the estate has evolved with the times; the Kirkleatham School of 1709 is now a museum with a wide range of exhibitions that educate visitors on local industrial, maritime and social history, and there is now a woodland trail and inclusive play areas for all ages and abilities to enjoy. There are two additional museums that share the grounds of the Kirkleatham Old Hall, the Sir James Knott Lifeboat Museum and the Kirkleatham Owl and Endangered Species Centre, home to many owls, hawks, vultures, a caracara, kookaburra and a talking raven. These attractions are very popular and receive more than 100,000 visitors per year.
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