Survey Data
Reg No
30404617
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Walled garden
Date
1810 - 1830
Coordinates
166218, 246496
Date Recorded
30/12/1899
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Walled garden laid out c.1820, now in use as a deer park. Comprising coursed random rubble limestone walls with rubble copings and segmental-headed cut limestone openings. Former entrance blocked up with random rubble wall and narrow opening at top. Remains of Bellew House to centre of garden. Two-storey gardener's dwelling, c.1820, with pitched slate roof, built into south wall. Detached single-bay single-storey former estate forge, built c.1820, now in use as museum. Pitched slate roof having stone chimneystack to south-west gable, stone copings to gables, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Random rubble walls. Triangular-headed windows to north-west and south-east elevations, with tooled limestone sills, rubble voussoirs, and timber multiple-pane casement windows with decorative metal grill over. Triangular-headed entrance to north-west gable with double-leaf timber door having decorative hinges and rubble voussoirs. Set in gravel car park area adjacent to walled garden. Set at edge of estate road in Mountbellew forest park.
Appraisal
This walled garden, forge and other structures, are physical remainders of the heart of the Mountbellew demesne, once a thriving estate and a driving force of Mountbellew town. Within the walled garden lie the ruins of Bellew House, home to the Bellew family. The estate was taken over in 1937 by the Land Commission and the house destroyed in 1939 to provide stones to fix roads, despite protests from the locals who tried to have the house converted into a district hospital. The house, begun in the eighteenth century, was finished in the early nineteenth century when the walled garden was laid out. The enclosure was designed to grow cucumbers, melons and flowers, amongst other plants, and the remains of a greenhouse, grapery and peach house can be seen. In addition, a gardener’s house was built into the very walls of the garden. The Bellew family were very interested in agriculture and founded the Mountbellew Agricultural College with the Franciscans in 1904. The walled garden, along with the adjacent forge, forms an attractive group within Mountbellew estate.