The Garden 2013- The New Victorian Greenhouse

We have no way of knowing for certain what greenhouses there were in our kitchen garden in Victorian times, but there are some telling clues.  There’s a boiler house for a start, and traces of some substantial iron heating pipes, which seem to have run all the way along the south-east facing wall at the rear of the kitchen garden.  A second wall, about ten feet high runs parallel behind it, and seems to have been used for espalier fruit trees, probably apricots.  ​

In between them are the stables, which will have provided a good supply of fresh dung.  All in all, it seems to have been a pretty substantial operation consisting of vineries, hot-houses and greenhouses.

When we arrived here 14 years ago, all the original structures had long gone, and the only greenhouse was a small lean-to, about twenty feet long.  Like all lean-tos it lacked any aesthetic appeal, and I didn’t make matters any better by doubling its length.  What it lacked in beauty, it also lacked in utility, as the wretched thing was cramped and needed constant attention- repairs one year, painting the next.

I wondered how the original structures might have looked, and taking inspiration from some examples from the 1870’s I put together a design which to my eyes combined beauty and utility.  Here it is.  The frame is made from four and a half tons of galvanised steel, which won’t need repainting during my lifetime.  The glass is double-glazed, which will retain the heat in winter far more efficiently than the old lean-to.   The roof is almost flat, which gives excellent head-room all round, unlike the lean-to, and water flows into the columns, which act as drain-pipes.  The paths (which are wide enough for a wheel-barrow) and the sides of the beds are lined with Burlington slate.  It may look expensive, but it was made entirely by my local craftsman*, and it will have been about half of what one of the swanky manufacturers would have charged, for a decidedly inferior wooden affair.  The Victorians knew what they were doing when it came to hot-house design, and I’m glad that I followed their example

*The metal-work was provided by Bob Moorehouse and the groundwork was done by Carl Taylor.