The appearance of the garden in the front courtyard is recorded in drawings from 1893. Prior to
this date there are no photographs of the garden & few of the historic engravings illustrate the
courtyard garden. The early engraving of 1686 indicates that the space was treated as a garden,
rather than a hard surfaced area, as shrubs or small trees are clearly visible. The present fountain
and pond, the edge of which is lined with concrete blocks, were installed in the 1980s. A sundial of
the 1890s, which is separately listed, was removed before the current owner occupied the building.
This sundial may be the same baluster urn sundial, in the middle of the terrace lawn, illustrated in a
1950s photograph taken whilst the Missionary Sisters occupied the building.

Although there is little evidence for the courtyard garden prior to the 1870s there is considerable
documentary information about Smythson walled gardens and in recent years there has been more
widespread archaeological investigation of their gardens. At Bolsover Castle, for example, it was
found during recent excavations that the central fountain was the only ornamental feature of the
garden and the rest of the space was treated very plainly with lawns. The garden was restored in
2000. The Robert Smythson “platt” for Wollaton Hall illustrates one single central feature, a
massive sundial, often mistaken for a fountain. The remainder of the space is also treated fairly
plainly with low hedges forming a geometric pattern. The garden in front of the Hall was recently
investigated by geophysical survey.

Based on the evidence found elsewhere, the courtyard is most likely to have had an ornamental
feature in the centre and perhaps low hedges laid out in a geometric pattern. The creation of a
parterre and planted beds on the west side of the courtyard has, however, disrupted the
relationship between the terrace and the aspect to the west overlooking the moat and beyond.
Beyond the courtyard garden lies the moat and beyond that lies an area of the site which is little
understood. There is no evidence that it was widely landscaped as parkland. It is therefore
referred to here as the extended garden.

The earliest documentary appearance for the extended garden can be found on the 1840 Tithe
map. This shows clearly that the moat was very broad on the west side of the castle, much broader
than was necessary. Dianne Barre suggests that this was deliberately done as “a theatrical stage
set”2 for the castle, to heighten the drama, very fashionable in the early seventeenth century. The
raised causeway, which extends to the west of the moat, was already in place long before the
creation of the Lower Lodge. This causeway was revetted on both sides, although a large portion
has been robbed or has collapsed. The causeway terminates at the field boundary to the west and
then returns in a dogleg northwards to meet up with School Lane. The causeway was located on
an axis central to the western wall of the castle terrace, equidistant from the two pavilions. Dianne
Barre has investigated the garden and suggests that the area to the west of the moat may have
been laid out as water gardens at the same time that the Smythsons designed the house. The
causeway is probably the main part of this extended garden to survive. Water gardens were highly
fashionable in the early seventeenth century and they are found in several locations within
Staffordshire, where ponds or canal were separated by raised walkways (cf. “The Historic Gardens of England – Staffordshire”, Timothy Mowl & Dianne Barre).
They were formal creations, large ponds or canals with straight sides, occasionally with an island for a sculpture or a structure.
The whole area to the west of the moat is low-lying and prone to flooding and there is a long
embankment to the north of the site, which separates the extended garden from The Dams and
School Lane. The levels and revetments tend to support the possibility that the whole of this area
to the north of the causeway may have been submerged under water in either one lake or a series
of canals. The name of the road in the village, The Dams, may also be an oblique reference to
these early water gardens. There is now only fragmentary evidence for this layout. To the south of
the causeway, however, there are no signs of any embankments or revetments to enclose the
garden, and this seems to be an anomaly, as one would expect the whole arrangement to be
symmetrical. In the 1990s part of the area to the north of the causeway was flooded for use as a
fishing lake. Given the lack of evidence for any parkland landscape of the eighteenth century, the
hypothesis of seventeenth century water gardens is very strong. This is supported by the design of
the north-west & south-west pavilions, St. Thomas More and Sir Mathew Cradock, which both had
two tiers of three windows overlooking this side of the moat and beyond the moat to the formal
water gardens. By comparison, the other pavilions have very few windows. This west facing
aspect was therefore a very important part of the seventeenth century castle plan. The land to the
south of the castle is located on a gently sloping incline above the level of the large pond and there
is no indication that this was part of the water garden. By 1893 the lower part of this area was laid
out as a cricket pitch, with a separate cricket pavilion, which no longer survives.

Although the moat existed for most of its life, it was drained by Sir Percival Radcliffe ca.1870 in
order to create lawns & flowerbeds, along with a large parterre on the west side of the moat and a
small parterre within the upper courtyard. The gardens were illustrated in the Country Life article of
1911 & also appear on the 1893 site plans. Between the lawns of the former moat and the
buttressed retaining walls were several short flights of steps, which are still in-situ, submerged.
There was no statuary evident at this time. Flights of timber and cast iron steps were provided to
reach the lawns from the upper terrace. The cast iron steps are still in situ, although they are in a
poor and dangerous condition. The current owner has filled the moat with water once again.

The periphery of the moat was planted with shrubberies in the nineteenth century, with a gap in the
planting on the west side. The dense, mixed planting is typical of this era, with rhododendron,
cherry laurel, holly, and yew and several deciduous trees. The western perimeter of the moat had
a line of limes and the causeway drive to the west was lined with an avenue of deciduous trees,
mainly lime and beech. The perimeter of the site and the hedgerows are lined with small species
trees and there are mature trees, mainly lime and beech, lining several paths around the site. A
walled kitchen garden, shown on the 1880 OS map, extended beyond the present property
boundary to the north of the moat. By the time of the 1900 OS map the stableblock had been
rebuilt to the north of the moat and the two lodges had been built.

The screen of nineteenth century lime trees to the west of the moat and the shrubberies in the
courtyard have now obscured the relationship between the west side of the courtyard, the view out
to the west beyond the moat and the gardens beyond the moat.