The Walled-in Garden

The Walled-in Garden.

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When Waldorf William and his wife Lady Nancy arrived at Cliveden and took over White Place Farm, there was a requirement for a much larger kitchen garden than the one that was in exsistance at Cliveden at that time, plus they wanted fresh produce for their London home as well. Fresh fruit was required so an orchard was required.

So the walled in garden was built. The size of this project covered some 12-14 acres in size. So sometime between 1906 and 1910 this garden was created with what must be the longest brick wall in Cookham. It is somewhere between 9 to 10 feet tall and had two main gate entrances. One was off the Avenue to the farm, the other was oposite the entrance to Sutton Farm off Sutton Road. There was a small doorway added so that staff could gain access to the two cottages that were built in the 1930's in the top left of the map as a yellow block next to the Sutton Allotments.

The vast amount was planted as an Orchard. "A" was a large fruit storage barn, which was purpose designed with fruit racks for apples and pears in the main. Surplus fruit was sold off to local greengrocers. "B" was the toolshed and lunchroom for those who worked in the garden. "C" was the cultivated area for large crops of vegetables. "D" Was again a purpose built brick wall so that peach trees could be trained, plus about a 10 foot strip in front was cultivated for growing salad vegetables and fresh herbs. 1 & 2 were the only two main gates.

This is a recent Google Street View of this wall which I estimate has stood for a full 100 years, which only goes to prove the great skill of the bricklayers in those days.

Take a closer look at the top of the wall where the Red Arrow is pointing. To finish the top of the wall off the workmen embedded broken bottles in the cement to deter people from climbing over after fruit when ripe. Mind you someone already pointed out that now that would not be allowed as the person breaking in might hurt themselves!


This is what is left of the green main gate off Sutton Road, as you can see that it is now all overgrown. To think this was a very well used entrance during the 1920's, 30's and 40's When Ted Ruffell from Maidenhead was in charge. Ted's favourite pastime was Greyhound Racing at the Slough track, and he always said he bet 3&7 and 7&3 each way.

"The Lodges." White Place Farm.

"The Lodges." White Place Farm.

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Thanks to the arrival of "Google View." I am now able to take a much closer look at the village and pick out buildings of historical interest.

"The Lodges." as it was known in the days of the Astor's, was built by them as a grand entrance to their model farm. The building actually consists of four cottages. The two on the left use to house two of the cowmen, and on the right hand side was used by two carters. The one closest to the road was the home of the farms champion ploughman Ted Barrett and his wife, who was known as the village telephone! They also had a daughter named Daisy.

The road leading to the farm was known as "The Avenue." This was given by Lady Astor as she loved the large elm trees that lined either side from the little bridge down. Before they took over the farm it was just a gravel track, until they had it paved with asphalt.

Points #22, #23 & #24 on your farm map.

The Slurry Pits #23 & #22.

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The Slurry Pits marked #23 the covered one and #22 the open were the primary filter tanks for all the cowshed effulent. #23 or A was the primary and held the most liquid and was not only covered but had a chestnut pailing fence around it to prevent accidents of people or animals falling in and drowning. #22 or B was an open pit, where the more solid wast was raked off of A and put into B to drain further. After a time the solid was removed and stacked in a pile denoted as C to be removed and spread on the field prior to ploughing.

The Horse and Slurry Cart.
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Once again the horse is real but the slurry cart is from memory. It was a purpose built round tank holding around 300 gallons of liquid slurry when full. It had a top filling lid, and the 4'' drain tap at the rear had a fan deflector to spread the liquid evenly over the ground.

The Slurry Pump.
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To fill the Slurry Cart above the manual Slurry Pump was used. This pump worked on a diaphram principle with flapper valves to direct the flow of the near solid liquid from the pit and into the tank. The pump was actuated by two men working the handle marked H in a up and down motion. P marks the two pivot points on the pump. The second is connected to the diaphram shaft. A very simple but very efficient tool at the time.

The Clinker Filter Bed.
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There was a drain pipe closer to the top of the covered primary pit which allowed the free flow liquid to enter a purpose built clinker filter bed, very similar to filter beds at Chalvey near Slough. Known in the old days as: "The Chalvey Treacle Mines."

As you can see once again the Astor's were very forward thinking and did not want to polute the river about a third of a mile away, with this their model farm.

The Covered Cattle Yard.

Covered Cattle Yard.

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Building #17. on your farm map is very unique in its design. Waldorf William Astor brought the idea from America, but the cupola in the center is much larger than I have ever seen. I was told by Edward Chaplin, one time farm manager, that this building was the first and only building ever built in Britain of this design, and the Astor's spared no expense in having it built, together with a farm drainage system that was was ahead of its time.

As boys, we use to climb up onto the roof and were able to get at sparrows nests for the eggs as they were classed as farm pests, and we were given a few pennies for each nest that we brought down from the ledges just inside the windows of the cupola.

Plot Layout.

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This plot plan is to give the reader some idea of how the building was laid out without confusing the drawing without beam and joist structure.

The straw bedding area was sloped towards the center and was a gravel base to aid natural drainage and was cleaned out after harvest each year so that the manure build up could be applied to the arable land prior to autumn ploughing.

This was the winter home for most of the Ayrshire herd as most of the fields that were used for grazing were water meadows and were water logged.

There were ample manger space so that hay and marrow stem kale, plus chopped mangolds. There were also ample drinking bowl outlets, so the cattle had pleanty of water.

Equine Riding Ring.

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As I have no side view photo of the covered cattle yard. I am using a photo of an American covered riding ring with a cupola dome. The side of the structure was open at the top half with a brick wall. This allows free movement of air through the structure and the hot air to escape throgh the cupola.

Structures A & B will be explained in my next blog. Again these were unique and ahead of their time in the UK.

The Two Cedar Silos.

The Two Cedar Silos #37.

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In the building of their model modern farm, Lord Astor had two cedar plank silos imported from North America, so that maize silage could be made. Again he was one of the first to start silage making in England and these units were used up until 1939, when other methods of silage making were introduced.

The silos were finally taken down at the end of the war, the cedar wood was still sound and was reused for other projects around the farm as the farming methods were changing.

As boys, we use to climb up inside on a wooden ladder and look out of the top and see what we thought was for miles over the farm.

The stairway in the middle was the way up to the upper granary floor.

The Modern Granary and Farm Bothy.

Granary & Bothy #35 & #36.

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The Granary and Bothy, buildings #35 and #36 on your farm map were additions that were purpose built when the Astors took over the farm and are adjacent to the listed barn and stables.

The word Bothy is of Scotts and North of England origin and was accomodation for single male farm workers, and can be associated with the North American Ranch Bunk House. Items #37. I will explain later in the next blog.

The side block view is to convey the layout and construction of the building. The Granary had two floors. The ground floor was for the milling equipment, which consisted of a rolling mill for oats, primarily for feed for the horses. The second and last addition was a hammer mill, which was used to grind up barley and maise for a diet supplement for the cattle. Grain could be taken up by two methods. Either by walking up the outside stairway, or by a chain block and tackle which could be swung out from a double wayway on the west side of the building. The grain was then fed into a chute to feed the machinery below.

The Bothy was used for the most time during the second world war, when four land girls from the Womens Land Army were billeted in it. As boys we had fun going up into the granary by the wooden stairs, going out through a window into the barn roof valley and onto the flat roof. Then we would tip toe across the roof to the chimney and make ghostly noises down the chimneypot. Of course we had sometime before spread the word among the girls that the Bothy was haunted. Just a devilish thing we got up to.

After it was occupied for the longest time by a Displaced Person and his wife who worked on the farm by the name of Fedor. Fedor was quite a gardener and I remember he grew his own tobacco.

Buildings # 33 and #34.

The Herdsman's House.

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Building #34 on your farm map was the home of George Hughes the farm herdsman and his wife and two teenage daughters Helen and Betty. It was also the farm office where the herds records were kept and the doorway is marked with the white X. It is where the farm staff wages were brought to every Friday by Mr. Smith from the Cliveden Estate office and were distributed by both Bill Holland the arable foreman and George Hughes to their respective staff.

The Carter's House.

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Building #33. I should have said was one of the Carter's homes. This is where Percy and Kit Emmett lived. Their son Geoffery was a chum of mine through school and part of our teenage years. He followed is uncle Larry Smith and became a cabinet maker and carperter. Sadly he died in a motor accident at a very young age.

After the horses were sold off Percy stayed on doing general work, as his knowledge of the farm buildings and drainage system were valuable when changes were made to the farm buildings and their uses.