More information : Wray Castle was built 1840-47 for James Dawson, a Liverpool surgeon whose wife was a wealthy distilling heiress, and including within its grounds an earlier villa, Wray Cottage. Designed by J J Lightfoot, but possibly executed by H P Horner. Passed, on Dawson's death, to his wife's relatives, the Prestons. Given to the National Trust by Sir Noton and Lady Barclay in 1929 (1).
'The kitchen garden to Wray Castle, and the summerhouse, now known as the Garden House, which is attached to the outside of its east wall, are situated south of the castle on a site chosen for its south-easterly aspect and for the convenience of access to it. They stand on the edge of the pleasure grounds and gardens which occupy the knoll to the south-west of the castle. The laying out of the kitchen garden was evidently begun during the early 1840s since an enclosure approximating to its shape is shown on the 1847-8 map, as too is the service drive to Wray Castle which leads off the road between High Wray and Clappersgate, past what was to become the site of St Margaret's Church in 1856, past the site of the kitchen garden, and on to its rear entrance. None of these features is shown on Cunningham and Holme's map of 1836, and it is likely that the final construction of the kitchen garden, and the building of the Garden House, belongs to the late 1840s when James Dawson was consolidating his presence at Wray. Both appear on the 1889 map.
The kitchen garden is substantially flat, although the land at its rear runs up the base of a moderately steep south-east facing escarpment. It is irregular in shape, and a high wall runs around much of its perimeter: the front and side walls are straight, and accommodate a re-entrant area in the south-east corner, whilst the rear, uphill wall is sinuously curved. The main entrance to the kitchen garden is through a wide gateway in its south-east corner, directly off the service drive, but there is also a doorway, sited for the convenience of those approaching it from the main house, in its northern, uphill corner. This doorway, 130cm wide in a wall some 74cm thick, has a stone lintel and a flat outer projecting drip course; no door survives, but the north jamb retains an iron hinge pivot. Paths within the garden, shown on the 1888 Ordnance survey map, link with these entrances and run around its periphery as well as across its centre, and this map also shows a narrow rectangular building against the outside of the rear wall. This building no longer survives, although holes for lost rafters testify to its former existence. It did not communicate with the kitchen garden, was not a boiler house since there were no glasshoues in this garden, and probably served as a store and bothy for gardeners working in the pleasure grounds. The 1888 map also shows a small trapezoidal enclosure just outside the main entrance, in the re-entrant area. This enclosure, and the partially walled-off area attached to its uphill side, are likely to have been gardens associated with the Garden House which, in the post-Dawson era, may have been tenanted. The front wall of the kitchen garden is of stone rubble and has a stepped profile and a maximum height of six feet. The side and rear walls, by contrast, combine a stone outer face with an inner face of red brick set on courses of stone, and have a maximum height of eleven feet six inches. The side walls step up to accommodate the rising ground but the wall along the back of the garden is level. The walls are finished with square-cut stone coping, even where they double as the side wall of the Garden House. The brickwork, laid in Flemish bond at the south-west corner, soon changes to stretcher bond with the occasional header brick and through-stone binding the brick and stone faces together; the bricks are 9in by 4.3in by 2.75in thick (23cm by 11cm by 7cm).
The 1898 and 1920 Sale Particulars both refer to the 'Splendid Walled Kitchen Garden, the high walls of which are clothed with Choice Fruit Trees. It slopes to the South, is well cultivated and fertile'. It is still shown with its internal paths on the 'Plan of the Wray Castle Estate' in the 1898 Particulars of Sale, although this is no more than a coarse redrawing of the 1888 Ordnance Survey map with cross-hatching depicting the divisions of the earlier map. The 1911 map shows a featureless interior, and very few paths in the former pleasure grounds. The trapezoidal enclosure next to the main entrance to the kitchen garden, still shown on the 1911 map, has since been replaced by a rectangular enclosure with poorly-built walls, and the interior of the garden now has no visible features of any age. (Extract from A Menuge and I Goodall 'Wray Castle, Claife, Cumbria: A Report for the National Trust' (2006) pp165ff)
Wray Castle is a Grade II* Listed Building (NHLE List Entry 1106324). The boathouse with associated structures is a Grade II Listed Building (NHLE List Entry 1087278). The lodge and gates to Wray Castle is a Grade II Listed Building (NHLE List Entry 1087279). The greenhouse and retaining wall is a Grade II Listed Building (NHLE List Entry 1106293). The former gardener's house is a Grade II Listed Building (NHLE List Entry 1325965). The retaining wall to north west is a Grade II Listed Building (NHLE List Entry 1335723). |