Garden of Great Ruffins

Summary

An Arts and Crafts Garden designed by A. H. Mackmurdo for himself and his wife, laid out in 1903, pre-dating his accompanying country house, Great Ruffins (listed Grade II*).

Reasons for Designation

Great Ruffins is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Design interest:

* it is a highly significant work that embodies fundamental Arts and Crafts ideas about the garden. The design of the garden is carefully integrated with that of the house to create a dynamic relationship between the inside and outside space.

Degree of survival:

* the layout has remained in almost its complete original state and retains most of the features seen from historic mapping and in early photographs.

Rarity:

* it is not only a rare and important survival of a suburban Arts and Crafts garden but is the only known example of a garden designed by A H Mackmurdo.

Historic interest:

* it was designed as the family home of Mackmurdo himself, an accomplished Arts and Crafts architect and designer of national repute whose work is represented on the List.

Group value:

* it has strong group value with the Grade II* listed house and the entrance gates listed at Grade II.

History

Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo acquired 60 acres of heathland on Beacon Hill in 1902, soon after his marriage to Eliza D’Oyly Carte. He wanted to create a landscape that illustrated his social beliefs, at the centre of which would be his home, Great Ruffins. It was due to be part of a vast estate including the garden, a farm and lodging for workers. Mackmurdo designed several buildings in the area between 1901 and 1929, including the neighbouring Little Ruffins which may have been designed for his brother-in-law. Arthur and Eliza never occupied Great Ruffins due to financial difficulties and by 1920 he sold Great Ruffins and moved to a cottage (Mackmurdo’s) which he had built on Goat Lane.

The gardens of Great Ruffins were laid out in 1903 before building had begun on his new home with the intention that the house would be seen from the extensive gardens. The house itself is set in a dominant position with a terrace leading to garden ‘rooms’, each one slightly lower than the one before allowing views from the mansion past the formal gardens to the open countryside beyond. The garden was designed with a strong axial quality that begins from the central steps of the terrace and gradually descends through different areas progressively becoming more rustic before terminating in winding walks through the trees. Historic photographs show a central path leading to a round pond, and on to a central circular lawn with paths which ran off at right angles on each side. The paths were lined with flower beds and shrubs. Continuing the main axis beyond the lawn was the rockery, at one time crossed by a bridge to reach the centrally placed bowling green. This was a large rectangular lawn, on both sides of the main axis, surrounded by a clipped yew hedge. Beyond the bowling green was another square lawn (also extending both sides of the main axis) and beyond that a cedar avenue culminating in one mature elm (now lost). On the east side of the garden was a large walled garden.

These design elements can be seen on the 1923 Ordinance Survey Map (OS) when the garden first appears. A large proportion of the original garden design survives and appears on modern mapping but some of the original planting has been lost, historic photographs show standard roses and flower beds which are no longer extant. The original terrace structure remains unaltered except for the addition of two benches to the lower terrace and a new tile covering. The bridge that spanned the width of the ‘rock garden’ along the north to south axis has also been lost although collapsed remnants are still apparent. From historic mapping it also appears that two large glass houses within the walled garden have been demolished. A former area of open park land to the north of the walled garden, has been developed and now contains three dwellings which, from mapping evidence, are thought to have been built between 1954 and 1970. In 2021 the path that ran north to south between the pond and the circular lawn was removed and replaced with a rill. The parch mark of the paths can still be seen.

A H Mackmurdo (1851 – 1942) was an influential designer, artist and architect within the Arts and Crafts movement. He co-founded the Century Guild of Artists in 1882 alongside Herbert Horne. Mackmurdo was a social reformer and was particularly interested in the social problems in rural areas, becoming the founding secretary of the Rural Community Council for Essex in 1929. In April 1926 Mackmurdo’s book ‘The Human Hive: Its Life and Law’ was published.

Details

An Arts and Crafts garden laid out in 1903 to the designs of A H Mackmurdo and pre-dating the house, Great Ruffins (listed Grade II*).

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM: the site is to the south of Beacon Hill and between Kelvedon Road and Goat Lodge Road. To the southern half of the garden are fields and to the northern half are neighbouring gardens. The site is one of the driest places in Essex and is on sand and gravel. The upper part of the site is level but slopes down to the south and occupies an area of approximately 9 acres.

The plot is aligned north – south and is around 160m in width and 330m in length. The house is set back from the road by roughly 70m. The garden is bounded by post and wire fences and mature trees and shrubbery.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: the site is entered by a drive from the north via Beacon Hill through two gate piers and railings (listed Grade II). To the west is the historic lodge to the house which is much altered. A driveway lined with trees leads south towards the house curving round to the west and finishes in front of the house.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING: Great Ruffins (listed at Grade II*) is a large Italianate style house of two storeys built by A H Mackmurdo for himself. It is built from brick and rough rendered with slate roofs. The main building is symmetrical with a tall square central tower and two projecting cross wings. The tower is balustraded and topped by an octagonal domed lantern. The cross wings are jettied to the front with a central oriel window and to the rear they are semi-octagonal with 3 windows in recessed arches and dormers in the roof. The central rear range extends between the two cross wings with a baluster balcony and five long-light round headed windows beneath. This range leads directly onto a stepped terrace which curves and follows the shape of the cross wings with steps in the centre that leads down into the garden.

GARDENS: the garden was designed by Mackmurdo with the intention of the house to be seen from the gardens which are laid out to the south. The tower of the house is the focal point of the strong north – south axial alignment that starts at the terrace and follows through to a series of ‘garden rooms’.

The terrace is split level with the central steps that descend into formal gardens and a round pond. Extending to the west and east of the curved terrace are concrete and gravel walls which define the edge of the flower beds and broadly mark the width of the house. This material is found throughout the garden and has been used to define the flower beds. From the round pond a rill leads to the rock garden which is oblong in shape and sunken into the ground. Positioned centrally are the concrete foundations and platform remains of the (collapsed) bridge which spanned the sunken rock garden. Either side of the platform are six concrete steps that lead down into the rock garden. The demolished bridge would have spanned across the rock garden continuing the north – south axis to the bowling green. The bowling green is a large rectangular lawn with a terrace and balustrade on the north side and is surrounded by a wall of clipped yew. A pair of stone urns on plinths mark the four openings which are central to each side. A grass path gently slopes beyond the southern edge into another square lawn ‘room’. The square lawn is more rustic in character as it is surrounded by mature trees with shrubs and wildflowers underneath. To the south again is an avenue of cedar trees which leads into the woodland. The tower of Great Ruffins remains the central focus until this point. The southern half of the plot is largely woodland with large specimen trees underplanted with rhododendrons, lorrel and holly shrubs. From the southern end of the garden paths snake through the woodland towards the north along the east side of the plot. As you come out of the woodlands towards the house there are larger flower beds defined by concrete and gravel walls.

WALLED GARDEN: on the eastern boundary of the site is the large walled garden, originally used to grow vegetables but is now laid to grass. The walls are red brick and are set in a Flemish bond with a stepped top. It is rectangular in plan and approximately 50m in length by 40m wide. The entrance is through a wide gap in the western wall and on the south boundary is a simple lean-to store.

IRRIGATION SYSTEM: Mackmurdo designed an elaborate rainwater storage system that supplemented the watering of the garden. Large underground reservoirs were used to collect rainwater run-off from the house and terrace. The location of two reservoirs is known and a cast iron pump lifting water from one of the underground tanks survives to the western boundary of the site.

Sources

Books and journals
Bettley, J, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex (2007), 422-423 and 833-834
Twenitieth Century Society, , 100 20th-Century Gardens and Landscapes (March 2020),

Other
Essex Gardens Trust, Great Ruffins, Michael Leach

End of official list entry