Newhailes House, Forecourt

Retaining Wall: A long D-shaped enclosure terminating in a semi-circle, forming a court at the south-west façade of Newhailes House. This is the main entrance area to the house

Gate Piers: List description: ‘A pair of ashlar gate-piers opening into the D-plan forecourt by the main elevation, Burlingtonian in style; rusticated with rock-faced quoins and pedimented caps. Cast-iron railings linking piers with diminutive outer piers, rock-faced, rusticated and with ball finials’.

Carriage Circle: The 1853 and 1893 OS maps show this to be D-shaped. The 1798 Bauchop, 1840 Buchanan and 1883 Estate plan show a greater degree of detail and it appears rectangular but stepped back on its northern angles, nearest the house. It is then stepped back twice, on the southern end, at the entrance through B4. Grant’s illustration clearly shows the bollards as do photographs from the family album. It is now a balloon shape, with its outline marked by 29 stone bollards. Another six are placed in a line in front of the house. Each bollard comprises a 300mm square base, a tapered cylindrical central section, and a domed top, severely worn by weathering in many cases. The bollards are set into the ground to an unknown depth, standing 350-400mm high above ground level.

(NEH99 B3-5)

Information from NTS (SCS) December 2015

NT 3269 7250 A major programme of monitoring, evaluation and architectural recording was undertaken at the mansion house and within its surrounding policies during conservation works between June 2000 and August 2001. The principal findings include:

Mansion house (NMRS NT 37 SW 168). Numerous features were recorded during reservicing throughout the mansion interiors. Some refinement of the original layout of the James Smith villa of c 1690 was achieved, particularly at basement level. A 'secret passage' was revealed that provided private access to a suite of panelled rooms at first-floor level; this had subsequently been blocked off during the installation of a dumb waiter. General analysis of the Smith period masonry fabric confirmed that it did not incorporate earlier structural remains. A detailed record was made of part of the exterior before repair and reharling works; this recorded details of the original pressed-back harl and its scheme of regular ruling-out to imitate coursed ashlar, and a number of subsequent repairs that generally employed cementitious mixes. Evidence for the original principal entrance arrangement on the NE facade was recorded beneath the existing stair; the original stair had been narrower, and had had a vaulted chamber below that led to a basement entrance, subsequently blocked.

Mansion forecourt. An extensive series of trenches were excavated within the area of the mansion forecourt in order to determine its original details, layout and metalling materials, datable to the second quarter of the 18th century. The edges of the original central lawn area - defined by stone bollards - were identified, many original bollard pads remaining in situ. The make-up of the cambered metalling of the carriage circle was recorded, grading successively to an upper surface of fine pea gravel. The limits of the surrounding verge and details of the construction of the base of the mansion stair were also recorded.

Trenching beneath the gravelled surface revealed substantial remains of what were interpreted as earlier garden bedding trenches. These seem to have been laid in groups that suggest a formal parterre in this area, presumably of the Smith period in the late 17th century.

N side of mansion. Services trenching along the NE side of the mansion revealed details of the early 18th-century garden surfaces in that area. These overlay deposits that include two discrete midden dumpings that contained bottle glass and ceramics (including parts of a blue Nevers-type Lambeth tin-glaze vessel) of the late 17th/early 18th century, i.e. the Smith period. Evaluation and services trenches at the NE wall foot revealed the profile of a sunken area that permitted light to the basement windows.

Ha-ha. Two evaluation trenches examined the details of construction of the ha-ha that encloses the lawned area on the NE side of the mansion. Both trenches revealed a roughly faced rubblework front some 2m in height, with a sandstone cope. This had been constructed against a vertical cut into the natural. The cut extended in front to form a broad ditch that gently sloped down to the foot of the wall; 0.5m+ of redeposition was identified behind. One trench was located on the central NE-SW axis of the mansion in the hope that an earlier axial drive might also be identified, but without success.

Canal. Services trenching just beyond the N corner of the stables revealed parts of a brick-built retaining wall that defined the SW limit of a long ornamental canal, otherwise earth-banked and subsequently infilled. A NE return section of this wall had been constructed with an ornamental curving profile.

Water and drainage systems. General monitoring of services installation trenches exposed the well-preserved remains of an extensive network of stone-lined drains and water channels associated with the use of both the mansion house and stable block from the late 17th to the early 19th century.

Miscellaneous. Amongst a number of miscellaneous finds,