Silksworth, Doxford Park, Walled Garden

Kitchen garden within Doxford Park with superb brick walls. Some were used as hot walls for growing fruit. Many flues are visible due the deterioration of the structure. The walled garden is shown on the Tithe Map of 1842. The hot wall still survives, which contained the flues which heated the wall for the cultivation of exotic fruit. Charles Doxford apparently liked melon for breakfast. The hot walls were heated by boilers located to the rear of the greenhouses, which heated a series of pipes that distributed the heat evenly across the walls. The kitchen garden was always located away from the main house as it was considered to be part of the services not part of the landscaped gardens. This is the only surviving example in Sunderland. The walls are in poor condition. Plant growth needs to be removed and the walls re-pointed. The western half of the walled garden is presently used as a maintenance depot, the eastern half is still a community garden. Ideally the whole structure should be returned to use as a kitchen garden. There is a pretty arch through the southern wall of the garden.