Gardens at Seaton Delaval Hall. Photo by Northumberland County Council, 1990s.


Gardens at Seaton Delaval Hall. Photo Northumberland County Council, 1957.

Remains of garden layout on raised platform (c.6ha) in grounds of c.17ha; avenue c.1.8km long to south-west; c.1720; grounds restored 1950s and 1960s. Remains of formal block tree planting. Parterre restored 1950s. Garden pavilion; walled garden with pool; orangery; lawns on raised platform. Six hectares of grounds to east of house with perimeter walk, trees, overlooking park to south, leading to mausoleum. Oval pond and obelisk in former park. Remains of avenue originally running from Seaton Sluice to Seaton Delaval village. Remains of fishpond to north of house, possibly part of the garden design. (1)

Additional bibliography. (2)

The gardens of the hall have been purposefully laid out to a classical axial arrangement. The main axis of the hall was marked within the landscape by an obelisk. The axis is also marked by an Egg Pond and the now removed fish ponds. Much of the Delavals wealth derived from the nearby port of Seaton Sluice. The hall is connected to the operations at the port by means of a Sea Walk. The walk passes the derelict Mausoleum. (3)

The remains of an early 18th century garden, partially restored in the 1950s-60s, surrounding a contemporary country house.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT: Seaton Delaval was owned by the de la Val family from the early 12th century. The old village of Seaton Delaval which lay close to the church disappeared gradually some time after 1311. By 1628 there were no remaining houses, but there was a flock of 1300 sheep (Beresford 1965). In 1628 Sir Ralph Delaval (1622-91) inherited and in 1660 was created a baronet. His eldest son, also Sir Ralph, died in 1696 without a mail heir and his second son, Sir John Delaval inherited. Sir John was obliged to sell the estate to his cousin, Admiral George Delaval, who from 1718 began building a new house at Seaton Delaval, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), but died in 1723. His nephew, Captain Francis Delaval (1692-1752), inherited Seaton Delaval. The building of Seaton Delaval was completed in 1728. During both the First and Second World Wars the Hall was requisitioned.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS:
The fortified gardens to the Hall, built 1719-28, ar eenclosed within the ha-ha on the south-west, south-east and north-east sides, and part of the north-west side, with the Hall forming the remained of the north-west boundary. Set at the four corners are semi-circular bastions.
The main gardens now (2000) lie south-west of the Hall. From a gravel path outside the south-west wing the garden is entered through ornamental iron gates surmounted by a coat of arms brought in from Melton Constable, Norfolk in the mid 20th century. The gates are flanked by low railings. Beyond, to the south-west lies a rectangular garden laid out as a parterre by James Russell in 1950. This garden is enclosed by the ha-ha to the north-west and south-west, with a semicircular bastion standing in the west corner, with a statue on a stone plinth. At the north-east end stands an upper grassed terrace from which two flights of stone steps on either side of the terrace balustrade lead south-west down to the larger, lower terrace, hedged on the north-west and south-east sides. Gravel paths lead south-westwards across the lower terrace on either side of a lawn with a central fountain and box-edged parterres at the south-west and north-east ends. On either side of the gravel paths are long narrow parterres the length of the path with pairs of urns at the south-west and north-east ends. Between the outer hedges and the parterres are lines of square, clipped yews. At the south-west end of the garden is a low wall surmounted by urns with finials.
Between the south-east side of the enclosed rectangular garden and the central block of the Hall, to the east, are a series of smaller gardens. Abutting the south-east fron of the south-west wing of the Hall is a parterre rose garden. South-east of the rose garden is a semicircular lawn with a mature weeping ash in the centre. Surrounding the lawn is a gravel path and lying to the south-east, herbaceous and shrub borders. South-west of the rose garden is a grassed and hedged enclosre with a central square pond edged with paving designed in the late 20th century. At the south-west end of the garden the hedges have been cut away to reveal a small wooden summerhouse with a pyramidal roof. Beyond the hedged enclosure is a laburnum walk, also late 20th century, terminated by an ironwork pergola covered with climbers set in a circular brick-paved area.
The steps from the portico on the south-east front of the Hall lead down to a gravel path crossing the lawn parallel to the Hall. Beyond the gravel path the lawn runs south-east to iron fencing and beyond that, 150m south-east of the Hall, the ha-ha dividing the garden platform from the fields beyond. The area lying south-east of the Hall is now (2000) grazed.
PARK:
The area beyond the gardens, east of the Hall and ha-ha, is arable land. Running along the south-east boundary of this land is the Sea Walk which passes the Mausoleum (1766), standing 350m from the east bastion of the garden platform. The Sea Walk leads to the village of Seaton Sluice. The Walk runs through a narrow band of woodland planted mainly with sycamore. The end of the path, about 1.1km east of the Hall, is marked by a small gate (now, 2000, disused) in a wall dividing the Walk and the 20th century housing of Seaton Sluice village.
An axial link may be seen linking the Hall with the Obelisk, standing 900m to the south-east, the Egg Pond, lying 450m to the south-eas tof the Hall (outside the registered area), and the site of fishponds, now (2000) gone, formerly about 300m north-west of the Hall and also beyond the registered area. These may be the remains of a formal 18th century layout. North-east of the obelisk is Obelisk Plantation. Admiral Delaval, in a letter to his brother of about 1717, mentions planting avenues.
KITCHEN GARDEN: The about 1.5ha walled kitchen garden (18th century) lies about 150m north-east of the Hall. It includes an Orangery, a gardener's cottage and lean-to greenhouse; all the buildings are divided from the main garden by a wooden fence. A further fence runs south-east to the boundary wall, separating the south-west side used for grazing from the north-east side planted with fruit trees. A small pond in the centre of the kitchen garden is enclosed by a fence. The rounded wall of the north-east bastion impinges on the south-west boundary of the garden. Seaton Cottage stands at the south-east corner of the garden, flanked to the north-east and south-west by screen walls, and overlooking a small square garden to the south-east. On the 1860 Ordnance Survey map the garden was laid out in square and rectangular compartments edged by trees. (4)

The Hall and grounds were taken into National Trust ownership on 17 December 2009. (5)

Most of the hard landscaping elements of the layout have survived to a reasonable degree; the plantings, perhaps not surprisingly, less so.
In the 18th century, visitors approaching from inland would have been met by massive gate piers at the head of the avenue, which formed the original processional approach to the Hall. Over a mile long, the avenue retains enough of its plantings to determine the structure - a double row of lime trees planted on mounds flanking both sides of the present road. Beech and other large surviving broadleaves planted in the intervening space may represent a softening of the original formal avenue as fashions changed later in the century.
The current pleasure garden, in the north-west quadrant, is largely the result of post-War activity and this later 20th century overlay now has significance in its own right, as an early example of the work of the respected 20th century designer Jim Russell.
The first edition Ordnance Survey shows a straight walk leading from the house towards the south-east bastion. This is probably a survivor of one of the principal divisions of the 18th century pleasure ground. A parallel arrangement appears to survive as an earthwork in the opposing south-west quadrant. These would have been alleys through the plantation, almost certainly very formal in appearance.
The stonework plinths for large statues remains on the pleasure ground corner bastions. The original lead statuary has been moved and only Diana, the Huntress, is still in place (via spells in other parts of the grounds). Other statues included Sampson and the Philistine (moved in 1964 to 20th century garden west of Hall), and David and Goliath (now in entrance forecourt). The missing bastion statue is a Shepherdess, perhaps by John Cheere.
The south-west quadrant includes the medieval church. The quadrant also retains the earthwork of a broad walk along the top of the ha-ha, now best seen in the churchyard. This perimeter walk is presumably another survivor from the original layout.
Access to the Sea Walk, which seems to have been the principal route into the wider landscape beyond the pleasure grounds, was via a drawbridge alongside the south-east bastion. Once over the ha-ha the route ran seawards through a woodland belt to a doorway in the park wall, past the Mausoleum, and seawrds through a woodland belt. The walk is now blocked at the Seaton Sluice end by a wall, but originally gave access to the harbour and grounds of Seaton Lodge.
Armstrong's county map of 1769 shows another avenue flanking the principal vista south from the Hall towards the obelisk. John Wallis, an 18th century visitor describes the view over the lawn before the south front as: a spacious avenue, with shady walks on each side; a swimming bath about mid-way; terminated by an obelisk; the ancient ruin of Tynemouth Priory, and the ocean being in sight.
The parkland was converted to agricultural use in the 19th century and there is a reasonable degree of survival of field boundaries. There are also surviving plantations. A large rectangular pond shown on 19th century mapping to the north of the house, on the same north-south axis as the obelisk and Egg Pond, has gone.
The Walled Garden is just over three acres in extent. Its origin is uncertain as it sits a little oddly with the geometry of the pleasure garden and, taken with the door case in the south wall and the suggestion of earlier fabric in the garden cottage, hints at the possibility of survival or adaptation from the gardens of the 17th century house at Seaton Delaval. By the third edition Ordnance Survey of about 1920, the internal structure of the walled garden seems to be largely lost.
The area of productive garden was augmented, from the 1860s at least, by another walled enclosure of about two acres, to the south of the pleasure ground at the south-east bastion. The stone walls of this second garden survive in part. (6)

The garden and grounds are described in detail in a heritage statement prepared by The National Trust. (7)

Geophysical surveys carried out by Archaeological Services University of Durham on 18 and 19 April 2012 have recorded a series of soil-filled gully and ditches, garden paths and areas of rubble or masonry within areas of the gardens to the southeast, southwest and west of the main hall building at Seaton Delaval. It is thought that these are garden features which are depicted by earlier editions of the Ordnance Survey mapping of the area. It is thought that the areas of rubble may relate to garden practices (?for raised beds), as well as the footings of previous walls. (8)

Test pits excavated in 2011/12 revealed evidence of a building or wall foundation, overlain with gravel, within the enclosed area of the ha-ha, as well as probable evidence of landscaping outside the ha-ha. A row of cottages is known to have stood on the site from at least 1780 but no evidence of them or their demolition was found. One test pit contained rubble sandstone wall foundation which may be the rear side of the ha-ha, or alternatively an earlier structure demolished (possibly destroyed by fire) to make way for the development of the pleasure grounds in this area.
Two further test pits revealed a sandstone surface, presumed to be natural bedrock. The ground level had been significantly lowered and this landscaping seems likely to coincide with the construction of the ha-ha and the need to level out and reduce the ground to the west of it. This stretch of the ha-ha would appear to have been built into an excavated trench, rather than built as an upstanding wall and infilled behind. (9)

Topographic survey in 2011 recorded alignment of trees which indicate the probable survival of part of an avenue providing physical and visual access to where a statue once stood in the south-east corner of the pleasure grounds. (10)

An archaeological survey has been carried out by Archaeological Services Durham University during 2011 of the Seaton Delaval Hall grounds. This has recorded the condition of the components around the core of the estate, though the gardens have not been covered. (11)

The landscape to the south of the hall is recorded on the 1781 estate map as as a deer park, bounded to the north by the Sea Walk and the bastions around the Mansion. There is a suggestion of subdivisions running south from the Sea Walk boundary (also shown on the 1808 map). It is not clear how far east the deer park extended but it is separate from Hare Park.
The 1808 estate map shows no deer park south of the house, but on the other hand Swann's Farm is now labelled 'Deer Park'. This suggests that a major change in deer management on the estate took place between the two dates, with only a much smaller area being given over to this purpose. The flanking walls to the ha ha that surround the Mausoleum may have been built as a park pale. (12)

Detailed study of the area within the bastions, looking at documentary and archaeological (lidar) evidence, has raised doubts over the attribution to Vanbrugh of the design and construction of the bastions. (13)