The full crinkle crankle shape of the walled garden. Inside the walls is vegetable beds and beyond the walls is green fields and trees.

Chris Wilkes Garden

Intro

When you explore the spacious Ruskin grounds, you will come across the beautiful Chris Wilkes Garden, a unique Grade II-listed eighteenth-century walled garden.

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A wooden bench is at the end of a gravel path surrounded by shrubs, flowers and bushes. The garden is surrounded by a red brick wall.

We restored the garden in 2009, re-creating the terraces and repairing the crinkle crankle wall, named after its zigzag design that maximises the surface area exposed to the sun, whilst the brick lining provides extra warmth for fruit growing. 

Red brick walled garden with rectangle beds within the garden. It is Autumn as there are yellow leaves on the ground.

The garden once had glass houses and sheds attached to the outside of the east wall but these did not survive after the garden fell into disuse.

In 1947 Ruskin College bought the grounds and built a children's nursery and a hard tennis court within the walled garden. 

Three student walking and chatting in Chris Wilkes Garden.

The restoration of the garden took place in 2009 where the tennis court and nursery were removed and the original terrace levels of the garden beds were re-created. A mix of locals and volunteer gardeners helped bring the garden back to its former glory. You will now find a variety of different plants, fruits and vegetables growing here.

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