Monument record MDO8341 - Garden at Bindon Abbey, Wool

Channels and ponds of a garden associated with the house established here after the Dissolution. It has been suggested that some of the water features were created by modifying fish ponds associated with the medieval abbey. A prominent feature of the garden is a large artificial mound with a walk around it. The first house burnt down around 1644 and the present house was built in the late 18th century, when the gardens were also restored. An ice house appears to have been inserted into the mound at this time.

SY 854867. Channels and ponds at Bindon Abbey lie east and south west of the abbey ruins; the site is almost at river level and the channels serve a real need for drainage. Some may have originated before the Reformation as fishponds, but the majority probably owe most of their form to the garden of a private house which succeeded the monastery and was burned down circa 1644. In the late 18th century there was a thorough restoration of the site when the present 'Bindon Abbey' house (see SY 88 NE 36) was built; at this time the water course was cut between the abbey and Bindon Mill.

There are two main enclosures formed by west ditches. On the south west of the abbey ditches form a square of about 4/5 acre containing a central lozenge-shaped pond with a flat circular island in the middle. The enclosing ditches are linked to this pond and crossed by causeways; the whole is thickly overgrown. East of the abbey is a rectangle of 2 acres bounded by a bank and broad ditch crossed by a causeway on the west. In the centre a pennanular ditch encloses an artificial mound, 87 ft diameter and 10 ft high, in two stages with a walk around the base of each, this mound was probably built in the 16th or 17th century and restored in the late 18th when a vaulted icehouse was inserted.

In the meadow 250 yds west of the abbey, a bank, some 27 ft across and 1 1/2 ft above a ditch on the west; runs north and continues beyond the road from Wool; it then seems to have curved north east to join the Frome. This might be a monastic boundary and its ditch could also have supplied the ponds. <3>

Channels and ponds described by Authy 3 are visible on air photographs with the addition of probable watercourses between SY 849868 and SY 851869 and SY 847867 and SY 851867. A series of small fishponds or drainage ditches are also visible at SY 852867. The two ditched enclosures are now very overgrown, but appear to be generally as described. The ditch surrounding the southwestern enclosure was dry at the time of visit, but that around the eastern enclosure contains deep water. The interior of this eastern enclosure is inaccessible because of the destruction of the bridge.

The bank and ditch in the meadows west of the abbey, mentioned by <3> are visible now only north of the road as far as the railway, a length of 65 metres.

Bank and ditch surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. Further unsurveyable banks and scarps in this field are visible. There are no fishponds at SY 852867 only minor scarps and drainage ditches visible on aerial photographs.

Of the possible monastic boundary, the recorded <3> rchme part between SY 85148693 and SY 85138687 has a ditch on its west side, with unsurveyable traces extending north-east to the River Frome. Southwards to SY 85128672, two banks with a medial ditch are visible on air photographs ; on the ground only unsurveyable traces of the ditch and the east bank can be detected. Immediately south, for 130 metres, there is a spread bank with a ditch on the east and, in the northern half a medial ditch as in the preceeding length. (The alignment is not quite coincidental, probably due to irregularity of destruction). At SY 85128658 there is a short break in the bank which then turns eastward to end abruptly at SY 85278658. A deep ditch on the north side is in modern use as a drain.

The previously unrecorded lengths, large and unlike local field boundaries, with very old oaks on extant parts, suggest a medieval boundary work, though lack of further fragments to the east, renders the plan incomplete. Surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. (For details see annotated plan). <4>

When the manor house to the east of the abbey was built after the dissolution, most of the area around the abbey was laid out as an ornamental garden. <5>

The Post-Medieval garden that lies within the scheduled area of Bindon Abbey is also scheduled Dorset 58.<6>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1930 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 853867) Fish Ponds (NR) (SY 855867) Moats (NR)

<2> Hadfield, Miles, 1960, Gardening in Britain, 40-41 (Monograph). SDO20372.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 409 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘(43) CHANNELS AND PONDS at Bindon Abbey (854867) lie E. and S.W. of the Abbey ruins (3) and in meadows immediately W. and N.W.; the site is almost at river level and the channels serve a real need for drainage. Some may have originated before the Reformation as fish-ponds, but the majority probably owe their form to the garden of a private house which succeeded the monastery and was burned down c. 1644. In the late 18th century there was a thorough restoration of the site when the present house (7) was built; at this time the water-course was cut between the Abbey and Bindon Mill, just N. of it, apparently through part of the monastic cemetery (Hutchins I, 352-3).
There are two main enclosures formed by wet ditches. On the S.W. of the Abbey, ditches form a square of about ⅘ acre containing a central lozenge-shaped pond with a flat, circular island in the middle. The enclosing ditches are linked to this pond and crossed by the causeways; the whole is thickly overgrown. E. of the Abbey is a rectangle of 2 acres bounded by a bank and a broad ditch crossed by a causeway on the W. In the centre a penannular ditch encloses an artificial mound, 87 ft. in diameter and 10 ft. high, in two stages with a walk around the base of each; this mound was probably built in the 16th or 17th century and restored in the late 18th century when a vaulted ice-house was inserted (see Monument 7).
In the meadown 250 yds. W. of the Abbey a bank, some 27 ft. across and 1½ ft. above a ditch on the W., runs N. and continues beyond the road from Wool; it then seems to have curved N.E. to join the Frome. This might be a monastic boundary and its ditch could also have supplied the ponds, though springs are present as a source of water in the area (J. Sparrow, ‘A Plan of Woodstreet and Bindon Farms’ (1770), in D.C.R.O.; W. part of estate plan (before 1775), in D.C.R.O.; plan in Hutchins I, opp. 353; for mounds as garden features, see M. Hadfield, Gardening in Britain (1960), 40-1.)’

<3.1> Sparrow, J, 1770, Plan of Woodstreet and Bindon Farms (Map). SDO20371.

<3.2> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1861, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 1, 353, plan opposite (Monograph). SWX4496.

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 26-JUN-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4.1> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1036-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13236.

<5> Royal Archaeological Institute, 1983, Archaeological Journal 140, 60 (Serial). SDO16977.

<6> English Heritage, 1987, Scheduled Ancient Monuments: Dorset, 38 (Scheduling record). SDO19125.

<7> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455247 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 16 2023 3:56PM