Sayes Court was a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...

and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

, in the

London Borough of Lewisham Lewisham () is a London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Meridian passes thr ...

on the

Thames Path The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996. The ...

and in the former parish of

St Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Dem ...

. Sayes Court once attracted throngs to visit its celebrated garden'' Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn'' created by the seventeenth century diarist

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or m ...

. Now completely buried beneath

Convoys Wharf Convoys Wharf, formerly called the King's Yard, is the site of Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Dockyards, built on a riverside site in Deptford, by the River Thames in London, England. It was first developed in 1513 by Henry VIII to ...

and Sayes Court Park, the area shows little sign of its former glory, despite having been a key factor in the creation of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

.History of the National Trust: 1884–1912
/ref>

History

Earliest information

The Manor of Deptford was bestowed upon

Gilbert de Magminot Gilbert Maminot, or Magminot, (d. August, 1101), was a Norman bishop in the eleventh century. He was born of 'a substantial Norman family of the middle rank', in Courbépine, his father being the knight Robert of Courbépine. He was known to his ...

or Maminot by

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

and this is where he held the head of the

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Maminot. In 1814 John Lyon wrote that Maminot built a castle, or castellated mansion, for himself at Deptford. Lyon noted that all traces had by then long since been buried in their ruins, but from the remains of some ancient foundations which had been discovered, the site was probably on the brow of Broomfield, near the Mast Dock and adjacent to Sayes Court.Deptford, St Nicholas, The Environs of London: volume 4: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent (1796) by Daniel Lysons, pp. 359–385
/ref> The history of the town and port of Dover and of Dover castle by John Lyon, published 1814, p. 139
/ref>Dedication to the Public of Deptford Park by Dr W.J. Collins, 1897 Gilbert de Magminot's great-grandson, Walkelin Maminot, dying without issue in 1191, the manor fell to the share of his sister and co-heir Alice, the wife of Geoffrey de Saye. The ownership of the manor can then be traced until after the death of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

, when it was seized by the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

and a survey of the manor was taken. The

Manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...

, Sayes Court, along with about of land, was assigned by Parliament to the Browne family, who had occupied it for several generations by then. It was owned by

Thomas Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure ...

, and in 1530 when he fell from

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

's favour, it was given to

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1st Viscount Lisle, (22 August 1545) was an English military leader and courtier. Through his third wife, Mary Tudor, he was brother-in-law to King Henry VIII. Biography Charles Brandon was the second ...

and his wife,

Mary, the French Queen Mary Tudor (; 18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533) was an English princess who was briefly Queen of France as the third wife of King Louis XII. Louis was more than 30 years her senior. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabet ...

John Evelyn at Sayes Court

In 1647 Mary Browne, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Browne, married

, the famous diarist, who hailed from Wotton in Surrey. With the Restoration of the monarchy, Sayes Court reverted once more to the Crown, but, having taken up residence in his wife's family home in 1651, Evelyn managed with difficulty to obtain a 99-year lease of the property from Charles II in 1663. He rebuilt and enlarged the house and, inspired by French and Italian ideas, turned the surrounding orchard and pasture into one of the most influential gardens of his day.london-footprints.co.uk: A Deptford & Millwall Walk
/ref>
/ref>

The garden

Though all visible above-ground traces of the garden have been lost, its proposed design is shown in painstaking detail on a map of 1653, ostensibly drawn up for the benefit of Evelyn's father-in-law, who was on diplomatic posting to Paris and so absent while Evelyn was laying out the gardens. However, the high quality and detail of the plan probably meant that Evelyn intended it to be printed and published.
/ref> Adjacent to the house on the west was a walled garden "of choice flowers, and simples", that is, medicinal herbs, laid out in formal beds surrounding a large fountain. There was also an

arbour Arbor(s) or Arbour(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Arbor'' (installation), a 2013 public artwork in Indianapolis, Indiana, US * Arbor, a counterweight-carrying device found in theater fly systems * ''The Arbor'', a 1980 play by Andr ...

under two tall elms at the north-west corner, as well as transparent glass bee-hives. This space Evelyn regarded as his own, private garden. The rest of the gardens were on a much grander scale. The main features included: a long terrace walk overlooking an elaborate box

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

; a large rectangular area ("the grove") planted with many different species of trees, inset with walks and recesses; large kitchen gardens; a great

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of ...

of three hundred fruit trees; avenues and hedges of ash, elm, and holly; and a long walk or promenade from a banquet house set against the south wall of the garden down to an ornamental lake with an island, fruit bushes and summer house at the north end. After the very severe winter of 1683–4, the layout of the south-west part of the garden was much simplified. The parterre was converted into a semicircle of lawn and its quadrants planted with fruit.

After Evelyn

In 1694 Evelyn moved back to Wotton and in June 1696 Captain Benbow signed a three-year lease on the house. Benbow proved to be a less than ideal tenant, as Evelyn was soon writing to a friend to complain that he had "the mortification of seeing everyday much of my former labours and expenses there impairing". However, much worse damage was done to the house and grounds when William III lent Sayes Court to Tsar Peter of Russia for three months in 1698. Paintings were used for target practice and the gardens were damaged by numerous wheelbarrow races. Benbow demanded compensation after the Tsar's departure, to cover his own losses and reimburse Evelyn's, and the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

eventually paid out the sum of £350 9s 6d (), in compensation. Czar Peter also resided in a mansion house, that was situated at Hughes field, Deptford. After Evelyn's death in 1706 the Sayes Court estate was held in trust for his grandson, Sir John Evelyn, Baronet, as all his own male children had predeceased him. As well as almost 62 acres around Sayes Court itself, the estate comprised 159 tenements, the Red House on the site of the later navy victualling yard, a wet and dry dock afterwards called Deadman's Dock, and a water-mill.

18th century

After Evelyn at the turn of the 18th century the estate was quickly broken up. According to Daniel Lysons writing in 1796, the Sayes Court manor house was almost entirely demolished in 1728, and the remainder converted into a

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

. However Thomas Milton's 1753 plan of

Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events ...

shows the house, as the "Poore house", with still a similar footprint to that on John Evelyn's plan of 1653.John Evelyn's house at Sayes Court by Edward Watson, Bygone Kent, Volume 10 number 5, May 1989

Victorian era

It remained the

parish workhouse from 1759 to 1848. In 1852 it was used as a

penal transportation Penal transportation or transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became thei ...

depot, and in 1853 it was a factory for transportee clothing.The Kentish coast by Harper, Charles George, London Chapman & Hall, 1914. p.13An Archaeological Field Evaluation Undertaken by Pre-Construct Archaeology at Sayes Court, Deptford, SE8, London Borough of Lewisham, by Phil Frickers and Judith Connal, Pre-Construct Archaeology, 1996 In 1856 the whole site was sold to the Admiralty.John Evelyn's great garden at Deptford by Edward Watson, Bygone Kent, Volume 10 number 11, November 1989 In 1869, on the closing of the dockyard,

William John Evelyn William John Evelyn JP DL (27 July 1822 - 26 July 1908) was a British Member of Parliament, landowner and philanthropist. He was MP for Surrey West in 1849 and again for Deptford in 1885.

, a descendant of John Evelyn, purchased back from the Government as much of the site of Sayes Court as was available. By 1876 he was turning some into a recreation ground for his Deptford tenants; all plants and turf being brought from Wotton. By 1877 a portion of the old gardens had been secured, four of these remaining attached to the old house, which in 1881 he made into

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

s. The public garden and playground was about in extent. It had been carefully laid out with grass, plants, and edged with flowers and shrubs. In part it was planted with trees, and intersected by broad and level walks. In the centre of the ground was a

bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...

; and in the north-west corner there was a large neoclassical building, formerly the Dockyard's Admiralty Model house, which was intended to serve as a museum and library, under the management of the Goldsmiths' Company.

The part played in the formation of the National Trust

In 1884 W. J. Evelyn approached

Octavia Hill Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a family of radical ...

with the suggestion that the garden should become publicly owned and offering the hall which could be used as a museum, but there was as yet no organisation with the necessary legal powers for holding the property for permanent preservation. Robert Hunter advised that they should set up a land company with the aim of protecting "the public interests in the open spaces of the country". Octavia Hill proposed that this company be called "the Commons and Gardens Trust", but it was Hunter's suggestion, the "National Trust", that was adopted. Unfortunately, the Trust took ten years to reach the point where it could be properly constituted, by which time the opportunity to take ownership of Sayes Court had passed.The National Trust: The First Hundred Years, by Merlin Waterson, National Trust, London, 1994, pp. 25–26 In 1886 some still remained of the estate and of these W.J. Evelyn dedicated an acre and a half in perpetuity to the public. Until then the only other piece of land that had ever been given to the London public was

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicest ...

. In this acre and a half the

Kyrle Society Miranda Hill (Wisbech 1836–1910) was an English social reformer. Biography Hill was a daughter of James Hill (died 1872), a corn merchant, banker and follower of Robert Owen, and his third wife, Caroline Southwood Smith (1809–1902), a ...

laid out a park, a playground and a

. A permanent provision was made for the Evelyn estate to cover the expense of maintenance and caretaking. It was opened on 20 July 1886 by Baroness Burdett-Coutts. In his history ''The National Trust: The First Hundred Years'', Merlin Waterson writes "It would be hard to conceive of a property which encompassed so many of the future purposes of the National Trust. The garden was of exceptional importance, the historical associations fascinating, and it was a valuable open space in the heart of London Docks."

World War I and between the wars

The

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * D ...

hired Sayes Court, from the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

from 19 September 1914 to use as a Horse Transport Reserve Depot at a rental of £90 per annum ()Supply Reserve Depot, Deptford. (Old Foreign Cattle Market). Skeleton Record Plan. Sheet No. 1 of a set of 4. Corrected to September 1938. to enlarge its Supply Reserve Depot at the adjacent former Foreign Cattle Market. The

fee simple In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., pe ...

of the Foreign Cattle Market and of the Sayes Court property were purchased by the War Department, for £400,500 () under

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferrin ...

s dated 25 March 1926, 18 March 1927 & 25 July 1927 including the railway, tramway,

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locati ...

age and

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

rights and

easements An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a property ...

. By 1938 the almshouses had become the headquarters, while the former model house now served as the Officers Mess. ''Tramways'' (18"

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

with track weighing 35 lbs. per yard) had been laid and some areas of the Victorian park remained intact within the depot.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, on 16 August 1944, the Victorian Terrace existing along the Grove Street side of Sayes Court was destroyed by a

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany ...

Second half of the 20th century

By the end of the war all that remained of the Sayes Court estate was a public garden of less than and about an acre covering the sites of the bombed houses and a school. The

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kn ...

decided to redesign the whole of this area. The resulting park included a well-equipped children's playground, a paddling pool with a fountain over artificial rocks, a heated playroom some 30 ft by , with a room for an attendant at one side and on the other staff offices, lavatories and a shelter with tables and chairs facing onto a formal garden with flower beds and grass plots. At the far end of this formal garden were flower beds and a small pool fed by a spout in the form of a frog. The park opened on 29 May 1951. In 1993 the Greenwich and Lewisham (London Borough Boundaries) Order transferred the site from the

London Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...

to the

MOLA archaeologists expose the surviving walls of Sayes Court

2011 investigation by Museum of London Archaeology

As part of Museum of London Archaeology's excavation at Convoys Wharf (the site of the former Deptford Royal Dockyard), Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) unearthed the remains of Sayes Court.. The excavation identified the plan of Sayes Court, as modified in the course of its history, with ground floor walls surviving up to a metre high in places. The front door of the building in the southwest wall opened into a central hallway, with a pair of rooms either side. The hallway led to the back of the building and a further four rooms. A cellar occupied the northwest part of the building, accessed by a stair in the north corner and later by a flight of stone steps added onto the northwest wall.

Present

The current Sayes Court Park (as of 2010) only incorporates the western edge of John Evelyn's Garden, and most of it overlies the area originally shown on Evelyn's map of 1653 as the 'Broome Field'. The boundary wall of Evelyn's garden follows a line extended from the eastern edge of the modern Sayes Court Street. The site of Sayes Court forms part of

, which is currently owned by

Hutchison Whampoa Limited Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a di ...

and subject to a planning application to convert it into approximately 3,500 residential units, and 73,000 sq metres of commercial space although part of this has

safeguarded wharf Safeguarded wharves are those wharves in London which have been given special status by the Mayor of London and the Port of London Authority (PLA) which ensures they are retained as working wharves and are protected from redevelopment into non ...

status. In September 2011 a group of local residents launched a campaign, with the name ''Deptford Is..'' to oppose the masterplan proposed by the developers. They have proposed a couple of projects to connect to the history of the area and benefit the local community. These are the Lenox Project and Sayes Court Garden. In October 2013 the site was added to the

World Monuments Fund World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...

's 2014 watch list. On 31 March 2014 the Mayor of London,

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...

, approved plans to build up to 3,500 new homes on the Convoys Wharf site that has been derelict for 14 years. In 2017 a locally led amenity group called DeptfordFolk nominated the 300-year-old mulberry tree for the Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year award. As a result of the campaign a small grant was awarded which led to the installation of new supports for the tree limbs. The grant was match-funded by Lewisham Council. The nomination was part of Evelyn200, a project that also saw the planting of three new trees in the park including two new white mulberry trees and a Turkish hazelnut.

Other places named after Sayes Court

* Sayes Court, Christ Church, Barbados * Sayes Court, Addlestone, Surrey, UK * Sayes Court, Wellington, New Zealand * Sayes Court, Isle of SheppeyGuide Book of the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle Isle of Harty
/ref>

References

Attribution

{{Green London

External links

Voice4Deptford
local group to enable community participation in redevelopment of the Convoys Wharf site.
Sayes Court
– A project to create a new garden and centre for landscape at Sayes Court.
London's Lost Garden
about Sayes Court Garden and John Evelyn. * Plan of Sayes Court House and Garde

and as a
overlay (.kmz file)
on the modern landscape on

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

* Plan of Sayes Court with lists of fruit tree
at the British Library
and as a
overlay (.kmz file)
on the modern landscape on Google Earth * Thread fo
Sayes Court manor house and gardens
overlays on Google Earth Community forums

* ttp://www.richardrogers.co.uk/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,4,25,124,125 Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners "Convoy's Wharf Conception"
Lewisham Unitary Development Plan 2004, Schedule 3 – Areas of Archaeological Priority protected by Policy URB 21 Archaeology and shown on the Proposals Map
Forced migration Workhouses in London Deptford Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lewisham History of Kent History of the London Borough of Lewisham Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Lewisham Redevelopment projects in London Buildings and structures demolished in 1728