There is a little area of my garden in which nothing has ever grown. I
have known for a while that if I dig more than a couple of inches down I
come across bricks. A neighbour tells me that this area used to be a
chrysanthemum farm and I have always assumed that these bricks were the
foundations for a greenhouse of some description. Last weekend I took
the opportunity to dig further with a view to finally getting some
garden that I can grow something in. I now think that what I have is not
the foundations of a greenhouse but am at a loss to explain what it is.

What I have found is approximately 7’ by 3’ in size. It consists of a
single skin of brick which is divided into three sections by two brick
partitions; the centre section being wider than the other two. Into each
section there is a salt clay pipe that goes down into the ground with a
pipe T’ed from it horizontally about 8 inches below the surface. In the
case of the two end sections this pipe runs straight through the garden
but in the case of the centre section it just exits into the right hand
chamber.

I have not yet found the foundations but it goes down at least ten rows
of bricks at which point it reaches the water table. Could it be
connected with irrigation?

Interestingly the far long wall (nearest to the property boundary) has
the top two rows of bricks laid at right angles and offset towards the
chambers. This is then concreted on the outside making it look as if it
might have been part of a low curved roof over the chambers with the
pipes exiting through it.

The soil that I have removed from the chambers contained a lot of rubble
suggesting that there might have been some sort of structure on top that
was knocked down before being covered earth.

The bricks are Eastwoods Flettons which as far as I can find out were
manufactured at Kempston near Bedford. The Eastwoods Flettons company
was not founded until 1927 so it can be no earlier than that. However
the same bricks were used in the construction of the house so I think it
likely that it was built at the same time as the house, which would date
it as 1948/49. It is also parallel to and close to the boundary, which
wouldn’t have been present any earlier.

The structure is not shown on any local maps from that era and the
original plans for the house are not in the local archives. What I have
found out though is that the land was originally classed as farmland.
There was a market garden further down the road, which could be where
the reports of a Chrysanthemum farm came from.

For anyone interested there are some pictures at
http://www.girton.ukfsn.org/excavations.

Does anyone have any idea what this might have been? I am intrigued to
know before I raze it to the ground to get my garden back.

Andrew

Cross-posted to uk.rec.gardening as I suspect it might have had some
horticultural use.