The raised beds

​There are four raised plant beds around the edge of the garden which are shaded green on the plan below.

Plan showing the raised beds coloured green

The beds are edged with burr brick - that is brick which has been over-fired in the kiln and has partly melted producing a rough sometimes glassy surface. The material was popular for bed edging and garden walls in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The beds at Honeywood are probably all from the same date. They must be later than the merging of the gardens of Honeywood and Wandle Lodge in 1884 and are earlier than the 1902 extension as bed G is cut by the wall of the sheds area which was created at that time.

Beds D and E along the west side of the garden had become heavily shaded by 1920 and had probably been superseded by flat beds in what is now the lawn. These beds have got heavily overgrown. Clearance work started in the winter of 2019-20 but was interrupted by the COVID epidemic.

The raised bed by the well (B on the plan)

The overgrown bed along the back edge of the garden (E on the plan)

Detail of the burr brick edging of the bed along the back edge of the garden (E on the plan)

In the next page we look at