Monument MPM1925 - Walled Garden, Milton

Walled kitchen garden to Milton House. Later owned by Portsmouth College of Education/University of Portsmouth and now a private residents garden.

Walled garden originally belonging to Milton House which stood to the north of the site. The 1838 tithe map shows the house with a plot of land adjoining it to the south roughly occupying the same area as the walled garden. The land is recorded in the tithe apportionment as 'buildings' belonging to Captain Hallowes and others. An Admiral Hallowes sold Milton House in 1875. [1, 2]

An advert for the sale of Milton House as early as 1849 mentions that at the 'rear of the residence are productive walled gardens' [3]. A later advert in the edition of the 1st August 1896 referred to an 'extensive walled-in kitchen garden well stocked with fruit trees' [4]. Photographs of the garden taken during the 1950s and 1960s when it belonged to the City of Portsmouth Training College show what appear to be fruit trees [5].

The 1870 Ordnance Survey map depicts trees and paths within the gardens south of the house, but the garden is only shown as an outline on later maps [6].

Milton House and its outbuildings are still marked on the 1910 Ordnance Survey map but were demolished shortly after when the site was redeveloped by Portsmouth Municipal Training College [7, 8]. The garden became part of Foster Hall, an accommodation block for Portsmouth Municipal Training College, which was built on the Milton Farm site in 1916 [9]. The garden continued to be owned by the Portsmouth College of Education, which later became part of the University of Portsmouth, until the site was redeveloped in 2004. The walled garden is now a private garden for residents of the estate which surrounds it.

<1> Owen, Thomas Ellis, 1838, Portsea Tithe Map and Apportionment (Map). SPM235.

<2> Hampshire Telegraph, 1875, Hampshire Telegraph (Bibliographic reference). SPM524.

<3> Hampshire Telegraph, 1849, Hampshire Telegraph (Bibliographic reference). SPM525.

<4> Hampshire Telegraph, 1896, Hampshire Telegraph (Bibliographic reference). SPM526.

<5> Portsmouth College of Education, n.d, Display boards telling the history of the Training College in images (Photograph). SPM527.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1870, Ordnance Survey Map 1870 (Map). SPM282.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1910, Ordnance Survey Map 1910 (Map). SPM266.

<8> Ordnance Survey, 1932, Ordnance Survey Map 1932 (Map). SPM354.

<9> Portsmouth University Archives, 2016, Portsmouth College of Education (1907-1976) (Unpublished document). SPM523.