Oxford’s Crinkle Crankle Club

Hurly burly, higgeldy piggledy, nitty gritty – what’s not to love about these delightful, reduplicative words. They infuse the English language with humour, playfulness and well, a little bit of razzle dazzle. So when I discovered there was such a thing as a crinkle crankle wall and that one resided in Oxford I felt compelled to search it out. Easy peasy I thought.

According to Nikolaus Pevsner in his Architectural Glossary the term crinkle crankle refers to ‘a garden wall undulating in a series of serpentine curves’. ‘Crink’ was a 16^th century word meaning twisting or tricky. They are also known as crunkum crankum, serpentine, ribbon or wavy walls, the unusual building technique dating back to Ancient Egypt, but only introduced to England in the 17^th century by Dutch engineers brought over to help transform the wet marshes of East Anglia into useable farmland. As well as drainage they also built walls. One brick thick and wavy. They called them slange muur, snake walls, the brick bends making buttresses unnecessary. And they worked just as well in the Fens as they had in Holland, a barrier against inclement weather, and in exposed areas the perfect windbreak. But the idea soon caught on elsewhere in the country for other reasons.

One was that they used far less bricks, (straight walls were two bricks thick) making them a much cheaper option especially after the introduction of the Brick Tax in 1784. Gardeners also saw the advantages. Building them from east to west, so that one side was south facing, not only did the curves and undulations give them a greater vertical growing area, they also served as suntraps. Perfect for forcing and bringing on more delicate exotic fruit.

It was for this purpose that Oxford got its crinkle crankle wall. If you look on google maps there is no mistaking its outline. A wavy line marking the north end of a plot of land next to Ruskin College in Headington, now part of the University of West London. Peruse the formidable Headington History website curated by Stephanie Jenkins and she will tell you that it was built as part of an 18^th century walled kitchen garden; to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to the Finch family, the descendants of the New College cook William Finch who had built the house it served a hundred years earlier. By the end of the 19^th century The Rookery, as it was called, was being used as a school, then as various private residences before being requisitioned by the American Army during the war, a team of gardeners still digging and planting the garden, continuing as they always had done to supply home grown produce for the dinner table. 

However, after Ruskin Hall bought the site in 1947 as a hostel for the higher education students attending their Walton Street College this all changed. The old glasshouses and garden sheds fell into disrepair. Hard surfaced tennis courts took the place of turnips and tomatoes, a prefab nursery block built where potatoes and peas once thrived. And so it remained until 2009, when Ruskin sold off its city premises and moved the whole show up to Headington. The buildings were renovated and added to, the walled garden restored, and the crinkle crankle wall once again took centre stage. A special Ruskin Crinkle Crankle Club (RCCC) was even formed to work the garden communally. And as it turns out Stephanie Jenkins was one of its founder members.

And so it is, on a beautiful sunny Sunday evening, I head up to Ruskin College, past the imposing tower block in Northway, up Dunstan Road, and down what was once charmingly called Love Lane, now Stoke Place, a private road and track that will lead you eventually to Elsfield. I want to see the crinkle crankle wall for myself. And though Stephanie no longer works her plot, she has put me in touch with Laurent Gigou, who now heads up the small but committed group of volunteers who tend to the garden it encloses.  

The place sits right behind the main house. Being the weekend, the gate is open, the lovely old stone gateway framing a splash of red poppies, overhanging rosemary bushes and an old-fashioned metal water butt. There is a sense of tranquillity as soon as you enter. Roses tumble over arches, sweet peas climb tumbledown wigwams, a lavender hedge exhales its healing aromas. There are communal plots heaving with rhubarb, an apple walkway, a fruit cage bursting with blackcurrants and gooseberries. And dotted amongst the marigolds and nasturtiums are the gardeners. Unified by a common desire to cultivate flowers and vegetables, they come from all walks of life, to share their knowledge, chat to each other and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.

And there at the back is the crinkle crankle wall itself. Bathed in the warm, evening sun. A curious, beautiful thing. I’d call it more zig zag than undulating. More angular than wavy. But that’s splitting hairs. Next Sunday you get the rare chance to make your own mind up. For the walled garden will be open to the public. And if you are local there are spaces still available to grow your own. The only way you will ever gain that gold membership card to the Ruskin Crinkle Crankle Club. 

So don’t dilly dally. Boogie-woogie on down to the crinkle crankle wall.

No riff raff mind.

The Ruskin Walled Garden will be open between 2.30 and 5.30 pm on Sunday 29th June as part of Friends of Old Headington Open Gardens

If you are interested in taking a plot and helping with the upkeep of the garden, you can email Laurent on crinklecrankleclub@gmail.com

The back of the crinkle crinkle wall which is made out of stone

The front of Ruskin College

This view towards Elsfield will soon change. You can see part of the new Barton Park. There are plans for the hills behind to be developed too.