The Garden History Blog

Snowdrop Days

Posted on 27/01/2014 by The Garden History Blog

I saw my first snowdrops of the season last week, pushing their way through the semi-liquid mud in a friend’s garden. It almost looked as if it needed swimming lessons. But it set me thinking how archetypally English we take them to be. Except of course they’re not: like so much else in our garden they’re a foreign invader.

from John Gerard’s The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597
Image courtesy of Early English Books Online

Native to shady woodland across Europe from the Pyrenees to Turkey and Ukraine, no-one knows how or when they arrived in Britain but it must have been well before the end of the 17thc because they appear in John Gerard’s Herbal of 1597. They are included along with leucojums under the heading of “Bulbed Stock Gilloflowers”, and illustrated as the “Timely flowring Bulbus violet”. While Gerard’s name and classification, which is based on the ancient Greek writer, Theophrastus might strike us as a bit odd, his written description is accurate.

“The first of these Bulbus violets riseth foorth of the ground with two small leaves, flat and crested, of an overworne greene colour: among which riseth up a smal and tender stalke, of two hands high; at the top whereof commeth forth of a skinnie hood, a small white flower of the bignesse of a violet, compact of six leaves, three bigger and three lesser, tipped at the points with a light greene: the smaller leaves are not so white as the outermost great leaves, but tipped with greee as the others be. The whole flower hangeth downe his heda by reason of the weake foote stalke whereon it groweth. The roote is small, white and bulbose.”

Gerard also tells us that “our London gardens have taken possession of them all these many years”, and that “they are maintained and cherished in gardens for the beautie and rarenesse of the flowers, and the sweetenes of their smell.” That cherishing continues. Although many plants have their fan clubs, indeed many have specialist groups dedicated to their cultivation, research and promotion, snowdrops [Galanthus nivalis]seem to have attracted a more enthusiastic bunch of admirers than most: Galanthophiles.

Galanthus nivalis Magnet © Galanthus.co.uk

The term was used [if not coined] by E.A.Bowles the garden writer and plantsman, although snowdrop hybridizing and collecting was well under way in the mid-19thc. The most famous snowdrop breeder – nicknamed the snowdrop king -with over 100 varieties to his name [including Magnet], was James Allen of Shepton Mallet where the local horticultural society is keen to rekindle his enthusiasm and passion for the flower in their town.

For further information see:

http://www.sheptonhortsoc.org.uk/snowdrop-project

Bennington Lordship © David Marsh

Galanthophile efforts to convert the rest of us have had a lot of success. I can remember [at least I think I can] when a snowdrop day was quite an unusual occasion, taking place in just a few gardens: Bennington Lordship, Hodsock Priory, Colesbourne Park spring to mind and all of which continue to have wonderful displays.

But nowadays everyone is at it.

Snowdrops at Fountains Abbey © Ian Capper & licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of gardens and snowpdrop-related events to choose from. The National Gardens Scheme alone lists 71 gardens open in February, many of which specifically mention snowdrops as one of their attractions and are opening specially. They include many historic parks and gardens that are not normally open to the public including East Lambrook Manor nr Taunton, [the garden created by Marjorie Fish], Bramdean House, nr Winchester and Welford Park, nr Newbury.

And then of course there are the gardens that do open on a regular basis many of which have been widening their seasons of interest by mass plantings of snowdrops , often in dozens of varieties.

Snowdrops at Welford Park, nr Newbury © Len Williams & licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence geograph-2822851

So now the choice of places to see “The Snow-drop, who, in habit white and plain, Comes on the Herald of fair Flora’s train” [Charles Churchill, Gotham 1764] is almost endless. From Colebsourne Park in Gloucestershire to Cambo in Fife , from Easton Walled Garden to Austwick Park, nr Settle, and from Fountains to Plas yn Rhiw or wherever else you are in the country there will be somewhere nearby to go and indulge – or maybe acquire – the passion to become a galanthophile too!

Snowdrop Galanthus x allenii is possibly a wild hybrid from the Caucasus. It was found in Shepton Mallet, the Somerset garden of James Allen (hence the name), in Victorian times and has been cultivated ever since
© Natural History Museum

Further information about some of the many gardens with good snowdrop displays can be can be found at the National Gardens Scheme and the Royal Horticultural Society:

Home

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/RHS-Partner-Gardens/Features/Days-out-for-snowdrop-lovers

You might also be interested in reading about snowdrops on the blog of the Galloping Gardener:

http://thegallopinggardener.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/in-search-of-snowdrops-where-to-find.html

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Snowdrops at Easton Walled Garden, Lincolnshire © Copyright Brian Green & licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bennington Lordship, Bramdean House, Colesbourne Park, EA Bowles, East Lambrook Manor, Easton Walled Garden, Herbals, Hodsock Priory, James Allen, John Gerard, Marjorie Fish, National Gardens Scheme, Welford park | Leave a comment

Copped Hall revisited

Posted on 20/01/2014 by The Garden History Blog

The weather yesterday was wonderful so I decided to take my own advice [for a change] and went for a winter walk. And having written recently about Copped Hall discovered that it had one its monthly open days I set off to the edge of Epping Forest to see how things had changed over the past nearly ten years. I am so glad that I did.

The rear elevation showing the remains of the double staircase to the first floor terrace © David marsh

The exterior looks very much as it did, – extremely shabby chic might be a fair description – but inside a transformation has taken place. The main part of the mansion has been re-roofed, [even if only temporarily in part] the walls are drying out, floors and staircases have been installed and there is even an impressive single flight of marble steps starting to climb up from the hall to replace those smashed up in the 1950s.

Stripped Georgian brickwork in the first floor saloon © David Marsh

The entire first floor is now open, stripped back to bare brickwork revealing the elegant design. There are bits and pieces of furniture, photographs, wall sconces and chandeliers and faux door frames to complete the picture. Even the vaulted cellars are worth visiting – and at one point you can see the Georgian damp proofing system – a sunken wall which runs parallel to the foundations but about half a metre away with a void between it and the house.

A faux Georgian doorway adds a touch of scale in the largest first floor room © David Marsh

Obviously January is not the best time to see the garden, and looking out of the windows on to the ruins of the Italianate garden it looked as if little had happened anyway. How wrong can you be – because away from the house there was plenty going on.

The topiary nursery in the kitchen garden © David Marsh

The massive walled garden was alive with people and plants, and although at first glance, the complex of glasshouses looked much as it did 10 years ago, that was deceptive and considerable renovation has taken place.

The Orchard House waiting for a bit more sponsorship © David Marsh

The walls were covered with trained fruit trees, there was an impressive soft fruit patch and lots of veg being grown in rectangular beds cut into the grass. There was also an impressive array of box and yew in the early stages of topiarization. There were roofless glasshouses full of trays and trays of plants being propagated. Another glasshouse – the Orchard House – was being disassembled for work to start as soon as sufficient money has been raised. And there were volunteers laying paths, potting up plants, clearing, tidying and planning their next moves. The way down to the kitchen garden has also been planted up with a large number of shrubs,particularly camellias.

The kitchen garden gates and a small part of the long herbaceous border © David Marsh

One of the outer walls of the kitchen garden now boasts a magnificent herbaceous border. Although our guide kept apologizing for the lack of flowers and colour, it was still looking pretty good despite everything the weather could throw at it. And all apparently the work of one volunteer.

The Victorian wing of the house and the outbuildings survived the fire better than the main mansion. The racquets court has been converted into a very spacious and airy refreshment room offering soup & excellent home-made cakes, and other ancillary buildings have been converted to make six houses and flats set round a pretty courtyard.

The last standing relic of the Tudor mansion © David marsh

Elsewhere in the grounds the last remnants of the massive 103 roomed Tudor mansion stood rather forlornly amid the mud.

The sunken garden © David Marsh

When it was demolished in the 18thc the bricks were used to build the new Hall and the cellars were later filled with massive blocks of stone and turned into a sunken rock garden.The flooded garden might have been a better title – but there was still a volunteer bravely battling away and weeding.

Nearby excavations are taking place hoping to provide clear evidence of the layout of the 17th century formal gardens for this earlier house.

The reamins of the Victorian conservatory © David Marsh

The tour of the house and grounds took well over two hours and could easily have taken longer. The whole site was buzzing with volunteers – guides, builders, caterers and gardeners and it was very clear that something special going on here.Work is extremely costly [take a look at this month’s wish list on their website] and will probably be continuous for the next 50 years but perhaps, in many ways, the end – a fully restored Georgian house and gardens that reflect the site’s historic framework – is less important than the means. Copped Hall has found a new purpose and is once again a house at the centre of a community.

The view over the kitchen garden © David Marsh

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged conservation, Copped Hall, glasshouses, greenhouse, Italianate garden, kitchen garden, Restoration, ruin, walled garden | Leave a comment

Copped Hall

Posted on 17/01/2014 by The Garden History Blog

The Great Fire at Castle Howard, 9th November 1940 © Castle Howard

I love decay. Houses and gardens are not necessarily meant to last forever – whatever their creators might think – and every so often decisions have to be made about whether to preserve, restore, recreate or perhaps just to allow to slide gently into oblivion. Sometimes of course the reason for ruin is sudden and unexpected. Fire has probably caused as much damage to our heritage as greed or neglect. A gutted house can evoke many emotions and reactions – and raises many questions. Sometimes as at Castle Howard or Uppark, what is at stake is so important historically or architecturally that it is difficult not to begin rebuilding immediately.

Witley Court © English Heritage

Elsewhere the destruction is too complete, and the money, need or concern is lacking. That’s not always a disaster: Witley Court in Worcestershire is now an elegant and evocative ruin. But in what one might call ‘lesser’ houses the choice is not so obvious.

Copped Hall in 2004 © David Marsh

One such house is Copped Hall, a mid-Georgian house, in Essex. The Palladian mansion was built between 1752 and 1758 for John Conyers as a replacement for an earlier Elizabethan house. It was later ‘improved’ by James Wyatt and Capability Brown probably helped redesign the gardens. Bought in 1867 by a railway magnate he and his family extended the house several times and in 1887 commissioned Charles Eamer Kempe, better known as a designer of stained glass, to build a great conservatory, and make an extensive new garden to the west of the mansion, with temples, grand flights of steps, a parterre, gates, fountains and statuary.

The ruins of Charles Eamer Kempe’s Italianate garden © David Marsh

In its heyday the gardens required no less than 31 gardeners to look after them. Sadly in 1917 there was a massive fire which burned out the main 18thc block, and although the gardens continued to be maintained the house was never rebuilt. The estate was sold off in 1952, and whatever remained of value remained inside the ruin and the gardens was removed and sold.

The original entry gates and railings are thought to have ended up in America – the gates themselves and the gateposts have already turned up in Washington – but there is no trace of the obelisks or railings. If you fancy yourself as an amateur sleuth, then a reward of $1,000 is on offer for anyone who can track down them down.

The splendid conservatory or Wintergarden was dynamited as late 1960. As a final blow the M25 was driven through a corner of the grounds, although luckily not so close as to be over-intrusive. Nevertheless total demolition, probably followed by housing development seemed the likely outcome.

Yet that was not to be. From 1986-1995 a campaign was successfully fought by a committee comprised of representatives of local conservation societies against repeated large-scale aggressive development proposals for the mansion and parkland. The first success came in 1992 when the parkland was bought by the Conservators of Epping Forest (part of the Corporation of London). Three years later, in 1995, the vandalised and overgrown mansion, outbuildings and gardens were acquired by the Copped Hall Trust, and in 1999 they were also able to acquire the 4 acre kitchen garden.

The kitchen garden in 2004 © David Marsh

The task facing them must have been daunting, to put it mildly. But with the aid of a large Friends group the Trust has made enormous progress towards it aim of careful restoration of the buildings and gardens and putting them to educational, cultural and community use.

The mansion in 2004 © David Marsh

Essential structural repairs and work to the roof and flooring have been followed by restoration of the stables and racquets court and one of the glasshouses in the now once again very productive kitchen garden. Much of the garden has been cleared of invasive vegetation, replacement trees have been planted and the lawns re-seeded.

The unrestored kitchen garden 2004 © David Marsh

There are regular opportunities to visit the gardens or take a guided walk around the mansion and gardens and see progress for yourself. And of course, when you’ve finished almost as good, you can enjoy some tea and homemade cake and contemplate the hard work that the Trust and its volunteers have put in. It might even convince you to sign up to give Copped Hall a hand yourself!

Further information about Copped Hall can be found at

http://www.coppedhalltrust.org.uk

and http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/920

architectural fragments © David Marsh

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Capability Brown, Castle Howard, conservation, conservatory, Copped Hall, Fire, fountain, greenhouse, james wyatt, kitchen garden, parterre, planning, Restoration, ruins, temple, Witley Court | 1 Comment

Croome Park

Posted on 07/01/2014 by The Garden History Blog

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Winter walks seem to be one of the main topics in the garden-related press at the moment – although most of them will have been written before the weather prevented most of us from going anywhere! The Daily Telegraph, for … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged Capability Brown, conservation, Croome Park, folly, James Gibbs, National Trust, panorama, Robert Adam, temple | Leave a comment

The First Post: Stowe

Posted on 31/12/2013 by The Garden History Blog

When we started planning this blog we thought what better way to start than by suggesting a winter walk through one of our great historic gardens and landscapes. Unfortunately the weather probably stopped most of us being able to do that over the last few days but don’t give up on the idea because as soon as the rain stops there’ll be plenty of chances to get outside and enjoy the wintery weather. It may be cold but winter does have its advantages. One is that it reveals the framework of gardens and the structure of landscapes more clearly than when they are lush and leafy in the summer. This can often help you understand the changes and alterations that have taken place over time, and can make the links & connections between the various parts of the site more obvious. Another is that the colours and contrasts are much stronger – which is great even if you’re not a photographer.

One garden I was going to suggest for that walk was Stowe in Buckinghamshire. I’d gone there just a week before Christmas when it was bright and clear, to see the changes that the National Trust have been making recently. Stowe is an iconic landscape and has a fascinating but complex history. As you’ll see from our database Sir Richard Temple laid the foundations of the current house in the mid-17thc and from 1668 started improvement works on the garden, but it was his son Viscount Cobham who was responsible for much of what we see today. In 1711 he completely redesigned his father’s garden and instead laid out a vast and elaborate parterre. Over the next few decades he called in a succession of leading landscape designers and architects to help him lay out one of the most impressive gardens in the country. Charles Bridgeman was responsible for creating long axial vistas, and woodland walks, for the ha-ha that still forms much of the boundary, and for the Octagon Lake. John Vanbrugh added pavilions and James Gibbs more temples and the Palladian bridge. More famously William Kent “saw that all Nature was a garden” and created the Elysian Fields with its stunning collection of garden buildings in a naturalistic setting. Apart from their intrinsic appeal they also reveal a lot about Lord Cobham’s politics [and if you wonder how that’s possible then see the links at the end of this post]. And finally the 25 year old Capability Brown was appointed head gardener in 1741. He laid out the Grecian Valley in what was to become his characteristic style: clumps and belts of trees, large expanses of short grass and serpentine curves. He also began altering the work of his predecessors, notably “naturalizing” Bridgeman’s lake. Incidentally it will be the tercentenary of Brown’s birth in 2016 and Stowe is a good place to start discovering perhaps the best-known English garden designer of all time. For more about his career and the other gardens he designed, take a look at http://www.capabilitybrown.org/

But nothing stays the same for ever, especially in a garden. Not even in a garden as grand as Stowe. No sooner had Cobham died in 1749 than the new owner, his nephew Earl Grenville, began a series of major alterations, softening the formal lines, classicizing buildings and turning grand avenues into clumps of trees.

Later owners opted for a grander style once again, building new entrance lodges and laying out exceptionally long approach avenues that cut across the entire estate. Although today this is somewhat marred by the paraphernalia of a gold course, you still get a sense the scale and grandeur of the original conception.

Of course all this cost money and the family began to run out, finally selling up in 1921 when the estate was sold and became a public school. Some restoration work was undertaken during their tenure of the garden, before the National Trust acquired most of the garden and much of the park in 1989 and embarked on a long-term comprehensive garden restoration scheme.

Stowe is a great example of how successive owners and designers leave their mark on the land, but equally how ephemeral that mark can be. A walk around the estate now shows layer after layer of history. The new entrance via the former New Inn, crosses Bridgeman’s ha-ha, passes by garden buildings adapted to new uses, gives a view of the house through the branches of trees and across undulating parkland and then reveals new eye-catchers at almost every turn. But it is not the individual buildings themselves, marvellous though they are, that are the main attraction of Stowe. As Patrick Taylor says it is “the large-scale animation of the landscape that is the most thrilling and memorable quality of Stowe. Some very large gardens, often designed to proclaim the importance of the owner, can crush the spirit. Stowe has the opposite effect: it induces a feeling a of delighted exhilaration.” [The Gardens of Britain and Ireland, London: Dorling Kindersley, 2003, p.108]

In short Stowe is much more than a living document of English garden history at its best it is also a magical and enjoyable place just to be. So, ignore the cold and the wet, go and see for yourselves….and by the way there’s a very nice cafe at the new entrance to warm up & reward yourself in afterwards!

Here are some links and suggestions for further reading if you’d like to know more about Stowe and its history.

For opening times& other visitor information: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stowe/

For a detailed history & descriptive guide to the gardens and its monuments: http://faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/summary.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stowe_House

Selected further reading:

Michael Bevington, Stowe: The People and the Place, (National Trust, 2011)

Michael Bevington, Stowe: the bibliography: the landscape garden, park, house, estate and school, (Leeds: New Arcadian Press, 2004)

Patrick Eyres (editor), How pleasing are thy temples now?: The political temples of Stowe, New Arcadian Journal, 1997

G.B.Clarke (editor), The Description of Lord Cobham’s gardens at Stowe (1700-1750), (Aylesbury: Bucks Record Society 1990)

Timothy Mowl, Gentlemen & Players: Gardeners of the English Landscape, (Stroud: Sutton, 2000)

Steffie Shields, ‘Mr Engineer Brown’: Lancelot Brown’s Early Work at Grimsthorpe castle and Stowe, Garden History, Vol.34 no.2 (Winter 2006), pp.174-191

David Marsh.

31st December 2013.

We’d welcome your comments and feedback on our blog. Please note that all views expressed are the responsibility of the author and not Parks and Gardens UK.

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