If you’ve been following the Gardens Trusts on-line lectures you’ll know that Yorkshire has a lot of unforgettable gardens, but there’s one that we haven’t yet covered: Nostell Priory near Wakefield.
Nostell is a Palladian mansion with stunning Robert Adam interiors and a world famous collection of furniture by Thomas Chippendale. It’s set in a 300 acre park, with formal gardens, a series of linked lakes, woodland groves and even has the remains of a menagerie.
In front of the mansion is what Country Life on 31 Oct 1914 described as a “magnificent avenue, over three hundred feet in width, [which] indicates the great scale of Nostell as originally laid out. As a great grass way, bordered by ancient trees and peopled with a herd of deer, it impresses the imagination dulled by the encroaching disamenities of manufacturing Yorkshire.” That sounds pretty unkind to the surrounding area and community but what’s Nostell and its park like today?
Way back in 1965 a small but dedicated band of garden enthusiasts got together and formed what was to become “the oldest society in the world dedicated to the conservation and study of historic designed gardens and landscapes.” Through their interventions, advice and casework the Garden History Society helped save or conserve scores of important gardens, and, almost more importantly, raised awareness of the country’s amazing heritage of designed landscapes and gardens. Six years later our journal Garden History was born, which means that towards the end of last year it celebrated its golden jubilee.
The Garden History Blog 
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