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Autumn 2017 No.24 norfolkgt.org.uk 1 Welcome

Contents Chairman’s Report - Autumn 2017

I imagine this summer has been a good already manifest and I hope he will be with Chairman’s Report...... 1 one for anyone engaged in the lawnmower us for quite a while. business. The rain has kept the grass As always, we are on the lookout for in the Landscape - Tom Williamson...... 2 growing and those who have old machines, for our members to visit in the as I do, may be contemplating replacing summer months. I open our every Update on the Gardens Trust’s research into them. in Norfolk - Sally Bate...... 8 other year with others in our village to This edition contains some details of a trip raise funds for the church and I am only The John Innes Historical Collections: a resource for to Herefordshire which the Trust arranged too aware of the hard work involved in garden history - Sarah Wilmot...... 11 in June. It was spectacularly successful the process. I hope that other garden taking in five gardens in all, including Sir owners may consider sharing the benefits What’s in a Name: a brief history of the Roy Strong’s garden at Laskett. Sir Roy of their labours with an enthusiastic and - Lucinda Skinner ...... 14 was there to meet our group and was his knowledgeable group of NGT members. amusing self. All five gardens contrasted So please contact Karen Moore if you The Garden at Hindringham Hall - Lynda Tucker...... 19 with each other giving those on the trip think you can help us. an opportunity of considering their The Pabulum Cafe Charity Happiness Garden preferences. Many thanks go to our Events - Peter Woodrow...... 23 Organiser Karen Moore for flawlessly arranging this trip for 32 members of The How Hill Garden - Roger Last...... 25 the Trust. Read Lesley Cant Cunneen’s account of our trip. The Grapes Hill Community Garden - Fran Ellington...... 27 As readers may recall, the Trust was in receipt of a bequest from the estates Readers’ Gardens - Jackie Moss...... 31 of Mr and Mrs Tate a few years ago. The Committee gave most careful Sculpture in the Garden at East Ruston Old Vicarage consideration as to how to handle the - Alan Gray...... 32 money; consequently we made a grant to Finally, you may recall Becky Priestley’s How Hill to enable that charity to carry article on Norfolk Landscape History from The NGT Summer Garden Tour - Lesley Kant Cunneen...... 36 out a scheme of improvement to the rose our spring edition. Becky’s research for garden which involved the commissioning her master’s degree was supported by a Book reviews...... 40 of wrought iron gates and benches. In this NGT scholarship at UEA and it is a great edition, Roger Last describes how these pleasure to report that our Chair and Vice Dates for Your Diary...... 44 additions augment Edward Boardman’s Chair were recently able to see original ideas for his . I hope Becky graduate. About the website, David King...... 48 Mr and Mrs Tate, who lived near How Hill, would have approved the outcome. Matthew Martin

Cover: East Ruston Old Vicarage. See page 15 Credit: Paul L G Morris Roger Lloyd has joined the Committee as Back cover: Harriet Mead sculpture - Readers’ Gardens. See page 31 Secretary. His administrative expertise is 1 Norfolk ‘Capability’ Landscape Brown History - Norfolk Gardens History Norfolk Landscape History

Orchards in the Landscape by Tom Williamson

Everybody loves orchards. They lie at fungi, wood-boring insects like the noble that fascinating interface of history and chafer, wild , and lichens all natural history, of nature and culture thrive in the oldest and best-preserved and - laden with fruit in late summer, or examples (Fig.1). But orchards are also bright with blossom in the spring - have central to our social and cultural history. an irresistible appeal. Those managed Before the start of the twentieth century on more ‘traditional’ lines, with tall they formed part of the daily experience trees and minimal use of , of almost everyone. Gentlemen took are also important for wildlife and were particular pride in amassing extensive recognised in 2008 as a UK Biodiversity fruit collections but the ‘middling sort’ Action Plan habitat: they have a rich were likewise enthusiastic fruit growers, grass sward, are often surrounded by a as were small farmers and – insofar as band of scrub in the form of hedgerows, space would allow – even cottagers. and above all have their trees – an Landowners and clergy might provide important reserve of dead wood as well fruit trees for the local poor: the agent as an abundant source of nectar. Rare of the Marsham estate was ordered in 2. Robin pears growing at Threxton House. Before the nineteenth century most orchards in Norfolk contained a high proportion of pears, and other fruit, in addition to apples.

1736 to buy ‘6 aple trees & 2 cherry trees fruit was a valuable and vulnerable , to set in Ann Watsons yard & 2 apel but this also reflects the fact that owners trees in Jexes at 8d a piece’ and derived pleasure from blossom, fruit and fruit and nut trees were even sometimes birdsong. The seventeenth-century writer planted in churchyards for the good of William Lawson typically described the poor, as at Briningham in 1750. The how ‘whereas every other pleasure appeal of orchards remains strong, and commonly fills some one of our senses, recent decades have seen an increasing with delight; this makes all our senses interest in historic fruit varieties and swim in pleasure, and that with infinite especially those deemed to be associated variety, joined with no less commodity’. with particular regions and localities A gentleman’s fruit collection was a mark (Fig. 2). of status, and much correspondence was Not surprisingly, orchards also form devoted to discussion of plans, varieties an important aspect of garden history, and suppliers. At such social levels, in Norfolk as elsewhere. The majority orchards – like many other aspects of the of early orchards were situated close productive landscape, from fish ponds to to houses and adjacent to the garden. rabbit warrens – were at once useful and This preference was partly dictated by practical and aesthetic features, and in 1. A ‘traditional’ farmhouse orchard near Wymondham. practical and security considerations for many sixteenth and seventeenth-century 2 3 Norfolk Landscape History Norfolk Landscape History

Orchards, like other practical called the Summer, with instructions for facilities with a semi-ornamental planting’. role – dovecotes, warrens and Only a small proportion of surviving the rest – were, together with orchards in Norfolk formed part of formal gardens, progressively eighteenth and nineteenth-century removed from the immediate country house landscapes. Most are vicinity of large houses in either ‘traditional’ farmhouse orchards the course of the eighteenth – usually dominated by tall, spreading century. and varieties of trees on vigorous rootstocks, his contemporaries had little capable of attaining a significant age enthusiasm for such clutter, and thus of high conservation value - or instead designing landscapes larger commercial concerns, established in which houses appeared to 5. Old fruit trees growing in a in Suffolk. since the mid-nineteenth century, usually stand in open parkland, flanked of kitchen gardens, as in the walled containing trees on dwarf or semi-dwarf only by lawns and ornamental 3. Channons Hall, Tibenham. The moated orchard, shown on gardens of old, or trained on wires rootstocks and, if still actively managed, pleasure grounds. Yet fruit trees a map of 1640. and frames flanking paths (Fig 5). And often featuring a closely mown sward and orchards continued to owners continued to list, with evident subject to regular chemical treatments gardens there was a fine line between the be valued and visited, like the kitchen pleasure, the diverse varieties of fruit they (Figs 6 and 7). But a significant orchard and the wilderness, or woodland gardens with which they were usually cultivated, and exchanged trees over long proportion have a rather different origin, garden. At Stiffkey Hall in the 1570s associated – even if they now lay at distances with friends and family. The for many orchards were created, from the the orchard was ‘pared’ to create allées some distance from the mansion. Fruit Reverend William Gunn of Smallburgh late nineteenth century, in the gardens with paths of sifted gravel, while at Stow continued to be espaliered on the walls Bardolph in 1712 the ‘quarters’ of the made many such gifts, as in 1807 when of large suburban or semi-suburban wilderness were planted with ’14 pears, he despatched to Thomas Hearn of houses or other middle-class dwellings. 14 apples, 14 plums, 7 cherries all for Buckingham ‘some beefing , This reflects the influence of ‘arts and standard trees’. Lawson recommended Ribstone pippins, and another non-pareil crafts’ garden designers and the desire surrounding the orchard with a moat which ‘will afford you fish, fence and moisture to your trees; and pleasure also...’, and several examples of moated orchards, located immediately beside a country house, are known from Norfolk. At Channonz Hall, Tibenham in 1640 for example the orchard was surrounded by a substantial secondary moat (Fig 3). While, at farmhouse level, orchards were perhaps less obviously designed for aesthetic effect they would have been similarly valued for their beauty as much 4. A reconstruction by Patsy Dallas, based on a detailed description in a notebook, of the orchard designed by as their produce, and might be carefully the wife of a minor landowner, Mary Birkenhead, for designed (Fig 4). her daughter at Thwaite St Mary in 1724. 6. One of the relatively few surviving commercial orchards in the Norfolk Fenland. 4 5 NorfolkNorfolk Gardens Landscape History History Norfolk Landscape History

We are currently beginning our work in Norfolk, and would welcome any information readers may have about old orchards. We are also looking for volunteers who following a little painless training – can help us to track down and survey old orchards and undertake some research in local archives. If any of this sounds appealing, please contact t.williamson@uea. ac.uk or Rachel.Savage@uea. ac.uk 8. The character of orchards varies in different parts of Norfolk. This Tom Williamson is Professor of extract from an Ordnance Survey map, from the first decade of the Landscape History in the School of twentieth century, shows that on the claylands in the south of the county 7. A farmhouse orchard – complete with Norfolk turkeys! Orchards also provided grazing, hay and a place to keep History at UEA pigs and poultry. almost every farm had its own small orchard (shown as lines of regularly- spaced trees). of urban exiles to capture something of examples within villages and country traditional, rural life in the gardens of towns have fallen victim to development their Jacobethan homes. Gertrude Jekyll pressures and ‘infilling’. Early editions in 1899 wrote about creating ‘orchard of Ordnance Survey maps show a gardens’ with irregularly scattered countryside filled with orchards of fruit trees and daffodils and cowslips, different types and sizes which have now while in 1913, in the twelfth edition of mostly gone (Figs 8 and 9). The English Garden, William It is in response to this that ‘Orchards Robinson extolled the wonders of the East’, a new initiative funded by the ‘orchard beautiful’. Heritage Lottery Fund and based at the All these varied forms of orchard, and University of East Anglia, was begun a others, are of historical interest and, to few months ago. Working with a wide a more varying extent, of importance range of partners across Bedfordshire, for wildlife. But orchards have been Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, vanishing from the landscape of Suffolk and Norfolk, including the Norfolk, as elsewhere, at an alarming East of England Apples and Orchards rate. Many domestic orchards have Project, we aim to record and research suffered from lack of interest and old orchards, to conserve existing neglect; local commercial orchards have examples and create new ones, and to been destroyed by competition from provide training in important practical 9. In the Fens, in the far west of the county, Ordnance Survey maps from the early twentieth century show vast elsewhere; while small ‘traditional’ skills (grafting, and the like). numbers of large, commercial orchards. 6 7 GardenNorfolk HistoryGardens History Garden History

Update on the Norfolk Gardens Trust’s Research into that once he had presented the owners with their Red Book it Humphry Repton in Norfolk By Sally Bate was left to estate staff or a local contractor to complete the work. It is therefore more likely Norfolk Garden Trust’s volunteer that Repton’s changes might team of 12 researchers is making great not be carried out in full or progress looking at the work of Humphry might differ from his original Repton in Norfolk. It is planned that ideas. the resulting book will be published next year, in time for the two-day conference For many of our sites there that the NGT is organising in North are no surviving Red Books – if indeed such documents Norfolk at the beginning of June. Hot on has been launched and events and Fig 2. Covered seat (thought to be designed by John Adey Repton) circa were created. Evidence for the heels of Brown 300 (last year’s festival publications are being planned across the 1900, which is shown far left on Humphry’s sketch plan in Figure 1. (Photo: Paul Underwood and Blickling Hall and Gardens NT) Repton’s work or influence celebrating the tercentenary of Lancelot nation. ‘Capability’ Brown’s birth) the Gardens comes in other forms –letters, Trust is gearing up for Repton 200 – the 1876 Humphry Repton grew up in accounts, diaries and his own bi-centenary of Humphry Repton’s , and lived with his wife and sketches, which were often death. As you can see, the official logo young family for eight years in Sustead. represented in a printed format After his move to Essex he returned for his own, and third-party, frequently to our county to visit publications. In an undated clients, friends and close family and he letter that Humphry wrote considered Norfolk his home; his final to his sister Dorothy Adey resting place is in churchyard. of Aylsham, he described It may not be surprising, therefore, that changes to Lady Suffield’s Repton worked on a far greater number at Blickling. of sites in this county’s than Capability He wanted Dorothy to pass Brown’s three commissions. off his ideas and sketches Fig 3. The covered seat today (minus its trellised top and two flanking as her own (she was a good The sites we are studying vary greatly, panels) still in its original position in the Blickling Gardens. friend of Lady Suffield) as he Photo: Sally Bate 2017) from his largest and final commission believed that they wouldn’t at Park, to smaller estates show, for example, where to judiciously be taken seriously if he had not been and pleasure grounds around newly built trees to hide ‘habitations of professionally contracted to give them. villas and country houses. For some the common man’ or local industrial commissions, his signature Red Book buildings or to frame a particularly The rectangular garden in Figure 1 has survived. In it he would describe to desirable view. He describes the routes already existed and he suggested cutting a his clients the features or improvements owners might traverse around their hole through the ‘fine holly hedge’ (and they should consider and the text was grounds, suggests locations for look-out topiarising the two trees on either side Fig 1. Detail from Humphry Repton’s letter to his sister accompanied by his own water-colour points and recommends the disguising – see elevation below the plan) to access Dorothy, showing a new semi-circular flower garden illustrations. His inventive use of flaps, or moving of roads and trackways. In the new semi-circular area with ‘radiating alongside ‘the present garden’ at Blickling Hall. which lift to reveal an alternative view, flower beds’. Whether Dorothy passed (Credit: Norfolk Records Office) contrast to Brown’s practice, it appears

8 9 GardenNorfolk HistoryGardens History Plant History

on his suggestion and whether it was We would still be interested to hear The John Innes Historical Collections: a resource for carried out is not known but the covered about any documents or images relating seat designed by John Adey Repton to the period 1790 – 1830 (or later garden history by Sarah Wilmot with its trellised sides is still there today nineteenth-century plans or pictures) for (Figures 2 and 3). After 1800 Humphry any of the sites listed here. often collaborated with his eldest son The John Innes Historical Collections, John Adey Repton, a fine designer and Barningham Hoveton House located in the Library at the John Innes architect in his own right. Blickling Lyng Old Rectory Centre in Norwich, consist of three Bracondale Marsham inter-linked collections: an archive, One of the huge benefits of having Buckenham Tofts North Repps which documents the history of the county garden trusts is that their Catton Park Sheringham John Innes from its foundation as the membership is extremely knowledgeable Felbrigg Sustead ‘John Innes Horticultural Institution’ in about their localities. Norfolk Gardens Gunton West Tofts in 1910; a History of Genetics Trust (the largest of the county trusts) is Hanworth Witton Library, which contains 4,000 books no exception. We have been delighted to Honing Wood Hall, Hilgay on evolution, genetics, anthropology, receive information, introductions and Holkham Worstead geology, microscopy, science and religion, images, from several of our members Hoveton Hall and many other subjects; and a Rare and people they know. With many sites Books Collection with books covering to investigate, the archival research has We are looking at the following natural science, and The Rare Books Room in the Library of the John Innes been complemented by field visits of locations, in order to compare them with botanical art across five centuries. It is Centre, Norwich. the Repton sites above and to establish individuals and small groups. Figure 4 this last collection on which I will focus what other landscapers were doing in shows volunteers trying to establish if here. the Tree (Liriodendron) at Wood Norfolk at the time. The Rare Books Collection started life Hall, near Hilgay, is the sapling Repton Brooke Hall Ryston Hall with the personal book collection of depicted in his Red Book. Earsham Hall Stow Bardolph Hall our founding director William Bateson Middleton Hall Stradsett Hall (1861-1926), who had an interest in the Raveningham Park history of plant science. In the early days, valuable books were available on the Our thanks must go to Tom Williamson open shelves in the John Innes library for all his help, encouragement and which doubled as a staff tea room. contribution to this project. Special Bateson’s small collection was added to mention must be made of Clare Agate over the years by donation and purchase. at The Norfolk Heritage Centre in the The first catalogue was published by the Forum, David Clarke of City Books, Institute’s Librarian Elizabeth Atchison Davy Place in Norwich and Priscilla in 1978 by which time the rarity and McDougall for their generous sharing of value of many of these books had been information and/or time spent helping recognized. A separate space was created us with this project. Fig 4. Members of the NGT Research Group carrying for the ‘Special Collection’, as it came Charles Darwin’s granddaughter Nora Barlow in out field work at Wood Hall. Sally Bate is Garden Tour Guide at Blickling Hall and the original library of the John Innes Horticultural to be called, and today our rare books, runs the NGT Research team Institution, Merton, Surrey. which date from 1511 to the early 20th 10 11 Plant History Plant History

century, are housed in a secure, purpose- For eighteenth century built, climate-controlled room. This landscapers, James Meader collection is owned and supported by the (1779) provides planting John Innes Foundation and is open to plans for deciduous and the public by appointment. coniferous woodland. The availability for sale of some of For garden historians, these rare books the novel tree species found are a precious resource. For example, in today’s landscape parks our books document the history of can be documented partly plant hunting and the arrival and sale from Catalogue Plantarum of exotic plants to English gardens. (1730), by Philip Miller. The Most botanical illustrations are history and photographs of accompanied by a potted history of individual remarkable trees the plant, from its first discovery in its was assiduously collected in natural habitat to its arrival in Britain, H.J. Elwes and A. Henry’s often through a network of botanic multi-volume The Trees of gardens across Europe. These plant Great Britain and Ireland exchanges affected not only the elite (1906-13), including the botanists and but changed locally renowned whitethorn the appearance of tiny cottage and city at Hethel, one of the oldest in gardens. For example, Norwich’s famous Britain. It is said that Elwes botanist Sir James Edward Smith (who wore out two cars visiting and founded the Linnean Society) wrote of recording each tree personally. the “novel sight of African geraniums Pelargonium tricolor from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine () in York or Norfolk soon (1793): one of the pelargonium varieties Francis Since the John Innes started after Masson’s death …” [Francis Masson Masson sent to England from the Cape, South Africa. life partly as a fruit breeding 1741-1805, collector for Kew Gardens] … and research station for the “Now every garret and cottage window Dutch garden styles, while Giovanni Board (later Ministry) of is filled with numerous species of the Ferrari’s Hesperides (1646) illustrates , we have many beautiful tribe and every Italian grand designs for the fruit rare books on the fruit glows with the innumerable bulbous garden or orangery. John Claudius Example of Victorian carpet bedding design from R. Thompson and garden. Our ‘pomonas’ plants and splendid heaths of the Cape. Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of T. Moore’s, The ’s Assistant (1878). (named after the Roman For all these we are principally indebted (1860) includes several chapters on goddess of fruit) range the with plans of by Thomas Moore, 1878). Works by from Ferrari’s 1646 volume already to Mr. Masson, besides a multitude of William Robinson, Gertrude Jekyll, and rarities.” many of the world’s celebrated gardens, mentioned, to Batty Langley’s beautiful and discussions of national garden Thomas Mawson cover the art and craft early 18th century pomona documenting The John Innes collection also includes styles. Templates for flower bed designs of garden-making from the late 19th to the fruit varieties growing in England. resources for the study of garden for suburban gardens or municipal early 20th century. Norfolk’s William Jackson Hooker does design around the world. For the 17th planting are provided by Maria Jackson In addition, there are more specialised the same for the early 19th century in his century, Crispin van de Pas’s Hortus (1822), and by Robert Thompson’s works that focus on individual elements Pomona Londinensis, a book that helped Floridus (1614-) documents formal The Gardener’s Assistant (extended of the landscape park or garden. establish his reputation as a botanical 12 13 Plant History Plant History

artist. Norfolk What’s in a name: a brief history of the pelargonium nurseryman George Lindley by Lucinda Skinner and his eminent botanist son Since the 18th Century the beautiful scarcely be described by a generic name John Lindley plant, the pelargonium, has suffered until we delve into the species names are among the a botanical identity crisis. Incorrectly of plants, which provide detail and authors in our classified by Linnaeus under the genus characterisation. Many species names collection who of ‘geranium’ the name stuck and the accurately describe a plant’s form or can provide confusion has lingered ever since. Some colour. P. tomentosum, for example, means information species were then known as ‘South ‘downy leaf’ and relates to the soft furry on the varieties African geraniums’ and some cultivars foliage of this plant; P. abrotanifolium grown in 19th are still incorrectly named ‘geraniums’ means ‘tree foliage’ and describes this century orchard even to the present day. It wasn’t form’s woody stems; and P. cordifolium until 1800 that Linnaeus accepted the has typical heart-shaped leaves. Plum and peach blossom from Langley’s Pomona (1729). and kitchen differences between the two genera and gardens. We also In our climate pelargoniums are separated geraniums and pelargoniums hold many seed and nursery catalogues. classified as tender perennials that in his book, Species Plantarum. The plants featured in the rare books include herbaceous forms, , sub- reveal garden fashions or crazes (e.g. The pelargonium is actually in a genus shrubs, succulents, cacti and tuberous and ferns), and illustrate how plant of its own, containing over 200 species plants. One of the first plants to reach breeding has altered the flower forms that forms and thousands of cultivars. Europe was the tuberous form P. triste – come down to us today. We can learn It is, however, classified in the same the sad geranium. The dormant plant about the plants favoured for container botanical family growing and occasionally find clues as the actual to the styles of decorative planters. In geranium – this addition, our collection of 19th century is the horticultural magazines and periodicals family and are an invaluable record of new plants, includes six equipment, and glasshouse designs. They genera, three are a source of biographies of botanists of which we and gardeners, and tips on how to get commonly grow rare plants to thrive and flower. It is in the UK: impossible to do justice to the collection pelargoniums, in a single article for there are so many geraniums and paths to be taken by the visitor interested erodiums. Hyacinth ‘King of Great Britain’ by George Ehret in garden history. However, what is from Trew, Hortus Nitidissimis, vol. 2, 1772. This Sarah Wilmot is Outreach Curator and Science Historian delicate variety recalls an older style of garden in a name? The for the John Innes Centre. hyacinth. beauty, fragrance and charm of the pelargoniums can Pelargonium tomentosum 14 15 Plant History Plant History

The 19th Century was the pinnacle of intense breeding for many plants including irises, dahlias, auriculas as well as the pelargonium. The bedding pelargoniums, derived from P. zonale were at the forefront of this craze; cultivars then named P. x hortorum forms (meaning, from the garden) were closely followed by the Regal and Decorative group, named P. x domesticum (meaning, of the home). Plants were developed by what were known at the time as ‘florists’ except these were a far cry from present-day flower sellers. These were a group of enthusiastic gentlemen whose passion was to breed the perfect flower and Pelargonium tomentosum flaunt it at flower shows across the country. It is through their fortitude and made the arduous journey from the Europe. Naval doctors and surgeons, persistence that we have the thousands of Cape of South Africa and arrived at the who would have studied medicinal cultivars available today. botanical gardens in Leiden, Holland , were often keen amateur Although popular in the home the in the late 17th Century. However, at botanists who explored the newfound scented forms weren’t well enough that time it was believed that the plant lands, collecting numerous plants and endowed in the flower department to be had originated from India, not realising seeds to bring back to be studied and of any significance in the shows. Their that the ship had stopped en route grown in the UK. During this period breeding was left to the amateur gardener in South Africa. Consequently it was four important plants in the history of and due to a lack of documentation named Geranium indicum noctu odoratum the pelargonium reached our shores: many forms were confused and became or, commonly, Night Scented Indian P. cucullatum – the source of many of simply known as ‘the lemon geranium’ Geranium. our modern day Regal forms; P. peltatum or ‘the rose geranium’ and these are – the species from which the Ivy Leaf the names that have been passed down Pelargonium triste was followed by other forms developed; P. capitatum – the first through generations. Pelargonium ‘Millfield Rose’ significant species including P. fulgidum, rose-scented form to travel to Europe a scarlet red form that was used in the (followed later by the citrus-scented In the 1870s the first Rosebud forms create highly floriferous forms with small initial breeding of many hybrids and species); and finally P. zonale - the were bred, including Appleblossom flower heads that carpet their foliage. which, along with P. lobatum, is said to be ancestor of our zonal pelargoniums, or Rosebud, a cultivar still available today in Breeding in the 1960s took a significant the parent of desirable P. x ardens. the conventional bedding geraniums an ever-growing popular group of plants. turn and brought about the ‘Hartshock Between 1670-1700 this shipping route we see adorning our town parks and The 1930’s saw the rise of the ‘Angel’ Uniques’, a group of very tough plants, via the Cape was the way by which some hanging baskets. Pelargonium, a group bred from crossing resistant to wind and rain; P. voodoo is of the most significant species reached P. crispum and modern Regal hybrids to one of these sturdier forms. 16 17 Plant History Norfolk Gardens

At Woottens nursery, The garden at Hindringham Hall Michael Loftus began by Lynda Tucker his collection of pelargoniums in 1990, motivated by his mother Prue who was a devoted collector. Michael adored the species and scented- leaf forms and had little time for the flamboyant and blousy varieties that flood the market today. Even after his death in 2012 the nursery continues to preserve, grow and sell some of the rarest species and scented-leaf pelargoniums Pelargonium zonale in the UK, as well as a few glamorous forms that sneak their way in. The dedicated team We moved into Hindringham Hall was diverted to make a moat. There at Woottens work to in torrential rain in June 1993. With are natural springs and early reports of preserve the rare and buckets catching the drips from the cattle and bees being kept by the small wild forms that are leaking roof, and the removal men community who farmed fish for the Prior normally not available to refusing to carry furniture from two of Norwich’s table. Then in 1536 Henry the public. pantechnicons across the old stone VIII took the land from the Catholic Church and granted a lease to a Martin Lucinda is the owner bridge, the omens were not good. Hastings who built within the moat the of Woottens Plants in However, with help from 16 university beautiful Grade 2* Tudor Hall that exists Wenhaston. She has friends brought back by a son for the today. grown and propagated weekend, we moved in; we discovered an the nursery’s unique attic room we didn’t know existed whilst Despite the long history of the site I pelargonium collection for playing “sardines” ; and during a punt could find no record of the existence six years and has a deep- race I established that the middle of the of any “garden”. I have always enjoyed rooted passion for moat came up to my armpits. gardens but I had no plans for our their origins and history. Pelargonium ‘Voodoo’ For 15 years we had lived just four garden and I set about rejuvenating it miles away not knowing of its existence. strictly for personal consumption – a Woottens Nursery. Wenhaston. IP19 9HF. Tucked away at the bottom of a river place to sit and enjoy with friends and 01502 478258. valley the site has been occupied since family. [email protected] the 12th Century when the stream 18 19 Norfolk Gardens Norfolk Gardens

Hall and visitors well beautiful Toad Lily– supplied throughout are happy in these the year. Box edges conditions. We have the beds and in the built some decking centre there is a herb going out into the with four moat and surrounded standard gooseberries it with wonderful water making good focal iris such as Gamecock points. and the focal point in I noticed that the the summer is a huge beautiful brick and Thalia dealbata with six- flint walls of the foot flowering spikes. Hall had vine eyes When tripping over in We know from maps of 1885 that a incorporated into them, possibly put the stinging nettles in existed outside the moat. in when the Hall was restored in 1900. the Stream Garden I This is on a south-facing slight slope with Planting the walls with was an noticed I was standing three walls and the moat on one side. obvious decision, then putting a bed on steps going into the When we arrived this had been largely in front to show off the roses. I had stream; then I found grassed over but just cried out to be re- inherited a lovely old ‘Norfolk Boy’ for steps coming up on used. Taking careful measurements and a few hours a week and after digging out the other side of the marking out a central herb garden I then the beds for six weeks he told me there stream as well as old crossed the moat to look across. Disaster: was one he couldn’t dig as he had filled paths in an area which it in five years before with hard-core. He once must have housed my new herb garden was at an angle to to buy three acres of bog, which were the then told me he had also grassed the a garden as there were some retaining the walls. My mistake was to assume original medieval fishponds sold off from vegetable garden. Truly, gardening is a walls. This is where I have planted that the walls were square. This walled the Hall in 1900. My husband set about moveable feast but at least, so far as I Primula, Hellebore and Hydrangea, all garden now flourishes and is packed with restoring the site and it now boasts all knew, I wasn’t too far off the track. thriving in the cool light shade. A very herbs, fruit and vegetables, keeping the five original ponds sitting amongst grass, large whitebeam that fell down is being The moat completely encircles the Hall, which is mown by our black Hebridean rapidly replaced by two of its offshoots but in places its walls have long gone sheep. He has also written descriptions and this will change the growing and I have used Bergenia in one long to explain the site and it is much enjoyed environment again. steep stretch to bind the soil and prevent by visitors when we open the gardens further erosion. On one low corner Along the stream I have planted The ponds, together with the moat and where the moat overflowed I decided hundreds of Hosta and Hemerocallis – all stream, have now been designated an that rather than attempt to reinstate the by lifting and dividing, and this gives Ancient Monument. I am often asked bank I would make the most of the boggy the effect of three winding rivers going if I am itching to plant in it, but why? conditions and this is where I have made towards the view at the end of the With a little help from the sheep, the a . Apart from the expected garden. And so like Topsy, little by little, grass and water sit peacefully within the Gunnera, Trollus and Ligularia it has the garden began to grow, getting further surrounding landscape and have a beauty been fun finding how plants – such as and further out from the Hall. and tranquillity all of their own. Who Zantedeschia, Myosotis scorpiodes and the Four years ago we had the opportunity am I to interfere? 20 21 Norfolk Gardens Norfolk Gardens

In the garden we do have The Pabulum Cafe Charity Happiness Garden some beautiful old trees such as the Liriodendron, by Peter Woodrow two huge chestnuts and overshadowed by a large sycamore tree the Nut Walk and in 24 growing in the memorial grounds of the years you can grow some church. First impressions suggest that the quite large trees. And sycamore tree could be a real problem, when trees have either but apart from the annual leaf fall it died or become dangerous does provide dappled shade; underneath they have been replaced its overhanging branches a small shed- with trees such as Catalpa cum-summerhouse has been erected, or Paulownia. Last year which sensibly uses space not suitable for I planted 29 pleached growing. hornbeam that provide a full stop to the garden; The south they have eight-foot stems side of the beneath which one can In this edition you will read about some garden has glimpse the meadow that large gardens visited by NGT members a small flint lies beyond. back in June but, closer to home, there wall about a is a new small garden that is worthy of a Surprisingly little money metre high visit. The Pabulum Cafe Charity Garden has been spent on the separating has a small therapy garden, measuring garden – it has been it from the about 7m x 40m situated at the rear of a case of lifting and memorial grounds of the church and Wymondham United Reform Church dividing, taking cuttings, on the north side a rustic wooden fence at the Fairland. The land is owned by growing from seed, and separating it from the car park of the the United Reformed Church and backs friends splitting up plants. health centre. At the rear of the former onto the car park of Wymondham I still know some plants church schoolroom is the entrance to the Health Centre. The Norfolk Gardens by the name of the donor garden where we are greeted by wooden Trust was pleased to be able to make a rather than its botanical sign with the words, ‘Welcome to our small grant to this project in 2016 so name. Thirty years ago I spent £4.99 on asked to open for NGS almost nine years Garden opened by Lady Pippa Dannatt I went along this summer to see how an evergreen Cistus at Beth Chatto’s. I ago. Then visitors wanted to see the 1 July, 2016’. Adjacent to this is a small things were progressing. thought it so expensive. I now have a garden at other times of the year and so wooden plaque denoting the Queen’s 50 yard run of the low-growing plants, we began opening just one day a week About three years ago the land was Award for Voluntary Service recently all made from cuttings. If you have the and now two during the summer. offered to the Dementia Support Group received by Mrs Diane Fernee, who has time there is no need for gardening to be by the URC to provide another activity been the leading light in getting the expensive: “something out of nothing” One of the most frequent words used for those who regularly attend sessions garden established. A small brass plaque and a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear “are by visitors is “natural” and, when the at the Pabulum Cafe. Initially, the local has been fitted on the wall to remember expressions that have always resonated garden is on a site that has had 700 years fire service cleared the ground so that a member of the URC church who with me. of human occupation, “natural” sounds work could begin on clearing the garden, carefully repaired the flint wall as the No one was more surprised when I was just fine to me. which is on a slightly elevated site garden was being created. 22 23 Norfolk Gardens Norfolk Gardens

Once through the entrance gate are two gardens are the stars of the show and rustic-looking raised beds, triangular are treasured by those who have created The How Hill Rose Garden in shape on stilt legs rather like the them. In making this garden a piece by Roger Last modern ’vegi-trugs’ you see in garden of waste ground has been converted centres. These raised beds are filled with into a haven of peace and tranquility a colourful array of plants, the beds and – more importantly – is of real underplanted with flints from the garden therapeutic value to those who regularly so that maintenance is easier and less attend the Pabulum Cafe. weeds grow. Close by is a small bird bath Maximum use has been made of the space donated by Lady Dannatt, the patron available so work is in progress on the of Wymondham Dementia Support gravel driveway leading to the entrance Group. As you walk through the garden gate. Here, more raised beds (numbered towards the less shaded part is another +1 to +8) are being created next to the small raised bed – the trapezium-shaped wooden fence on the north side where ‘Champagne Corner’, named by a group some have been planted with annuals to who enjoy a glass of champagne. This is entice the visitor to enter and explore the followed by three larger more traditional main garden. Some of these raised beds raised beds - the first with an array of have been given names by those looking herbs, the second currently netted and after them: an uncultivated one bears a used for brassicas and the third for a small label with the wording ‘Garden of mixture of squashes. Beyond the raised Good Intent’. No doubt many gardeners beds is a small plastic greenhouse with five have such an area, but have never been heavily laden tomato plants; behind this motivated to label it as such. is ‘Rob’s Walled Garden’ currently under A new garden, the Rose Garden at This over time became degraded and development. I was encouraged to see how the garden How Hill in Ludham, was opened on tired and was replaced in the 1970s. A has developed in such a short space of more contemporary planting of grasses The north side of the garden is bounded July 6th. In large part it was paid for time. It is a very worthy project and a by the Norfolk Gardens Trust, using a and mixed perennials was later planted; by a wooden fence whose appearance has testament to all those who have worked however, this too became overcrowded been softened by the creation of 16 small portion of the money bequeathed by so hard to create a special garden for all Donald and Yvonne Tate. The gardens and was perhaps inappropriate for an raised gardens – their individual designs to enjoy. Arts and Crafts Garden. The new Rose showing the careful attention given by at How Hill were created by the architect Edward Boardman in the 1900s to Garden is not a copy of the original, but some of the café’s users during their a redesign in its spirit. weekly visits. All are numbered, some augment his new house, built on an are named and some have small labels eminence overlooking the River Ant The work is the creation of rose expert indicating that they are sponsored – one and the marshes and woodland of this Lt. Col. Ken Grapes, former Director such garden, full of herbs, is appropriately beautiful area of the Broads. The main General of named ‘ERB’. section of the Arts and Crafts garden he the National enclosed by impressive yew hedges. This Rose Society, Throughout, the garden is filled with was divided into four sections, each of a with How tubs of annuals that lend a vibrant splash different design but linked by a central Hill’s Head of colour. However, it is obvious to the axis, allowing a vista from one end to the Gardener, casual visitor that the small individual Peter Woodrow is NGT Treasurer other. One section had a Rose Garden. Chris Tubby. 24 25 Norfolk Gardens Norfolk Gardens

The Grapes Hill Community Garden by Fran Ellington

The garden is circular, twenty-two metres plants in total and with a mix of in diameter and laid to grass. Set into herbaceous planting to give a changing this are six planting beds radiating out palette of colour through the year. Spring from a central planting area containing colour is enhanced by a large planting of the garden’s main feature, a circular daffodils, tulips and alliums. Iron work curved and segmented wrought-iron plays an important part in the design. To trellis. This is planted with roses and keep rabbits out, ornamental gates were clematis but still allows a view through added to its two entrances. These, like all it without impeding the central axis. the wrought-iron additions, are the work The beds are filled with fifteen carefully of artist and blacksmith Bill Cordaroy selected varieties of rose, eighty-five of East Ruston. The

gates, with lower Lloyd Clive Photo: halves in basket- Open every day of the year – a free Community Spaces Grant, with further weave design and community-led amenity for all to enjoy. grants from the Home Office, Norwich upper section formed City Council, Norfolk County Council of leaves and stems, Grapes Hill Community Garden Group and various charitable trusts to pay for are very much in was set up in the summer of 2008 to the hard-landscaping contractors and the Arts and Crafts convert a run-down disused area near soft-landscaping materials. tradition. The gates Norwich city centre into a community are complemented garden. The site is a 50-metre by 12-metre The garden opened to the public for the by two simple but effective wrought- space between Grapes Hill and Valentine first time on Saturday 2nd July 2011 and iron seats, gently curved to match the Street. For years this had been a closed- we celebrated with a Grand Opening curving yew hedges behind them. Simon down children’s play area, just an Day on Sunday 7th August 2011. The Partridge, the director of the How Hill unloved space covered in tarmac. garden consists of 9 deep raised beds, Trust played a large part in facilitating which are rented out to members of the We consulted the local community on the works and a circular plaque stands local community for growing vegetables the design of the garden and, following in the garden recording the Norfolk on an annual basis. There are several the completion of hard-landscaping work Gardens Trust’s role in making this and herb borders, a small circular in late 2010, we held a series of workdays garden a reality. The Rose Garden can be lawn, a water feature, and two small in spring 2011 to plant up the garden. viewed for free most weekends. wildflower meadows either side of a The major effort was raising the funds of wide access path. We grow organic fruit, Roger Last is a member of the NGT committee £50,000 from a Big Lottery Groundwork 26 27 Norfolk Garden Norfolk Garden

a considerable amount of weeding to do throughout the year. We make from our green waste, but we regularly have to take away shrub, tree and prickly . Many of the borders are planted with soft fruit which includes raspberries, loganberries, gooseberries, wine-berries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. There is a medlar, apricot and a quince tree, as well as several varieties of cherry, plum, apple and pear. We have recently planted a banana but vegetables, herbs, ornamental shrubs and have not yet achieved any fruit! flowers to make the garden attractive to In keeping with our name, we have four people and wildlife. The abundant plant grape vines growing on an oak post- life should also improve the poor air and-wire pergola immediately inside the quality in the area. front gate. They have produced grapes All our growing is done organically with annually, but they are small and mainly no chemicals or artificial fertilisers or for the birds. We have not yet achieved a . This does give the volunteers bottle of ‘Chateau Grapes Hill’. The Community Garden is open to the in the garden is edible - and some plants public seven days a week, from 9.00am. (e.g. spurges, foxgloves) are poisonous. Admission is free. Closing times vary This year we have been lucky enough to according to the seasons. We invite win a Lottery grant to pay for a part-time our neighbours to come along to the gardener and an outreach officer to help volunteer sessions to meet each other us put on a new series of free events and make new friends. They can learn or and workshops. These have included an share some gardening skills. We provide indoor Spring Fete, a Spring Nature Day, fresh air, gentle exercise, good company a Community Picnic with community and gardening get-togethers. In return consultation, , organic we provide the tools, tea and cake and gardening, up-cycling, gardening for volunteers can take away surplus produce wildlife, parent-and-child weekly socials in the growing season. and a beginners gardening course. This We invite more general visitors to pick autumn we are planning a celebration herbs and fruit from the garden, taking of culture event in the garden and just a small share and leaving some more an indoor event for the elderly of the for other people and wildlife. We ask neighbourhood in early winter. We hope them not take anything from the raised that the success of these events will allow beds, as these are rented to individuals. us to bid for repeat funding next year. There is a warning that not everything

28 29 Norfolk Gardens Readers’ Gardens

Jackie Moss’s Garden. High Field House, Castle Acre.

How big is your garden? ¾ of an acre What was it like when you arrived? A farmers’ field surrounded by a natural hedge and bare soil. … and as it is now? Amazing looking back to the start 35 years ago! The garden slopes gently downhill and is framed by This wonderful green community asset, know, a couple of hours spent outside trees - Californian Redwood, right in the city centre only exists due in the garden, up the , or at a larch and birch and has to continued effort from all the people local woodland project, is of real benefit different seasonal areas. A long wide border garden at the front, inspired by Beth Chatto involved; whether they are gardening to our personal mental & physical well- snakes down the right hand side of the years ago. Now has tender salvias, lavenders, helpers, daily gate un-lockers, sponsors being. That we achieve a tidy and well garden, full of shrubs and perennials-mainly irises, clematis, climbing roses and a large of fruit trees, committee members, cared for community garden to enjoy is blue, white and yellow colours in the spring hibiscus. bookkeepers or cake bakers. Each plays a bonus! changing to warmer tones later in the season Last but not least a productive fruit and veg their part and the trustees are very - monarda, asters, heleniums with newly Fran Ellington, Secretary, Grapes Hill plot! grateful for this spirit of community planted hydrangeas. Community Garden Group What is your favourite part of the garden? participation. But as all we gardeners The opposite border is on the shady side of the garden under trees. Mostly a spring Now it’s the hot bed, orange, red and yellow garden, snowdrops, narcissi, tulips, geraniums colours with grasses catching the late evening and heuchera, later hydrangeas and acers. sun. Work and Retrain as a Gardener Scheme Further down is the pond bordered with Which are your top ten plants? summer interest beds, crocosmia, grasses, Cyclamen, narcissi, clematis, dahlias, In our spring issue, Sarah Scott wrote Norfolk, Karen De Rosa (tel: 01284 lythrum, ligularia and more bright colours. A heleniums, thalictrums, grasses, agapanthus, about her experience of gardening in, 763822 email: gardendiva@btinternet. gunnera sits majestically on the beachy pebbly gunnera, and favourite shrubs hydrangeas. A Year at Elsing Hall. Sarah worked com) would be happy to discuss area behind. Now the garden opens out Particular challenges? under the auspices of WRAGS (Work possible placement opportunities with with views over fields, a summerhouse and a Keeping the garden and planting interesting, and Retrain as a Gardener Scheme), interested garden owners. hot colour border with late season interest - tidy and weed free! Clearing up the fall out which is arranged by the Women’s dahlias, heleniums, grasses, sanguisorba and from the redwoods. many more bright rich tones. Farm and Garden Association: http:// What plans for the garden? www.wfga.org.uk/. Tel: 01285 658339. Beyond a raised with coloured The WRAGS regional manager for stemmed plants to catch the low winter sun. Making the garden easier to manage! Just to keep us busy a south facing gravel 30 31 Art in the Garden Art in the Garden

Sculpture in the Garden at East Ruston Old Vicarage by Alan Gray

Sculpture and the various ways in which we ornament our gardens is extremely personal to the garden owner for it is she or he that has to live with garden art in a harmonious way. It also expresses the taste of the chatelaine – about which I often feel others should be less judgemental – although with arrogance, the human psyche permits us to criticise the taste of others as if we ourselves are infallible. In our garden at East Ruston Old Vicarage we have a selection of sculpture, some of which is traditional, some modern and some especially commissioned by us, for us, so visitors gnomon casts a shadow onto a surface beware! that indicates the hour; we find this architecturally pleasing. Sundials or shadow clocks are a popular More diminutive is the Edwardian garden ornament and we have three Sundial in the Mediterranean throughout the garden, each very Garden. This is designed to take into different. In the centre of our Tea consideration the oscillation of the Holm Oak Walk we have the metal Garden is an armillary sphere sitting earth spinning on its axis thus providing statue of the Red Lady made by Bill atop a stone column. This grand edifice, improved accuracy when calculating Cordaroy, our local artist/blacksmith in of scientific the time. Finally, to the grandest memory of his mother. She is faceless appearance, of our shadow clocks, the Scottish and visitors to the garden can find out was apparently Sundial, purchased at a country house her history by reading the informative created by the sale many years ago; this Edwardian plaque mounted behind her. ancient Greeks edifice is comprised of a stone base Further work by Bill is in the Rose and has a series and column topped with no fewer than Garden where a stainless steel and glass of interlocking thirteen individual sundials, the whole sculpture in the form of a double helix spheres with a surmounted by a lion rampant. gnomon, often in represents Graham and me going our the shape of an The most popular way of using sculpture own separate ways but coming together arrow, through in the garden is as a focal point at the for the good of the garden. In addition, its centre. As end of a vista. In gardening terms, this at the southern-most point in the garden the sun travels idea draws the eye and encourages there is a gilded globe held aloft by three across the sky the further exploration. At the end of the curved metal supports that sways 32 33 Art in the Garden Art in the Garden

The Desert Wash contains a work by Ben Southwell entitled ‘The Tale of the Greedy Worm that was’! Made from a pale- coloured stone with a rusty metal trail left by the greedy worm munching his way through it, provokes thought. Placed in a raised bed of Norfolk flints of various sizes Avon Bulbs stand when he mentioned planted with cacti, red houseleeks and a that he had wanted to use a pair of diminutive rusty-coloured shrub called 19-century limestone gnomes but this provocatively in the wind. Placed so appear in early spring. Another piece of Halloraggis erecta ‘Wellington Bronze’ it contravened the rules of the flower that it is visible from the house when Toby’s work is the gigantic umbellifer is a harmonious gathering. The shrub show. I immediately wanted to see them both doors are open in the Pavilion it is seed head; placed at the junction where came as a gift from the Ventnor Botanic so he showed me a photograph. I am especially alluring when lit by the evening six paths meet it forms a focal point from Garden on the Isle of Wight although afraid it was love at first sight and after sun and glowing eerily as if on fire. Bill six differing vistas, one of which is the the then curator assured me that it several days of negotiation they were also ingeniously created the separate view through a window cut in a hedge, a would not grow in Norfolk! mine. Today they galvanised metal strips with curved tops, trick that makes people smile. reside in a rather which are used by the garden owner in I have said that one of the most popular I am generally not a fan of rusty metal in contemplative, various numbers and in any way he or ways of using sculpture in the garden is the garden; however, even I occasionally small, secret she chooses so that we become the artist as a focal point. In our garden, we do break rules, especially those of my own garden that by creating a design that suits us and our exactly that although to get value for making. Toby created a sculpture of a completely suits garden. This is a clever idea that brings money we have managed to make one fern, its new crosiers unfurling amongst their mysterious out the artist in everyone of us. rather grand covered urn the focal point mature fronds that I found emblematic demeanour; seek to two vistas. The first is at the end of a Similarly, Toby Winterbourn creates of spring. The rusty colouring is and ye shall find. large lawn, the other through an arch cut movable metal flower heads, some of sympathetic to many varieties of fern in a hedge, the urn sitting precisely at the which were a Christmas gift to us. In that contain these tonal qualities; the point where the two intersect. the form of Agapanthus seed heads, fact that it is over-scaled lends it great these have numerous uses: we use them presence sitting at the centre of a raised Lastly, I must mention the Gnomes. Alan Gray is a garden journalist who writes from in winter pots to add structure and basin with a ledge wide enough for At the Chelsea Flower Show, this year experience, having created the gardens at East Ruston in borders whilst waiting for plants to sitting out. I was talking to Alan Street on the Old Vicarage. 34 35 Summer Garden Tour Summer Garden Tour

The NGT Summer Garden Tour Developed over by Lesley Kant Cunneen twenty-five years by David Wheeler and Simon Dorrell, the Twelve years ago we visited The Laskett, house and gardens Sir Roy Strong’s much documented are the home of Herefordshire garden, when we were Hortus, the much treated to a personal tour by the owner. admired garden The whole experience was highly journal. Simon theatrical: the combination of Roy is the craftsman Strong’s performance as guide and the whose gifted hands overall impression of the garden are have produced etched on my memory. So I was delighted extraordinarily fine to see that The Norfolk Gardens Trust’s structures, such as Events Co-ordinator, Karen Moore, had the Sulking House, arranged a visit (20-22 June 2017) to The Coton Manor The Lighthouse Laskett and other gardens. I was curious and Dovecote to see the transformations Sir Roy had We were based at Ross-on-Wye, so the (designed for human documented in the intervening decade. following morning saw us criss-cross Bryan’s Ground habitation) while the Welsh borders before we arrived David Wheeler is the plantsman who The carefully planned three-day at Bryan’s Ground. This distinctly Hampton Court Castle is even older than contributed the overall planting and an tour unfolded in the depths of the architectural garden has been created Wolsey’s Richmond Palace: a crenellated abundance of trees (including a five acre Northampton countryside with Coton around an Arts and Crafts house, but medieval castle with a Victorian walled ). The garden most resembles Manor, one of the finest country gardens nothing had prepared me for the reality. garden. Dorrell and Wheeler had a Chinese box: a series of tiny intimate in England. Over time the gardens have apparently advised on the garden’s compartments that defy decryption. The been sensitively extended and contain recent renaissance; the enclosure has garden is part museum, with collections an evocative English bluebell wood and been re-born as pleasure gardens with a of linked objets flower meadow. In June the bluebells trouvées. It is also part were over but the roses were in full bloom formal gardens, part and the gardens at peak perfection. The magical realism for seventeenth-century manor boasts mellow today it is a garden stone terraces burgeoning with plants and largely un-gardened, urns, which gradually lure the visitor on with the wilderness of to the lower reaches of the gardens. Paths weeds lending a sense meander round pools and rills until you of enchantment. The discover the shocking-pink, stockinged contrast with Coton flamingoes in the grassy clearing by the Manor could not have lowest stream. Today Coton runs expert been greater but it short courses, has a good cafe and an was a most effective exceptional nursery where horticultural counterpoint. treasures tempt visitors. Bryan’s Ground Hampton Court Castle 36 37 Summer Garden Tour Summer Garden Tour

small potager serving as and the garden’s architecture continues reminder of its origins. A to be its raison d’être, with a series of dramatic wisteria tunnel, formal rooms, linear avenues and grand reputed to be 150 years ornamentation. There is more flower old, dominated. On a and shrub planting (though not always sunny afternoon Steve well selected) but it continues to be an and I seized the chance to unmissable dramatic experience. explore the gardens rather than tour the house. Two On the homeward journey the final sides of the gardens are highlight was the National Trust’s wrapped around by yew atmospheric Coughton Court in hedging that forms a rather Warwickshire. At the courtyard entrance more successful maze than to the historic Tudor Hall, visitors were its more famous parvenu welcomed by an exquisite white and blue namesake. In the centre parterre. Next, another old walled garden arises a gothic tower with has been given fresh life – this time by a secret tunnel, which in one of the Throckmorton descendants, turn leads to a sunken the Christina Williams. garden and waterfall. The planting style is Within the walls are flower opulent, beautifully gardens a-plenty, hedged gardened and enclosures and avenues breathtaking in June. of pleached trees. The It contains a fabulous omnipresent River Lugg rose labyrinth and borders the parkland which lavishly planted feeds water in a variety of herbaceous borders, forms: canals with matching The Laskett plus other smaller ornate pavilions, pools, icy enclosures including grottoes. We lunched in the grand Paxton- Strong’s voice still guides visitors in his two sunken gardens: designed conservatory. inimitable style, not in person (though one silver, one gold. we were personally welcomed) but via an A bog garden leads On the final day we visited The Laskett interactive map. This provides nostalgic you to the lake and and saw the transformation that had been accounts of the evolution of the gardens riverside walk. wrought since the earlier visit, including and the influence of his deceased wife, the removal of trees and hedges in search the stage designer Julia Trevelyan Oman. These were five very for light and space. The gardens have The garden is vastly improved by the different gardens, yet Coughton Court been bequeathed to Perennial, the retired alterations and much less claustrophobic, all with echoes of the gardener’s charity. This has resulted although I missed the snazzy yellow- other, providing Norfolk Gardens Trust Lesley is a keen gardener and garden historian. in innovations including a discreet washed walls and blue highlights that members with three days of unmissable She is undertaking a PhD in public green shop at the entrance, with a carefully previously adorned his Georgian villa. gardening pleasure. space at UEA. curated range of books and gifts. Roy Today gardeners are more in evidence 38 39 Book Reviews BookDates Reviews for your diary 2015-16

Gardens of Court and Country, English Design - 1630-1730 creations. Excellent research has the eighteenth-century, Addison, Pope, assembled much that, if not new, is Switzer and many others, are seen to By David Jacques. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art rarely seen and even those illustrations promote and stimulate change. One Yale University Press (2017) RRP Price: £45 which are perhaps more familiar (the element missing is detail of construction aerial perspectives of Knyff and Kip and maintenance costs. In part, the The great English contribution to cultural landscape and Thomas Badeslade) are given a new sheer cost of maintaining such labour- garden and landscape design, the patterns. Throughout relevance in the context of the sweep of intensive gardens ensured their eventual Landscape Movement, has etched itself the second third the text. demise, although paradoxically the cost so deeply into the English imagination of the seventeenth- Each chapter begins with a clear and of replacing them with the new fashion and physically on the ground, that the century, England was useful summary of the main political of landscape also ensured that many monumental gardens which preceded dominated by political and religious events and personalities of the period, survived well into the 1770s and beyond. that Movement have been all but upheaval, which directly impacted on neatly wedding the gardens to their Even those with only a limited interest in obliterated. Not only swept aside in real garden-making and design. Jacobean context. These are the gardens for the garden history should not be without this terms, but in the collective memory too. embellishments, such as complex knots most part of the English political and book. Although complex at times in the Most people have only a vague notion and figurative topiary, disappeared as economic elite, and the eventual scale sheer density and richness of its material of what the gardens of the seventeenth- more puritanical national ethics fostered and grandeur of the designs, particularly it is essential reading. As a reference book century looked like, and the reality of an admiration for simplicity and utility. in the hands of a designer like Charles covering this neglected period it has no what was achieved has been shrouded Although elements such as the ‘parterre Bridgeman, and certainly when they equal. It is both scholarly and highly in ignorance, or indifference, obscuring à l’Anglaise’ with its cutwork in grass, struggled free of enclosing walls and readable, attributes which are not always truly great gardens of power, imagination may have been relatively simple, gardens later bastions, seemed to know no natural bedfellows. What a treat. and sheer excitement. David Jacques’ themselves could be huge and throughout limits. The influential garden writers magisterial book not only sets out to help the century increased in size, ambition Review by Roger Last and commentators of the first half of to remedy this, but to provide the first and complexity, particularly after the comprehensive overview of the design creation of the gardens at Versailles – the of the English formal garden 1630-1730 most influential garden of its age. The Holkham: The social, architectural and landscape history of a great – an extraordinary, if not a void, then a ‘parterre de broderie’, a mainstay of so English country house By Christine Hiskey blurred passage in our garden history. many French gardens, found limited 574 pages. 300 colour photographs and 80 archive illustrations and maps. The period extends elastically to either application in England. The English were Published 2016 Unicorn Press (2016) ISBN 978 1 910065 98 3 side of these dates, for gardens like ideas very content to exploit the quality of their are nurtured by degrees. Slowly arrived grass. In December 2016 I was able to obtain that the 7th Earl, at and gradually supplanted, although The collecting together of over three a copy of Christine Hiskey’s book who did much to the vigorous strides of the Landscape hundred plans, engraving and paintings, on Holkham – a very comprehensive improve Holkham, Movement in the 1760s might belie this. all beautifully reproduced, is a triumph historical account of the estate, dedicated was wise in engaging Few books in recent years have given me and these are accompanied by extended to the memory of Edward, 7th Earl of Christine to research such pleasure as this one. A towering era interpretative captions that facilitate a Leicester (1936-2015). It was published the archives of has been brought into deeper understanding. The illustrations shortly after the death of the earl who focus and expertly illuminated. There was are no mere decorative page fillers had appointed Christine as the first As we are informed by the introductory a shared European tradition of formal but each a study in itself, demanding archivist of Holkham in 1985. The notes, ‘Christine Hiskey has traced garden making throughout this period. time and imagination to visualise the Holkham archives have now been in her Holkham’s history through four National variations were driven by the experience of moving through these care for over 30 years and this book is a hundred years adding considerably to imperatives of topography, climate and complex and very often breathtaking culmination of that research. It appears the knowledge and understanding of the 40 41 DatesBook Reviewsfor your diary 2017 DatesBookDates Reviewsfor for your your diary diary 2017 2015-16

introduction of shelter belts allowed the reign of William of Orange. Symmetry workings of this great English country history of a great Norfolk estate whose owners to make intimate garden rooms is restored with formal lines and clipped house and estate’ … ‘For the first time, Palladian Hall is a masterpiece of C18 close to the house and more sweeping, planting. A folly raised on a supportive the Hall and its setting are treated as architecture. Each time I visit Holkham I expansive areas further away. Some of portico allows them to look down an integrated whole. The creation, never fail to be inspired by the landscape the East Ruston experience helped the upon a late C20 canal, affording them development and use of the park are and can now return home to the book owners of The Lighthouse at Winterton- a view that, as we know, is not normal examined. New research also reveals how, to prepare me for the next visit. For me on-Sea to overcome conditions at for Norfolk. Dutch formality has also over a period of 350 years, intervention it is essential reading. But the thousands Norfolk’s most easterly point. The inspired George Carter’s garden at North by the Coke family transformed the two of visitors who visit Holkham Hall each resulting contemporary garden, which Elmham. His background as a sculptor original villages at Holkham and the year are also urged to delve into this echoes the architecture, is surprisingly finds expression in a series of elegant coastal landscape of marshes, dunes and book to learn more about the history and lush – its lines of silver birch and cloud- rooms framed by beech or hornbeam creeks’. the people who have made this the estate pruned box hedging complemented by hedging, punctuated by witty sculptural the jewel of the north Norfolk Coast. The book is a joy to read and should flowers that tend towards the cooler pieces. This is very much a contemporary They will not be disappointed – it is a occupy a prominent place on the shades. and creative take on the formal garden. fantastic account. bookshelf of all those interested in the The landscape of Hoveton Hall provides A much more ancient form of scene- Review by Peter Woodrow a larger canvas that Repton is thought shifting can be seen at Pensthorpe to have worked on in the C18. But the Natural Park near Fakenham, which is Secret Gardens of East Anglia – a Private Tour of 22 Gardens landscape is a palimpsest and the current based upon pingos – mounds created By Barbara Segall with photographs by Marcus Harpur. custodians have not been afraid to reflect in the Ice Age. The Park is now famous Publisher: Frances Lincoln. (2017) Price £20. current concerns by making changes that as the first example in this country of led to an RSPB award for ‘best garden public prairie-planting by the renowned In her foreword, Beth Chatto writes beautiful for wildlife’. Raveningham Hall, home of Piet Oudolf. The Millennium Garden about the wide views and huge skies that examples RHS President Sir Nicholas Bacon also was started by the previous owners but in we enjoy in the four counties of Norfolk, of how the has a sweeping prospect from the front of 2008 the Jordans engaged the designer Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. personality the house protected by a Brownian ha-ha. to revitalise his concept that now draws Our painters, Constable, Gainsborough of a garden In turn, the original private pleasure gardeners keen to see waves of Oudolfian and Cotman were preoccupied with is as much a grounds were replaced in the late C19 by ornamental grasses anchored by clumps the big skies that made their paintings property of the an Arts and Crafts garden. There is also of herbaceous perennials. so luminous. By contrast, the practical gardener’s ingenuity as the flatness of the a new Elizabethan-styled Herb Garden The book is richly illustrated. It is gardener, with feet firmly planted on sometimes inhospitable landscape. It also made in honour of ancestor Sir Francis also beautifully written and I found the ground, tends to be more concerned shows how each generation reinterprets Bacon – an early practitioner of the my tendency to riffle through the with the lack of shelter from scouring the landscape. scientific method. photographs arrested by the fascinating winds or with the belt of sandy soil In producing the English Landscape story behind each garden. Somewhat that runs across the region or with Our own county is well represented with Garden, Capability Brown brought the artificially I have concentrated on our comparatively dry summers. 7 of the 22 gardens, ranging from long- landscape up to the house, sweeping Norfolk gardens but one of the delights As the author and editor of The established gardens to the contemporary. away the formal knot gardens of previous of this book is that readers will find Horticulturalist Barbara Segall notes, East Ruston Old Vicarage is only decades generations. But the owners of C18 themselves seduced into visiting inspiring these 22 East Anglian gardens appear to old and – just two miles from the North Hunworth Hall have reversed the trend gardens in neighbouring counties. I have overcome the climatic difficulties Sea – the owners soon learned that, “If for, in sympathy with the Hall’s Dutch wholeheartedly recommend this volume, for they manage to exhibit “every sort of there is a breeze in Norwich, you can be gables, they have restored the kind of which is a steal at £20. garden illustration”. The book provides sure there is a gale here.” However, the formal popular in the Review by Clive Lloyd 42 43 Dates for your Diary 2017-18 DatesDates for for your your Diary diary 20182015-16

The Arts & Crafts Garden Alicia Amherst (1865-1941) The Norfolk Gardens Trust’s 30th anniversary An illustrated talk by Sarah Rutherford An illustrated talk by Susan Minter celebration on her book of the same title. by Carol Keene

Watson & Crick Room, John Innes Watson & Crick Room, John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH Paul Doyle and Gergely Sarah will speak on the origins of the Based on her book The Well-Connected Battha-Pajor, the Arts and Crafts Garden, the main Gardener a biography of Alicia Amherst, owners of Sheringham designers of the genre, how to identify later Lady Rockley, the Victorian and Hall, have kindly it stylistically and the elements and Edwardian horticulturalist with strong allowed the Norfolk planting that go to make up these Norfolk connections. Gardens Trust, in the ravishing gardens. Wednesday 22nd November 2017 year of the bi-centenary of Repton’s death, Saturday 7th October 2017 - 2pm Tea Entry: £5 Members; £6 Guests to have their 30th Tea Entry: £5 Members; £6 Guests Anniversary celebration in the extensive grounds and stunning Dates for your diary 2018 walled garden of Sheringham Hall. Saturday 10th March 2018 - 2pm Saturday 28th April 2018 - 2pm Annual Tate Talk Annual General Meeting Sheringham Hall was designed and built The party will be held on July 6th 2018 ‘Humphry Repton’ Venue: Carrow Abbey, Norwich by Humphry Repton and his son John when 100 members and guests can enjoy by Professor Tom Williamson Wednesday 23rd November 2018 - 2pm. Adey Repton for the Upcher family of early evening drinks accompanied by Venue: Bawdeswell Village Hall Norfolk between 1812-1818. Repton was music. not so well known as an architect as he was a landscape designer. It was Repton’s ‘most favourite work’ and fits admirably well into his spectacular landscape design. 44 45 Dates for your Diary 2018 DatesDates for for your your Diary diary 20182015-16

A Gardens Trust 2018 Repton Festival Event with the Norfolk Gardens Trust ‘The Prophet in his own Country’: Repton in Norfolk Group. Rates are: Double rooms: £150 per room per night to include To mark the bi-centenary of the death of and working with the National Trust to breakfast; single occupancy (in Humphry Repton, the Norfolk Gardens produce a Conservation Management a double room) rate is £95 per Trust in association with The Gardens plan for . person. The Norfolk Gardens Trust is offering a two-day conference Trust has reserved 26 rooms for Visits: focused on Sheringham Hall and Park, Friday 1 June 2018 but rooms may Barningham Hall and Honing Hall. We shall visit three of Repton’s surviving also be available for the nights of landscapes, two of which, Sheringham Thursday 31 May and Saturday 2 The conference dates are Friday 1st and Hall and Barningham Hall, were June. Saturday 2nd June 2018 and will be commissions to both Humphry Repton based at the Links Country Park Hotel in Alternatively, delegates can book and his architect son, John Adey Repton. West Runton near Cromer. their own accommodation; a At Sheringham this was for a new house and the parish church where Repton is list of possible alternatives within a Speakers: and at Barningham a remodelling. Red buried. A picnic lunch follows in the reasonable distance from the Conference Books were prepared for all three, but The speakers will be well known park at Honing Hall (weather permitting) venue will be available in October from only two, Sheringham Hall and Honing to garden and landscape historians and thence on to Barningham Hall, the organiser Karen Moore, see below. Hall, survive complete. At Barningham, through their books, lectures and returning to the Links Hotel around Thomas Mott commissioned both IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE: The consultancy work. Professor Tom 5pm. hotel rooms are reserved ONLY until Williamson heads the Landscape Humphry Repton and John Adey BOOKING AND COST 31 December 2017. Please watch the Group within the University of Repton in 1805 to remodel the Hall and INFORMATION: NGT website for the conference booking East Anglia’s School of History – a a number of watercolours have survived The provisional cost of the two-day details and downloadable booking form collection of academics, researchers and from the Red Book (private collection) conference (excluding accommodation) which will go online in October 2017. research students studying all aspects which suggest that Humphry was also will be around £125 for County Garden of England’s landscape, including involved in the design of the park and This event is likely to very popular, so Trust and The Garden Trust members landscape design. Dr Jon Finch is an gardens. early expressions of firm interest should and £150 for non-members (TBC). historical archaeologist who specialises Provisional programme: be sent by email to. This includes the buffet lunch and the in landscape, poverty, slavery and We begin on Friday at 9.30 with conference dinner on Friday, coach travel Karen Moore, Norfolk Gardens Trust commemoration. He is a Reader in registration followed by talks from and picnic lunch on Saturday and all Organiser: [email protected] Historical Archaeology and Director Professor Tom Williamson, Dr Jon Finch lectures and visits. of Studies at York University for the Point House, Back Street, Litcham, and Dominic Cole. After lunch, we visit MA course. Dominic Cole OBE is a ACCOMMODATION: Norfolk PE32 2PA Sheringham (own transport) for a guided Chartered Member of the Landscape Delegates will need to book their own tour of the park and an opportunity to 01328 700313 Institute with some thirty years’ accommodation at the Conference view Repton’s Red Book in the Hall’s experience and throughout his career hotel: The Links Country Park Hotel in library. A conference dinner and after- has engaged with the specialist area West Runton near Cromer NR27 9QH. dinner talk concludes the day. At 9.30 of Historic Parks and Gardens. He is http://www.links-hotel.co.uk/ phone on Saturday we take a coach to Aylsham currently President of The Gardens Trust 01263 838383 and please state you are

46 47 DatesNGT for Website your diary 2015-16 NorfolkDates for Gardens your diary Trust 2015-16

Norfolk Gardens Trust website - www.norfolkgt.org.uk Committee

any of you will have noticed that We are keen that members and guest M The President Lord Walpole, Members our Norfolk Gardens Trust website viewers not only look at the NGT website [email protected] Carol Keene underwent a transformation a couple but feel that they too can contribute Chairman Matthew Martin [email protected] of years ago, thanks to a collaboration to its pages. If you have taken good [email protected] between Sue Guest (former NGT quality photographs at our events or of Graham Innes Vice Chairman Sally Bate [email protected] Secretary) and David King and Brian a Norfolk garden or landscape, please [email protected] Ellis (NGT members and webmasters). do send them to David and Brian Joanne Kidd It is the most up-to-date way of finding ([email protected]) so they can Membership Secretary Anthony Stimpson [email protected] [email protected] out about our latest news and event share them with us all. Roger Last programmes, seeing pictures and reports Photographs need to be a minimum of 1MB in size (select Secretary Roger Lloyd [email protected] from our garden visits and hearing about ‘full size’ option if requested); the webmasters reserve the [email protected] Peter de Bunsen research projects and planning issues. right to crop images for the best results. Treasurer Peter Woodrow T: 01508 491648 [email protected] Rachel Savage Events Karen Moore [email protected] [email protected] NGT News Volunteers NGT News Sue Roe [email protected] Editors Clive Lloyd and Sue Roe HELP! In our spring [email protected] We are seeking issue, Sarah Website Jenny Dyer volunteers to help serve [email protected] Designer Karen Roseberry Scott wrote tea at our garden events. [email protected] about her Any help supporting the experience NGT would be welcome! of gardening Please contact in, A Year at Karen Moore at: Elsing Hall. Sarah worked under [email protected] the auspices of WRAGS (Work and Call For Articles Retrain as a Gardener Scheme), which is arranged by the Women’s We welcome suggestions for articles to Farm and Garden Association: be included in future issues of the NGT Readers’ Gardens http://www.wfga.org.uk/. Tel: News. These could be pieces you are If you would like your garden to be 01285 658339. The WRAGS prepared to write or just thoughts about featured in the NGT News please contact us. We welcome hearing regional manager for Norfolk, articles you would like to see in the about all gardens big or small, town Karen De Rosa (tel: 01284 763822 News. We are interested in ideas about or country and whether you are email: [email protected]) gardens in Norfolk (or further afield), open to the public or not. would be happy to discuss possible historical research, gardening, plants, Contact: [email protected] placement opportunities with people in gardening etc. In the first interested garden owners. instance send us an email at: [email protected] Clive Lloyd and Sue Roe, Editors 48 49 Membership Matters Norfolk We are very pleased to welcome a bumper list of new members who have joined Gardens Trust the Trust since last September. This was boosted recently by the Trusts attendance at the CPRE Day at Wolterton Hall.

Jill Buch M Randell & Jane Righton Richard Bird Terence & Judith Read Lucy Roberts Roger & Lyn Burroughs Trisha Rolph Bridget Buxton Dominique Rudd Mike & Heather Carpenter Giles & Milly Salmond Katy Cubitt Sarah Scott Piers & Cecilia D’Anvers Willis Roger & Jane Smith Keith Day & Peter Sheppard Inge Spurrell Cathy & Gaetano Piccolo David & Jane Steward Anita Delf Jenny Walsh Christine Douglas Ann West Glenn Earl Pauline Wharton Sue Elkins Stephanie Witham Alison Frank Gwynneth Yallop Anthea Franklin Bob & Rita Gibson If you are looking for an unusual Maxine Hayes Christmas or birthday present for a Judith Horner friend or relative, why not buy them Frances Jenkinson a year’s subscription to the Norfolk Mary Leah Gardens Trust? Susan Lister We have a number of “Voucher Michael & Jennifer Maydon Members” many of whom, having had a Helen McClean taster year, go on to become permanent Henry & Priscilla McDougall members in their own right. Please Penelope Mills contact me for details of how to do it. Fiona Musters John & Pat Orgill Anthony Stimpson Lionel Perkins Membership Secretary Ian & Phillida Perry [email protected] Judith Philp Ian & Carrie Phoenix Melinda Raker norfolkgt.org.uk 50 51