Shropshire Parks & Gardens Trust Newsletter No. 22 Winter 2011/12 Letter from the Chairman The garden fatalities from last winter’s severe weather were, for many, a reminder that much loved trees and shrubs will not last forever. Illustration from map of The Laskett designed and drawn by This provides a good starting point for Jonathan Myles-Lea pondering the future of the Pitchford Tree House, one of the best known and loved garden buildings in Shropshire. For some years Pitchford Hall has had an ownership Contents which has not been sympathetic to public access. Out of sight has not been out of mind A Tale of Two Walled Gardens: and SPGT members and others have expressed concern about the maintenance and future of Attingham and Longner the famous tree house once visited by Queen Victoria. The Gentry Houses of Market The short term news seems good. After Drayton and their Landscapes English Heritage had included it on its Heritage At Risk Register in 2010 work was Association of Garden Trusts update undertaken by the owner. Conservation staff from Shropshire Council subsequently visited, and report that repairs have been carried out, AGT Conferences 2010 & 2011 including to the access steps, resulting in the removal of the building from the At Risk Campaign for Evelyn’s garden Register. For most buildings that would be fine, but the Planning Issue: Luciefelde House, Tree House has most unusual and vulnerable foundations – the branches of what is now a Shrewsbury very ancient lime tree. The most rigorous maintenance of this charming small building The Severn Tree Trust cannot prevent the ultimate death of the tree, despite the skills of tree surgeons and Book News & ‘Bumps’ CD recording specialists over the years. So what of its future? The fatalist option is to accept that the tree will continue to decay and Forthcoming Events although propping and a supporting 1 framework may prolong the building as a A Tale of Two Walled Gardens ‘tree’ house the point will come where safety considerations will require the removal of the It is not every day that one hears of a walled tree. Any notion of planting and nurturing a kitchen garden being renovated in the county, new tree seems in the realms of fiction and a so to have two being restored within a few steel-framed GRP-clad fake tree would look hundred yards of each other is as exciting as it like something from the playground of a is unusual. Happy Eater! After all, tree houses are, like our own lesser ‘dens’ of childhood, The gardens belong to two historic properties: essentially ephemeral. Their joy is in their Attingham Park and Longner Hall. The estates creation and active use and anyone who has lie adjacent to each other close by Atcham visited Alnwick with its tree house restaurant village, and it is a happy coincidence that the will agree that the spirit of tree houses is alive two gardens are being brought back to life at and well. much the same time. Both date from the So will the legacy of Pitchford Tree House Georgian period and both are situated in ultimately be a laser scanned, 3D, all singing grounds landscaped by Humphry Repton, yet and dancing digital archive? But there is here the similarities end. Attingham Park is a another perspective. The Pitchford Tree National Trust property, whilst Longer Hall is House is a grade 1 listed building whose privately owned (the family seat of the Burton significance will favour its retention in some family since the 14th century), which form. Small buildings in parks and gardens necessitates two very different approaches to have frequently been moved and re-sited by the renovations of each. their owners without any hue and cry. The Tree House is of a size which would surely For private owners a walled garden can be as readily allow it to be cradled, lifted by a crane much a curse as a blessing: maintenance of the and transported to pastures new, even if not structures can be extremely costly, and the supported by a tree. Today most would argue huge quantities of fruit and veg that were once that context is an important factor so a grown in such gardens far exceed the more Pitchford location would be desirable; but it is modest requirements of families today. not so long ago that removal to somewhere Without the labour to maintain the garden they like Avoncroft Museum of Buildings would can soon become overgrown and derelict. have seemed like salvation. There are a variety of options, all of which Longner Hall lies to the west of the park at cost money. The important thing is surely to Attingham, divided from it by the consider and evaluate and ensure that a Atcham/Uffington road. The hall was built by common policy is agreed between the owner, John Nash in 1803 (who was working at English Heritage and Shropshire Council. In Attingham at much the same time) on the site the present economic climate no one will be of the previous manor house. Proposals for rushing to act. The future of Pitchford Tree House could easily be determined by inertia. This only strengthens the Trust’s role as an arm’s length godparent, gently campaigning for the future of this remarkable historic garden building. Tony Herbert Chairman Please note: Shropshire Deer Parks and their Buildings will be a theme of our Spring newsletter and we would welcome any contributions. Editor Detail from 1881 OS map showing walled garden situated to NW of outbuildings, the Hall to the South 2 landscaping the grounds are described in Repton’s Red Book, dated 1804. As shown in the 1st edition OS map of 1881, the walled garden lies close to the house and is an acre in size, roughly rectangular, enclosed by high brick walls. There is a smaller frame yard attached, where there were once glasshouses and coldframes; these have since been demolished, however the name ‘Messenger & Co’, a well known glasshouse builder of the 19th century, can be seen on the surviving winding mechanism. The garden is believed to be roughly contemporary with the house, although so far no proper historical research has been carried out. The present owners, Robert and Gill Burton, are determined to keep their walled garden productive; but without the means to maintain it, the weeds had taken over and the shrubs and hedges planted by a previous tenant had become overgrown. In 2009 it was decided to place an advertisement in the local paper, in Tom Donnelly in the walled garden the hope that someone would come forward to take on the garden. The Burtons were on what is to be grown are taken jointly, but extremely lucky to be able to persuade one of the Burtons will always bow to Tom’s greater the applicants - Tom Donnelly, a professional experience and expertise. In 2010, with the gardener with a full time job and three help of a digger, the clearing began. Initially allotments - to tackle the garden. one half was cleared, and although Tom was not due to start until March last year, he set There is no formal tenancy, rather an about digging out the tree roots and preparing agreement for joint use of the garden, with the the plot for cultivation. Burtons providing the seeds and plants. Two lots of everything are grown, the produce to When I first visited in the middle of February, be divided equally between them; decisions the garden was a revelation, for a start one could actually see the far walls! A large rectangular plot ran the length of the garden. It had been well manured and was planted up with soft fruit – raspberries and blackcurrants. A wide border next to the south wall had crops of healthy looking cabbages and already broad beans were showing above the soil. By the time of my next visit two months later, the spring cabbages were ready for cutting and the broad beans at least a foot high. Tom was planting out sweet peas in the main plot around three tepees, and rows of beetroot, parsnips and lettuces were coming on well. Between the beds are newly sown grass paths, The main plot of Longner’s walled garden once again creating a professional and neat effect. In under cultivation in 2011 short, what had been achieved in little over a 3 year was remarkable, especially when you The walled garden at Attingham is believed to consider that the only help that Tom has is have been built around 1786; there are from his young apprentice Gary Ashworth. builder’s accounts for building garden walls in that year, and later for building a ‘hothouse’ The layout of the garden reflects the original and a vinery. This was a few years after Noel layout as shown in the 1st ed OS map. The Hill, later 1st Lord Berwick, inherited the garden is divided in two by a central path estate and started construction of the present bordered by established fruit trees. The other mansion to a design by George Steuart. The half has now been cleared, and there are plans garden lies approximately 600m to the north- to create a small working orchard at one end, west of the Hall, and is made up of two walled and to grow Malus sylvestris (crab apples) areas, the larger rectangular area being just near the entrance at the opposite end, to create an attractive feature. Work clearing the Frame Yard was already underway at the time of my first visit, and by April the new metal- frame glasshouse was in the process of being erected on the footprint of the old lean-to.