‘Lost garden’ of Elford Hall saved

The ‘lost garden’ of Elford Hall, near Lichfield in Staffordshire, is to be saved for the local community, thanks to a confirmed grant of £248,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the efforts of dedicated volunteers.

The walled kitchen garden and gardeners cottage is all that remains of the Georgian Elford Hall Estate, built in approximately 1825 by Henry Bowes, Earl of Berkshire and Suffolk.

Remaining in the family until 1936, the hall, garden and outbuildings were then donated to Birmingham City Council (BCC) as a gift for local residents.

After falling into disrepair the hall was demolished in the 1960s and now the remaining garden wall and associated outbuildings are Grade II listed.

Half a mile of trees

The 12ft high wall, measuring 350ft by 300ft, encloses a space that has been largely neglected for the past 50 years and once housed half a mile of fruit trees.

The Elford Hall Gardens Management Committee is a voluntary community organisation formed in 2007 by local people determined to rescue it for community use.

They will now be able to start work restoring it to its former glory, giving local people the chance to get involved in the work and to cultivate allotments there.

Anne Jenkins, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the West Midlands, said:

“The community has come together in support of this project to conserve an historic walled garden that will be brought back to productive use after so many years of neglect.

Volunteers will be able to gain new skills and schoolchildren learn about nature, local heritage and the environment.”

Allotments

The HLF funded project to restore the walled garden is part of a larger initiative that will see the former head gardener’s cottage restored to provide space for a coffee shop, toilets and a classroom.

There will be educational activities linked to local schools who have already expressed interest in using the garden for visits.

The Victorian gardens, herbaceous borders and orchard will be re-created, and allotments – a feature of the original gardens – will also be established giving the community an opportunity to take an active part in ensuring the site’s sustainability.

A bowling green and tennis courts will also be constructed within the garden walls, original structure and pathways restored, and routes made accessible to picnicking areas along the adjacent River Tame.

Local people have expressed their enthusiasm for this approach. Just some of the exciting volunteering and educational opportunities that the HLF project offers are:

• training and opportunities for participants to learn skills including path laying, fencing, horticultural planning, and learning about environmentally friendly methods of food production
• a gardening club for all ages with talks, events, and workshops
• a series of lectures on rural crafts from hedge laying to basket weaving
• creation of a local schools heritage trail
• working with three local schools to produce new site interpretation
• a 12 week Princes Trust training programme for fifteen young people who will help plant the orchard and herb garden

Dave Watton, Chair of the Elford Hall Gardens Management Committee said:

“We are all delighted to receive such substantial backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund which will enable us to deliver this exciting project to maintain an element of Elford’s rural heritage for the benefit of so many people in the years to come.”

When completed it will be an amazing asset not only for Elford but for the whole of Staffordshire and the wider region.

Eden Bridge Gardens Work Underway

After securing funding last year from the Heritage Lottery Fund, work started on the Thomas Mawson designed, Eden Bridge Gardens in Carlisle in Autumn 2008.

Preliminary work at the end of 2008 saw the removal of much overgrown vegetation and some of the older trees which had compromised the stonework. This has resulted in a clearer view of the gardens from the main road and chances for the bulbs and smaller plants which have not seen daylight for many years, to show their faces.

The tidy worksite currently has scaffold erected on the pavilions to allow for retiling of the roofs and repointing of the stonework.

Damaged pillars on the lower pergola have been skillfully replaced with gently tapering sandstone blocks to match the existing.

Timbers have been renewed on the upper pergola with painstaking restoration of the masonry.

Workers use the fine weather to dig out the overgrown flower beds ready for replanting and clean the wrought ironwork with wire brushes.

Hard work is soon to start on the repointing of the crazy paving paths.

Both the gardens and structure which have previously been overgrown are starting to breathe a new lease of life.

With the imminent onset of spring and the promise of warmer, longer days to come, it will be interesting to watch the gardens take on their former glory.

Mawson Gardens Rydal Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rydal Hall is situated in the heart of the English Lake District with stunning views over the Rothay Valley, with the Fairfield Horseshoe and Nab Scar as a backdrop. Most of the building was constructed in the 19th century with certain parts dating back to the 16th century.

Now the Carlisle Diocesan Retreat and Conference centre, together with being home to the international Rydal Hall Community.

Seat of the Le Fleming family for more than 400 years, Thomas H Mawson was commissioned at the beginning of the Twentieth Cebnury, to create a series of Italianate terraces sweeping down from the main house.

The gardens fell into dereliction after the Second World War and in September 2005, with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and others, work began to restore them to their former glory. The repairs to all the stone work, urns and finials are now complete whilst the herbaceous borders, vegetable garden and landscaped grounds are undergoing long term development.

Simple in layout with little area set aside for planting, the concrete balustrades and staircases take centre stage.  A large inset fountain dominates the terrace garden with five pergolas situated around the edge utilising the existing breathtaking landscape of the Lake district beyond.  

These features are typical of Mawson, who’s grand Italianate designs had become very popular at this time.  Simple looking though this may seem, the Italian attention to detail becomes evident almost immediately.  All of the spherical finnials around the balustrades appear the same, but closer inspection reveals a slightly different design on the corners and stairways.

A pair of Lions heads flank the stairway to the terrace garden from the side garden on the left.  This smaller garden also has its own herbaceous borders.

From the main terrace garden are stunning views into the landscape beyond, but go through the iron gates and descend the diagonal stairs and you are brought to a beautiful structure resembling a roman shrine, reaching the full height of the terrace.  Its columns adding a welcome break to the towering walls.

Attention to detail is even evident in the latch on the iron gate.  This design echoes that already existing on the house and keystones of the terrace walls.

A unique feature to the coping stones is the joint structure used to anchor them in place without the use of mortar.  Perhaps somebody knows if there is an architectural term for this and indeed if this a unique to Mawson.

Herbaceous borders are few but well planted, whilst vines and roses climb over one of the pergolas creating a tranquil seat below the main house, from which to view the surroundings.

Lowther Castle

Situated just outside of Penrith in North Cumbria is the now derelict castle at Lowther.

The 120 acre, Grade II listed site contains the remnants of at least three significant buildings and much of its 17th century gardens remains intact, although very overgrown and neglected.

The grounds were once opened to visitors in 1938 but after being used to test a secret tank weapon during the Second World War, the area has become a relic of its former glory.

The Castle and its Gardens have been closed for 70 years and now stand inaccessible and buried in vegetation.

The Trustees of the Lowther Castle and Gardens Trust plan to transform the imposing remains of the Gothic Castle, its massive stables and over 20 hidden gardens into a destination that will return some of the grandeur and pride to the fallen Cumbrian gem.

The history of the site, its occupants and the notable names that have worked at Lowther is minutely recorded in an archive of over 2,700 steel trunks.

The Castle ruin will be stabilised but it will not be re-built. The ruin will tell the story of the houses that have occupied the site, the surrounding landscape and the stories of the people who have lived and worked at Lowther.

The record of the 130 acre gardens is extensive. The layout dates from the 17th Century but the present gardens are Edwardian and all lie buried under spruce and sycamore planted in the 1960’s.

There are over 20 different gardens at Lowther including a Japanese Garden, a Scented Garden, and an Iris Garden. Some gardens will be restored but visitors will also be able to see the remains of the Edwardian structures, lying derelict, covered in moss and lichen.

An Energy Centre will power the 130 acre site using woodchip fuel derived from the management woodlands on the Lowther Estate. The Energy Centre will house a viewing gallery and education space.

The £15m project will be carbon neutral and will be implemented over four years. The first phase is planned to open to visitors in Summer 2009.

Gallery

 

More information