Tags
fruit training, Glasshouse Appeal, Victorian walled gardens, walled gardens, West Dean Walled Garden, West Sussex
I love walled gardens. There’s the sense of intrigue as to what lies behind those solid, sturdy walls and a feeling that I’m stepping into another world, somewhere where the distractions of life won’t trouble me. It feels as if the walls envelop me like a hug protecting me like they do the plants that grow within the boundary. All walled gardens have a magical air about them, but it’s the classic Victorian versions that are the true pinnacle for me.
I’ll admit I’m someone who lives by the phrase ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’. I’ve always been like it. My parents were never subjected to the horror of a teenager’s messy bedroom with mounds of clothing in the ‘floordrobe’ and items of food left to cultivate an impressive range of moulds. It stood me in good stead for the poky student digs I lived in and the tiny ‘can’t swing a cat’ flat we rented when we first got married. Now I find it hard to write if I know the kitchen is in a bit of a state i.e. Wellyman has been baking again, even if I’m upstairs and the plumes of flour are downstairs. I’ve heard that it’s not unusual for writers to feel they can’t work unless the space around them is tidy – a cluttered house, a cluttered mind perhaps. And I have a bit of a theory that my slightly obsessive tidiness is why I have such a thing for Victorian walled gardens. I drool over the neatly arranged potting sheds and the rows of wheel barrows lined up ready for use. The rows of little plants germinating in perfect rows make me think of my own pathetic attempts where clumps of seedlings are interspersed with bare patches.
West Dean, near Chichester in West Sussex, is a magnificent example of a Victorian walled garden restored to its prime and two summers ago I finally managed to visit. Head gardeners Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain have spent over twenty years bringing the gardens and the wider estate back to its former glory days.
Like any grand house in 19th century Britain, West Dean wanted and needed a kitchen garden and orchard to supply the house with food, and it was a notable place with King Edward VII a regular visitor enjoying pheasant shoots held on the estate. The orchard is enclosed within walls. Walled gardens are often thought of as providing protection from the weather but often it was more to do with protecting valuable produce from animals and hungry humans. The fruit collection is impressive with some of the fanciest trained trees I have ever seen, including heritage varieties specific to West Sussex. The walls are put to good use with pears, apples and plums trained against them but there are also specimens dotted about that have been intricately contorted into goblets and domes. Two herbaceous borders run through this walled garden too, offering an ornamental touch to what are often considered purely productive spaces. Although these borders would have been a clever way of supplementing the cutting patch to provide the house with vases of home-grown blooms.
Ah ha! The cutting patch, now this was a bit of a surprise. I walked through a gateway in the wall into another enclosed space and what was the real hub of the walled garden, with rows of the original cold frames, potting sheds and glistening glasshouses. On the left hand side were beds and borders planted with the sole purpose of supplying flowers for cutting. Needless to say I was in my element. I do love the sense of order created by rows of plants and I think this is why I’ve found growing on my allotment easier than designing and planting my garden.
Beyond this was the walled kitchen garden where every bit of the space was used to its full potential. Red and white currants were trained against the walls of a shed now used as an information centre, herbs lined the edges of beds and cane fruits, such as raspberries, were grown in neat rows.
The glasshouses were quite something. I have been to many a walled garden where glasshouses lie unused and forlorn, shades of their former selves, crying out to be loved and filled with plants. Victorian walled gardens are nothing without these buildings. Clever engineering coupled with the ingenuity of 19th growers meant that in a time before air freight and the mass importation of food, crops such as pineapples, peaches, apricots, melons and citrus fruits not suited to our climate could be produced to grace the tables of the wealthy. The sight of the restored glasshouses at West Dean is something very special. There was the peach house with fat, juicy, hairy fruits dripping from a beautifully trained tree, melons dangling from above in another, there were glistening black aubergines and a fantastic array of chillies. There was the glasshouse devoted to tender plants we recognise as house plants. I’ve never been much of a house plant lover but the collections of succulents, streptocarpus, begonias and fabulous stag’s horn ferns were enough to make me change my mind.
It’s incredible to think these glasshouses were completely derelict in the 1990s. They were originally built at the end of the nineteenth century by Foster and Pearson of Nottinghamshire whose client list read like a who’s who of late Victorian high society and included Queen Victoria herself. The glasshouses were an ostentatious symbol of wealth. Only the richest in society could afford these creations and the teams of workers needed to put them to full use. Now though they are not just a symbol of that wealth but also one of our most precious links with our horticultural heritage and the skills, knowledge and hard work of the gardeners who worked there. The glasshouses underwent a restoration process in the 1990s but two of the glasshouses are in need of urgent attention once again. The team at West Dean need to raise £30,000 to repair just one of the glasshouses.
If you’d like to help you can donate. Just £10 could pay for 1kg of nails and a sense of satisfaction that you have helped to save these precious buildings for the future.
For more information about West Dean and visitor information.
Seeing a green lush garden on a cold, dreary day, like to day is such a gift.
Hi Charlie, It’s good to trawl through photos at this time of year. It’s cold and dreary here too. Once Christmas is over I’ll very much be looking forward to spring. 🙂
A lovely garden!
I really love this post as I have a thing for walled gardens. Pretty odd because I’ve never been in a proper English one! We’ve got a few here in Tasmania but they’re not like the ones in the UK.
As a neat freak (I cannot sit down and do work/read/relax until the place is tidy) I love the order in walled gardens – rows of plants and veg etc.
West Dean is on my bucket list of UK gardens the next time I’m over there along with the expected places like Sissinghurst, Rousham and Dixter.
I went to a talk given by Sarah Wain a few years ago when she was in Tasmania and her slides were really inspiring.
As I work in heritage town planning, I love seeing the restoration of sites and buildings. I was therefore very sad to find out that the Victorian Walled garden used by Harry Dodson in The Victorian Kitchen Garden is now derelict – I LOVED this series and do wish the place could be restored.
Hi Danielle, You sound like me. 😉 I hope you get to visit an English walled garden soon. I think you’d love West Dean. There are so many but it is one of the best examples and clearly very well loved by the people who work there. Wow! What a fascinating area to work in. That’s very sad to hear about the Harry Dodson garden. Peter Thoday who worked on that programme ended up doing a lot at the Lost Gardens of Heligan. It’s sad because there are so many walled gardens in disrepair. There’s a huge one near where I live, but they take a lot of money to look after and manage.
Funnily enough, yesterday I visited the West Dean website, is def a place very high on the list of gardens to visit. Hmm, unfortunately I am not as tidy as I’d like to be in the garden, but I think that maybe a reason why I love walled gardens is because they are so neat and tidy, an inspiration, something to strive for. And I do find the history behind these gardens very interesting as well. My all-time favourite gardening programme is still The Victorian Kitchen Garden.
I’m sure you’d love it there. I’m not as tidy in the garden as I am in the house. 😉 The history of them is fascinating. I’d love to see that programme again. I wonder if you can get it on DVD? Will have to have a look.
You can watch them all on Youtube.
Ooo! Thank you. I never really look at anything on Youtube. Will have to try and watch them over the Christmas.
You’ve inspired me to visit West Dean. I too love walled gardens and in particular the symbolism that they represent of feeding large households, hopefully for all within, with nourishing produce. Allotments are a democratic small scale version in many respects.
You’d love it Sue. The gardens extend beyond the walled area too and it’s in a stunning location. I love the idea that people wanted to be self-sufficient. A much grander scale than Tom and Barbara but a fantastic idea to create those sorts of spaces if you could afford to.
A most enjoyable, and interesting, post along with wonderful photos.
Like you, and probably most gardeners, I have a thing about walled gardens of which this one has to be a prime example. In my case perhaps it’s more the glasshouses as I would love to grow pineapples, and peaches.
I’ve always been a tidy person, and don’t like clutter or a mess. Although I do prefer informal gardens to formal, regimented, ones. xx
Thank you Flighty! The glasshouses are incredible. The one with the fan-trained peach tree dripping in fruit was incredible. xx
I have a thing for walled gardens too. This looks like a wonderful place to visit, and those glasshouses look fabulous. It’s a shame that a couple are in need of restoration again, I hope they raise enough funds to allow their work to progress.
I know it is such a pity but they’re not far off 150 years old so I guess some TLC is inevitable. If you get a chance to go you’d love it.
I love walled gardens too! You’re right that the sight of all the straight lines of vegetables is wonderful. I was at West Dean almost exactly a year ago on a very cold miserable day but I enjoyed it so much.. The pruned fruit trees looked even more beautiful without their foliage.
I bet the fruit trees looked fantastic. They must look good if there’s been a frost. Just done the name post. It’s been a bit of a frantic day with no broadband for a bit of it and lots of work I needed to get done. If you want me to include any other links just let me know. 🙂
Just read the comment by melfordcottagegarden, so sad to hear that the Victorian Kitchen Garden walled garden has become derelict.
It is. They take a lot of money and time to look after though so I suppose it’s inevitable. I know quite a few have been turned into other things such as plant nurseries and cafes or places to teach gardening to people with learning disabilities.
I visited a long time ago and don’t remember the greenhouses and walled garden being so wonderful, they are amazingly neat and tidy and put me to shame!
I know the team there have been working to restore the place since the 1990s. It looked amazing when we visited in July 2013.
I love gardens with walls (as opposed to walled gardens) and although I appreciate the order and plenty of the the big productive walled gardens I have to confess to preferring more decorative gardens – brickwork provides such a lovely backdrop for beautiful borders. Love the intricate structure of the big Victorian greenhouses too.
West Dean manages to look good and be productive which is why it such a fabulous place. And those glasshouses are beautiful in their own right. A great symbol of Victorian engineering.
It will be a must when we get to visit that part of the world again
Oh I’m a great walled garden fan too WW. With me it’s the shelter they offer that appeals. I’m afraid I’m not at all neat and tidy – probably reacting to a mother with ocd tendencies! I do appreciate neat rows of veg though so much so that I’m reluctant to pick some of my produce at the allotment as there will then be gaps. I went to a workshop at West Dean a few years ago, where Cleve West was speaking about his allotment plot. It was an inspirational day but sadly the chance to look around was restricted to the lunch hour. I’ve wanted to return for a more leisurely stroll ever since.
Hi Anna. I’m not as neat as I’d like to be in the garden and my shed is always a dreadful mess. I do often wonder about places like Le Manoir and whether you’d be worried about picking because it would spoil the look of a row of veg. 😉 That talk must have been good. I’m a huge fan of Cleve West. Hope you get a chance to visit West Dean again so you can sample the gardens.
Reblogged this on West Dean Gardens and commented:
Please read the wonderful blog all about our Walled Kitchen Garden by Welly Woman and so lovely to hear that our OCD tendencies are appreciated!
I also like things to be nicely ordered and am a big fan of walled gardens. So I think you could be on to something with the link to obsessive tidiness! I’ve never been to West Dean Gardens but you’ve inspired me to add it to the list for a visit this summer.
Ooo! Maybe I’ve uncovered something. 😉 I loved West Dean and the gardens extend beyond the walls. Lots of fantastic courses at the college there too. Looks like some great gardening talks coming up next year.