Secret Gardens of East Anglia

Barbara Segall, Marcus Harpur

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781781012369
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Horticulture
• Index: Biological Sciences

The big skies and the extraordinary light of East Anglia make it unlike anywhere else in Britain, and offer the most amazing natural conditions in which to create gardens. The twenty-two gardens selected for Secret Gardens of East Anglia celebrate the culture, beauty and diversity of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, and all deserve to be better known. Introduced by eminent East Anglian plantswoman and national treasure Beth Chatto, the gardens appearing on these pages are brought to life by the award-winning author and photographer team of Barbara Segall and Marcus Harpur. From each garden we can learn about the creator's style, their talent for exploiting the genius loci, and the specific challenges and rewards they have encountered. Featured gardens include: -COLUMBINE HALL A moated garden with a series of green rooms -HELMINGHAM HALL GARDENS A gem of a garden hidden in its own moated island -KIRTLING TOWER A field of daffodils for a Tudor gatehouse -RAVENINGHAM HALL Exquisite planting in the RHS president's private garden -THE MANOR HOUSE, FENSTANTON Garden rooms on Capability Brown's private estate - ULTING WICK Thousands of tulips against a backdrop of black wooden barns -WINTERTON LIGHTHOUSE A lush yet restrained garden framing a lighthouse -WYKEN HALL Vines and roses around an Elizabethan manor house.

1
Barnards Farm

West Horndon, Essex

MOST OF US have ‘borrowed’ landscape. We are usually pleased and quite smug if this includes a church steeple, say, or a magnificent oak or copper beech within sight but beyond the perimeter of our garden. Usually less pleased if we have huge electricity pylons with high-tension cables as the long-term loan from the neighbours.

But the fact that they had several pylons in their borrowed landscape, as well as one on their own property, has not deterred Bernard and Sylvia Holmes. In fact, Bernard used the two main pylons as his reference points when developing their garden’s design. And when one of the pylons on the nearby railway site was taken down, he recycled much of it to form an eerie sculpture, reminiscent – although on a larger scale – of Derek Jarman’s iconic beach garden at Dungeness, Kent. Entitled A Binary Insulated Warm Welcome, the glass insulators from the former pylon spell ‘welcome to Barnards Farm’ in binary code.

‘I based the design on symmetry and tried to embrace the unwieldy surroundings, such as the pylons and nearby railway.’

BERNARD HOLMES

ABOVE AND BELOW Thomas Heatherwick’s spiky Sitooterie, a place to ‘sit out’ in, is the perfect hideaway for views across the lake to the vista formed by closely clipped Leyland cypresses. Aligned with the central jet of water is one of the monumental bronze heads from Elisabeth Frink’s Desert Quartet. At ground level, bays in the hedge create a play of shadows on the grass.

Creative streak

Bernard and Sylvia found Barnards Farm in 1975, fell in love with the Georgian farmhouse surrounded by 1,000 square metres/1/4 acre of garden, and moved in during 1978. The house needed much attention, and that saw the start of an enduring relationship with the person who is now the estate manager, Barry Dorling. With his father, Barry restored and decorated the house, and as Bernard and Sylvia expanded their land and activities, he became their right- and left-hand man.

The land surrounding their property had been intensively farmed, and next door was a Marshall aid barn, a relic of the post-war programme to help agriculturists back into production. It had fallen into disrepair, so Bernard decided to go ahead and restore it. Over time he and Sylvia were able to purchase more and more of the land around the farmhouse (it now stands at 17 hectares/42 acres of garden and woodland), including the now pristine Marshall barn.

And that – the acquisition of the land – set the pair off on a seemingly unstoppable streak of creativity resulting in a landscape sculpture garden, collection of crab apples, stream and lake, with interesting and quirky attractions that include a collection of gleaming vintage automobiles (housed in the restored barn), a 1920s cycle shop that pays homage to Bernard’s father, a miniature railway (the longest 71/4 gauge track, end to end, in the United Kingdom) and a working runway. Running parallel to this expansion was the desire to open to visitors under the National Gardens Scheme, something they have been doing since 1983.

Bernard and Sylvia Holmes in front of their Georgian home. The parterre was one of their first projects, when the garden was still small.

Bernard began his horticultural journey by taking a course at Wisley, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) garden in Surrey. He and Sylvia visited other gardens in their local area to find out what grew well – always a good way to find your gardening feet – and for landscaping and design ideas the couple travelled to see lots of European gardens.

They began by modifying the original small garden around the house, which was the easy part, according to Bernard. Suiting the Georgian style of the house, the front garden is laid out as a parterre with, instead of infill planting, some large-scale metal sculptures of a stylized fern and a spiky dahlia. In the back garden, hedges offer shelter for the borders and lawn.

One of the existing plants that had to be moved, as it blocked out light, was a crab apple. This had all the ornamental attributes that Bernard and Sylvia both liked: blossom, colourful and useful fruit, and a good shape. They decided to plant more crab apples, and just at this time the collection at what was to become RHS Hyde Hall was disbanded. Bernard transported all 40 trees the 50 kilometres/30 miles to Barnards Farm on a low-loader, and all but one survived the move. This was the basis of what grew into the Plant Heritage National Collection of Malus (crab apples). Now it consists of some 250 species and varieties, including many US specimens. In blossom and fruiting seasons the collection offers great ornamental interest.

Airborne design

Given that Bernard’s initial need for more land was to accommodate a runway for one of his many transportation enthusiasms (cars, planes, bicycles, motorbikes…), it is only natural that he did much of his garden planning from the cockpit. ‘I based the design on symmetry and tried to embrace the unwieldy surroundings, such as the pylons, the nearby railway and even the sound of the A127,’ he says.

So it is no wonder that the snaking sinuous conifer hedge (thought to be Europe’s longest serpentine hedge of Leyland cypress), the Euro Wood (with a clearing in the shape of a euro sign) and many other features are best viewed if you fly down to Essex for a visit. Bernard and Sylvia would not be at all fazed by this: just phone before you fly in is their only plea.

Near the main house Bernard and Sylvia enjoy the precise detail and calm atmosphere of a Japanese garden, with a large and noisy fountain that goes a long way to outcompete the roar of traffic on the busy road nearby. The parterre, kitchen and cutting garden, the latter punctuated by standard specimens of Rosa ‘Iceberg’, make up the domestic part of the property.

To gain height and variation in the landscape beyond the domestic gardens, Bernard and Sylvia planted hundreds of trees and the formal serpentine Leyland hedge. They also used the diggings from the lake to form a mini-ziggurat, called the belvedere, one of the highest points at Barnards Farm. Its sides densely planted with roses and topped out with a stainless steel sculpture, The Analemma by Charmaine Cox, it offers stunning views across the property and beyond.

The Barnards Farm belvedere was inspired by a French one the couple saw in Granville, Normandy. Although be...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Barnards Farm
• 2 Columbine Hall
• 3 East Ruston Old Vicarage
• 4 Elton Hall
• 5 Helmingham Hall Gardens
• 6 Hoveton Hall
• 7 Hunworth Hall
• 8 Kirtling Tower
• 9 Parsonage House
• 10 Pensthorpe Natural Park
• 11 Polstead Mill
• 12 Raveningham Hall
• 13 Silverstone Farm
• 14 The Manor, Hemingford Grey
• 15 The Manor House, Fenstanton
• 16 38 Norfolk Terrace
• 17 Tinkers Green Farm
• 18 Ulting Wick
• 19 Wickham Place Farm
• 20 Winterton Lighthouse
• 21 Wood Farm
• 22 Wyken Hall
• Garden opening information
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright