Harting Primary School: A Mothering Sunday tribute at Uppark

Jenny Swatton, gardener at Uppark talks to the school children from Harting Primary School about “planting” ceramic daffodils. 
Sean Killick from BBC South Today interviews one of 120 pupils who each made a ceramic daffodil inspired by the Tower of London poppies, for Mothering Sunday.

Now this was a great idea…

…how could we not get involved? Fiona Mullet, Head Teacher at Harting Primary school met with me several weeks ago and said:

I’ve got a great idea for a project – actually it came from a supply teacher…

Time wasn’t really on our side and we gave ourselves a tight deadline, we even considered ceramic tulips but we decided Mothering Sunday was the aim and making clay daffodils…the game, and I’m so pleased we did.

BBC South Today new reporter Sean Killick interviews school children from Harting Primary School

More coverage on Uppark House and Garden facebook page

If you’d like to see the daffodils, they’ll be in place until Easter.

Head Teacher at Harting Primary School Fiona Mullet and Jenny Swatton from the garden team at Uppark help the school “plant” the daffodils.

Photos taken by Andy Lewis, Lou Washington and Kirsty Brown.

Simon Parkin from ITV Meridian also filmed a feature on the daffodils as well as the weather forecast on the South meadow.

September at Uppark

As September approaches, a seasonal quote from Monty Don:

 

“No other month has such a rich and rounded light or such a tangible sense of preciousness”

 

I couldn’t agree more, I love this time of year, after the frantic months of the summer where the growth of all plants (including weeds) is phenomenal, it’s now a chance to review, reflect and plan for next year.

So what are we planning at Uppark?

We’ve been thinking about our bulb order for this autumn and we’d like to get some big blocks of spring colour in the form of daffodils flanking the steps from the lower section of the visitor car park.

We’ve also been focusing on the first impressions visitors to Uppark receive, so over the last few years the garden team have been hedge-laying to smarten the appearance of the visitor car park and we’ll be doing some preparatory work in the lead up to the next phase of hedge-laying in October. The picnic area opposite the ticket office is becoming a little too dark so we’ll be thinning out some of those trees to provide more light; better for visitors, grass and wildlife.

Restoration work

The work to return the garden to its original Capability Brown/ Humphry Repton layout is moving on at pace. The planting done in September 2013 has flourished this year and has drawn lots of lovely comments from visitors and gives us an idea of the appearance of the rest of the planting will look like. Research work being carried out by gardener Jenny Swatton will enable us to design and plant the next phase over the autumn/winter months as we continue to enhance the quality of the peripheral planting.
Over the last few weeks we’ve been removing six bird cherries (Prunus padus) that have been struggling in recent years. We’ve been monitoring their health and for the last three summers, defoliation has started early in June and as the rest of the garden is thriving, we decided to remove this group. I must say the improvement is significant and the newly planted borders have become more prominent, so a worthwhile measure I feel.

September garden newsletter

Download the September newsletter (click on the title) to find out more information on the key plants at Uppark at the moment (image of Ceratostigma willmottianum).

Halloween at Uppark

We’ve been working on the second Halloween murder mystery tunnel quiz trail after the success of last year’s first trail. So get your sleuthing hats on this October and see if you can solve this year’s half-term holiday mystery, tunnel image courtesy of Russell Baker.

 

Events at Uppark in September

Call 01730 825415 or email uppark@nationaltrust.org.uk to book/for information

Tripods and Tapas

3 September 6-9pm £15.00  Grab your camera and tripod if you have one and get those stunning landscape shots and then join us for Tapas in the Orangery Café afterwards.

Talk by Zoe Hillyard: Ceramic Patchwork – the journeys of makers & materials

12 September £15 10am-12pm Zoe Hillyard, one of the unravelled artists explains her work. Image courtesy of Russell Baker.

Heritage Open Day

Free entry on Saturday 13 September 12.30-4.30pm

Lancelot, Humphry and Me

Over the last couple of days the garden team have enjoyed a bit of sunshine. So, instead of scurrying across the garden with our heads down and hoods up, we’ve been able to appreciate the spectacular views framed by the garden.

As I wrote in my last blog, a key feature of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s work at Uppark the late 18^th century was the creation of carefully orchestrated views for the garden’s users to explore and enjoy. However, the story of Uppark Garden does not end with Capability Brown.  In this blog post I’m going to explore the period from the 1790s onward, and particularly the work of Humphry Repton, which is the basis for much of our current restoration work.

1790s – 1820s
After Sir Matthew Featherstonhaugh’s death in 1774 and Brown’s subsequent death in 1783, the new pairing of Sir Harry Featherstonhaugh and landscape gardener Humphry Repton, heralded a second major change in the layout of the garden. It seems likely that a series of circuit paths date from this period. We have found traces of these paths in the garden and during the summer of 2013, archaeology students Sam (below left) and Jack (below right) carried out some excavations.

Repton is often referred to as Brown’s successor.  However, Repton’s designs were often less natural than Brown’s and included the sort of garden features which might have been seen in Rococo gardens.  An example of this type of feature at Uppark is the Coade Urn on the mound.

Repton’s work at Uppark also included the Portico and new north drive.  Plans for the new north entrance to the house are shown in the ‘Red Book’ of Repton’s designs for Uppark.  Intriguingly plans for other features which may not have been built included an informal Cottage Garden and a formal Rose Garden.  What does seem tantalisingly evident from Repton’s correspondence with Sir Harry Featherstonhaugh is that there would have been flower gardens at Uppark.

Repton’s work at Uppark, while not fully understood, is regarded as the most significant phase in the history of the garden.  This is why the section of border former Assistant Gardener Jo designed has been restored to the period 1810-1830.

Jo supervising the planting in September 2013

Later 1800s

After Repton’s alterations at Uppark, it seems that the garden did still undergo change.  Inevitably older plantings grew substantially over the years and new planting was also added.  A Country Life photograph from 1910 shows bedding in front of the East Pavilion which Dr Sarah Rutherford has identified as ‘typical of mid-late C19 schemes’.

1900s

By the time the National Trust received the garden in 1954 most of the 19^th Century path system shown in the 1873 OS map had vanished. The ‘Island Beds’ in the area north of the East Pavilion were added between 1991 and 2005 to add interest to a garden that had originally been ‘simplified’, an unfortunate reflection of the limited resources available at the time.

There are a lot of things that we can’t know for certain about the history of Uppark Garden. There has been a gradual change in the structure and use of the garden over three centuries, glimpses of which we see in the garden today.

In some areas, the garden team have been working to restore the 1810-1830s character of the garden. In the last few weeks we have begun to work on the next 20m section of the border which sweeps round inside the garden wall, following on from Jo’s work last year. We plan to complete the preparation of the area and the design work in time to plant in the early autumn.

However, just because we are restoring some areas to one short period in the garden’s history, does not mean that the earlier or later phases in the garden should be seen as insignificant. The garden is now enjoyed by many more people than at any other point in its life, and consciously or not, what we enjoy now is the result of centuries of change, and we’re not finished yet!

Winding Back the Clock

The clock tower in winter

My first three months as Assistant Gardener at Uppark have flown by.  Although I had some idea of what I was getting myself into I’m amazed at the variety of tasks and projects that I’ve become involved in.

One of the more unexpected jobs that the garden team take care of is winding the clock at the top of the East Pavilion.  Jo, Alan and Rae have all helped initiate me in the routine maintenance of the clock mechanism.  This is a weekly ritual that must have taken place since the 1750s (albeit with occasional gaps)  While winding away (it’s easier if you’re a bit distracted) it occurred to me that the clock had chimed its way through centuries of change in the garden.

I’ve become fascinated by what the garden at Uppark was like in the past and how it has evolved over the centuries.  Although I sadly can’t hop in a time machine, I’ve really enjoyed learning about the history of the garden by going on tours given by David, Julian and Bob, and by reading up as much as I can (particularly the Garden Conservation Statement by Dr Sarah Rutherford). While I’m definitely not an expert on garden history, this is what I’ve found out so far:

1703
The earliest known image of the garden shows a very structured and formal layout. While we don’t know how accurately the image represents the garden at the time, it is typical of gardens of the era, which were influenced by the formal royal gardens in France.
While there is little trace of this layout, it is a tantalising thought that some evidence of this layout (particularly the East Drive) may still exist beneath the present garden.

1720s– 1730s
While we don’t have much information about what was going on in the garden at Uppark at this time, there was a gradual transition towards a Classical Arcadian style of gardening.  This meant informal pleasure grounds which highlighted and manipulated ‘nature’ and featured increasing numbers of classical references.

An image that we do have from this period suggests a mixture of formality and informality.  There are straight avenues, but little to suggest the rigid square layout of Kip’s 1703 print. You can see this print in the ‘flower room’ in the house.

1740s

In the 1740s and into the 1750s, Rococo gardens featured Classical, Gothic, and Chinese influences to form complex gardens which could be ‘read’ like paintings or literature.  They often featured a circular route so that different features of the garden were gradually revealed.

Again, there seems little to suggest this kind of garden at Uppark.  A sale document from 1746 has been interpreted by Dr Sarah Rutherford to show: “Rectangular garden north of house, mount in pleasure ground to north-east of this, apsidal boundary to north flanked by woodland.”

It is certainly different to the garden we see now, although features like the mound are visible.

1750s – 1780s

After Sir Matthew Featherstonhaugh bought Uppark in 1746, significant changes were made to the garden by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

Generally Brown is known for his ‘natural’ style of landscaping (in contrast to the more flamboyant Rococo style) and for creating large aesthetically pleasing parklands.

However, Uppark does not seem to have had a  parkland.  Dr Rutherford has described Uppark as:

“an unusual example of a discrete Brown pleasure ground designed in isolation from a large park design.”

It is striking from the plan that the boundary line of the garden seems similar to the current flint boundary wall.  The big mound (near the current golden gates) and the smaller mound (currently the site of the Gothick Seat) are visible.  There’s also a suggestion of ‘paths meandering’ through the pleasure grounds.

While Uppark was not Brown’s biggest commission, it seems that he would have employed the same techniques he used on larger projects. This would have included creating carefully orchestrated views for the garden’s users to explore and enjoy.

I’ve scratched the surface of the fascinating garden history of Uppark. In my next post I’ll explore the more recent developments in the garden.

Cutting Your Teeth

Last week I visited colleagues at Wimpole Estate (National Trust) a place where my horticultural crimes and misdemeanours were committed before moving to Uppark House and Garden to wreak havoc there. I spent (almost) three hugely rewarding years at Wimpole, cutting my National Trust teeth and I got to do some pretty exciting things there.  I chanced my luck and submitted a design proposal to the Head Gardener and subject to the late inclusion of a swathe of Rudbeckia, the planting plan was approved. Many of the plants were propagated from existing herbaceous material on site and once the plant list was circulated around the team, offers of plants started flooding in, and so it began. That was 2007 and the first plants went in during the spring of  2008.

In April 2010, we planted the Cherry walk borders and I imagined solid blocks of planting to carry the eye across the beautiful orchard and beyond to the long herbaceous borders. I didn’t want visitors to see the magnificent Soane glasshouse, just yet, I wanted them to linger just a little bit longer. I’m really happy with the development of these borders, the team have stuck with the design principles and strengthened them with some knockout planting.

September 2013

Wimpole volunteer Emily has been responsible for leading the Apricot border care and development since 2009 and she’s done an amazing job. As hard as it was for me to leave this fabulous project, it was great to know it was in her capable hands. The borders are still looking wonderful as are the fruit trees in the orchard, beautifully maintained by Assistant Gardener Matt, so drop in if you’re in the area and have a look.

Looking across the Cherry walk borders, beyond the orchard to the long Apricot walk borders.

Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, Verbena bonariensis and Penstemon ‘Andenken an Friedrich Hahn’ (formerly known as ‘Garnet’)

Verbena bonariensis and Spartina pectinata ‘Aureomarginata’

Cherry walk borders featuring Rudbeckia fulgida var. ‘Goldsturm’ and Kniphofia ‘Tetbury Torch’ and Stipa gigantea 

Apricot walk borders

Present ideas? This would make a great Birthday or Christmas gift and is available in the Uppark House and Garden shop. The Wimpole borders are featured on pages 168 & 169.