After a decade of planning, the National Trust is creating a new garden at Berrington Hall, an almost complete Georgian estate near Leominster in Herefordshire. Careful consideration was crucial to enabling change within the sensitive Grade II* Registered Park and Garden to enhance the visitor experience. The planting of the garden, designed by National Trust landscape architect Ed Higgins CMLI and Senior Gardener David Thresher, is due to be completed in spring 2025.

    Landscape architect impression of the Flower Garden - West view. (C) National Trust

    Why is Berrington significant?

    Berrington Hall is a Neoclassical mansion by architect Henry Holland set within Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s final landscape. Historical documentation shows that the construction of the pleasure grounds and walled gardens began between 1783-85. What makes Berrington important is Brown and Holland working together and that to this day their layout is substantially intact.

     

     

    Obscured design intentions

    Like much of Capability Brown’s work, Berrington Hall is a piece of performance, however changes made to the layout at the start of the last century were affecting the enjoyment of the pleasure grounds. Within the parkland and gardens, there is much that is familiar in the designer’s work including wide vistas across rolling idealised landscapes, meandering serpentine lakes, and grand sweeping drives.

    However, from 1903 the formation of terraces for tennis, croquet lawns and a straight-as-an-arrow path diluted the flowing nature of Brown’s work. As it was, the circulation was creating a confusing visitor journey by leading to a back of house road rather than the wider pleasure grounds, the Grade I hall itself and wider parkland views.

    Previous straight path with yew balls ©National Trust Images / John Millar

     

    A challenging brief

    The brief was to revitalise this part of the garden by re-establishing a serpentine path linking the Triumphal Arch with the service courtyard of the hall, and establishing a new flower garden to provide added seasonal interest for Berrington Hall. This required the removal of the Edwardian terraces and garden elements.

    Managing change within an area of historic significance can be tricky. All decisions were supported by a 2018 Conservation Management Plan (CMP) and highlighted the negative impact the later changes were making to the original design intent; this was the backbone to later design discussions.

    During the design process, the National Trust’s Specialist Advice Network (SAN) was used to fully explore the proposals and validate the preferred option.  ​​​​SAN is an internal resource that offers access to a range of specialist volunteers to complement and add to the advice available from National Trust internal colleagues. This sat alongside pre-application advice from Herefordshire County Council, The Gardens Trust and Historic England. Several options were tested that included various amounts of retention of the Edwardian elements, but it was felt that this would muddle the design further and not meet the brief.

     

    Recalling Berrington’s horticultural heyday

    There are three key areas of the design: the southern lawn area, the serpentine path and the flower garden.

     

    Serpentine Path

    The serpentine path was designed to encourage slow meandering between the Triumphal Arch and the courtyard of Berrington Hall. The curve itself works with the planting to screen the Hall which is slowly revealed as one wanders down the path.

    Comparisons with other examples of Brown’s work suggest that historically, paths in this area were likely to offer an experience of contrast. They used planting to create a sense of enclosure, with ‘teasing’ glimpses across the parkland and landscapes beyond visible between the planting. The proposal of the serpentine path was to create a space with dappled shade opposing the lighter, intimate, glade-like space of the southern lawns.

     

     

    Southern Lawn

    Bordering the serpentine path, scattered trees and shrubs break up the view beyond to the parkland in the south. Spring bulbs in this area will present a fantastic display, mellowing to a softer green meadow during the summer months, when the horticultural highlights will be elsewhere in the garden. For those who are familiar with Berrington Hall, the much-loved Irish yew balls have been retained and relocated within this space.

    Flower Garden

    Hidden behind a tall mixed species hedge, the flower garden is designed to be discovered by following the re-established circular walk. Visitors will arrive in the flower garden through a reinstated Wisteria Walk, offering an abundance of flowers in May, followed by cooling shade in the summer months. A local blacksmith has sensitively recreated the supports for the historic arch using remnant ironwork found within the garden.  A central access from the covered Wisteria Walk leads to a retained fountain from the former garden layout and views over the hedge to the wider parkland.

    Retained fountain ©National Trust Images

    Pathways through the flower garden – all fully accessible – are framed by large planting beds with green lawns offering moments to ‘refresh the palette’ and act as informal social spaces. The peat-free sourced planting scheme is divided into four key planting areas reflecting the various growing conditions within the space. Structure is provided by five hornbeams which over time will be cloud-pruned.

    This project was possible through a multi-stakeholder collaboration to balance the heritage significance with the requirements of a modern visitor experience. The changes that have been made have redefined the arrival route to the pleasure grounds at Berrington Hall, moving closer to the initial design intent and creating a more enjoyable visitor experience with strong seasonal appeal. We thank National Trust supporters and Blue Diamond Garden Centres, whose generosity has enabled us to conserve and reimagine this significant landscape.

    Written by
    Ed Higgins CMLI
    Building and Landscape Design Consultant at the National Trust

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