English Heritage Gardens

28/08/2025

21/04/2025

A Woodland Carpet

The project at Oxon Hoath has been a project of discovery. The discovery at the centre of this blog is of a plant, a plant adored by many throughout Britain.

Dotted around the estate are areas that have been historically cleared. Compost heaps and dumping grounds that, throughout winter, appeared to be lifeless mounds of waste material destined for removal. As winter began to fade these mounds erupted with life. The tentative shoots of Snowdrops began to find their way to the surface, hundreds at first, then thousands…

It became clear that these Snowdrops belonged to the estate, in every sense of the word. Some varieties were commonplace, others rare, many had clearly been long-established and thriving on the site prior to their “relocation”. The sheer volume of plants discovered hinted at a past where Snowdrops abundantly threaded their way through the understories of trees, finding refuge in the shady spots of the grounds.

To see these wonderful little plants removed or destroyed would be a travesty. So what could be done with them?

Replanting on this scale would, as with many projects on this site, be a significant job, but a job that would offer the many walkers and guests who visit a sight to behold for many years to come. The task of gently splitting upwards of 18,000 bulbs fell to a team of gardeners; the preparation alone took several days to complete. Carefully transplanting these fragile clusters of plants along the avenues and under trees took weeks. Each small cluster meticulously placed and planted by hand, over acres of ground.

A group of plants forgotten and dumped in a corner, now form a carpet of woodland white once more. These simple plants are once again free to weave their way through the grounds of Oxon Hoath, each flower carrying a simple message… Spring is nearly here.

26/02/2025

12/02/2025

The Missing Rhododendron…
Rhododendrons in 1846 were still relatively novel in Britain, introduced a few decades previously by early Victorian plant collectors. These plants quickly became very popular on country estates, prized for their exotic nature and ornamental value. Nesfield riding this trend, featured Rhododendrons heavily in his original plans for the parterre at Oxon Hoath, it was to be a formal garden showcasing the best of contemporary horticulture to the elites of Britain.

So why then, if we fast forward to today, are so many of these prized Rhododendrons missing? As the team at English Heritage Gardens began the early process of clearance and excavation we uncovered the foundations of Nesfield’s garden. A man of the army and no doubt a man of efficiency, Nesfield clearly wanted nothing to go to waste if it could be used, including large deposits of lime mortar used to construct Salvin’s Châteauesque-style manor house…

Nesfield used this lime to level and build his parterre to exacting dimensions, some areas are rich in lime, others have no traces whatsoever. In doing so, Nesfield unknowingly created alkaline conditions for his beds, conditions unsuitable for ericaceous plants like Rhododendrons which thrive in more acidic soil. Nesfield would likely not have known this at the time as our
understanding of this new and exotic genus would have been in its infancy. Over time the ericaceous plants growing in lime rich areas would have struggled, and we suspect ultimately they would have either died or been removed. The mystery has been solved, but as restorers what can we do?

As we restore this garden today, the area once populated by the original Rhododendrons is still far too alkaline for the Ericaceae family. We cannot follow Nesfield’s original plan to the letter, nor could his landscapers nearly 200 years ago. His plans needed to be changed, as the landscape had also changed. So what can we do? The answer is simple, we will follow the same path. We will follow the original plans where we can, and iterate as the landscapers would have done two centuries ago. This approach will allow us to restore this garden as faithfully as possible. The plans as well as the plants act as our guide, and thanks to some lime mortar, perhaps our Victorian ancestors learned a thing or two about their new and exotic Rhododendrons.
Word - Matthew Howard
English Heritage Gardens

12/02/2025

Oxon Hoath - A Landscapers Diary

A Brief History
We will be writing a series of regular blog posts documenting our restoration of the beautiful and
historically important gardens at the Oxon Hoath estate in Kent.
The estate is a time capsule of English garden heritage and design, featuring sweeping
landscapes inspired by Capability Brown, a vast walled garden, and most notably the famous
parterre situated alongside the stunning Châteauesque-style manor house. Incredibly, the parterre, designed by William Andrew Nesfield in 1846, is the only surviving unaltered parterre garden in England today.

William Andrew Nesfield was a soldier, landscape architect and artist. Having served under Wellington in Spain and at Waterloo, he retired in 1816, seeking change. It is at this point he turned to painting, earning praise from the likes of John Ruskin. From here with encouragement from his peers, he moved into landscape architecture, and this is where our story begins.

For over 40 years, up until his death in 1881, Nesfield designed hundreds of gardens across
Britain, commissioned to create many of the leading landscapes of the Victorian period. His list of works include: Witley Court in Worcestershire, the three great vistas at Kew Gardens, Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, Treberfydd in Powys and of course Oxon Hoath in Kent.

In this series of blog posts, we will not only be uncovering the story of Oxon Hoath and Nesfield’s work, we will also be documenting our preservation of this important chapter in British gardening. As a nation of garden lovers, safeguarding this history teaches us our story, a complex story framed by an ever-changing relationship with our landscape.

We hope you enjoy the journey. Thank you for reading.
Words - Matthew Howard
English Heritage Gardens

06/06/2024

Topiary, Roses, large perennial borders at The Wood Norton, whats not to like!
We are very proud of our work from the initial design, its creation and the ongoing care by the WN garden team.

06/06/2024

It was wonderful to revisit the beautiful The Wood Norton gardens tens years after we created them. The pleached Hornbeam floating hedges are fully matured and Rose border parterre has been well looked after by the WN Garden team.

09/11/2021

Garden path - to the office! Garden offices have been a big thing since Covid arrived on the scene.

10/10/2021

Another week, another pool. Making haste before the ground becomes too wet to handle.