The Great Transformation

The Woolverstone Hall we are familiar with is very much a legacy of John Berners and his passion for botany. On the death of his father, he set about transforming the parkland and the gardens. 

Around 1857, John Berners employed James Sheppard (1833 – 1893) as his head gardener. He understood the soil, was a splendid plantsman and had a rigorous scientific approach to gardening. 

About 1858,  John Berners engaged William Nesfield (1793 – 1881), one of the early landscape gardeners, with the aim of improving the landscaping of the parkland and the formal gardens of the Hall. 

Together with John Berners, Nesfield and Sheppard began the transformation of the Woolverstone Park estate.

By September 1861, Monkey Lodge on Freston Hill, had been built, so called because of the pair of monkeys that stand atop of the entrance gate pillars. 

Monkey Lodge marks one of two much grander entrances to Woolverstone Hall and starts the winding, near two-mile drive, across undulating parkland to the Hall, via deer Park Lodge.

Entering through Deer Park Lodge gates, the carriage entered the park proper. The drive took a sharp right turn and climbed the valley almost to the top and then turned left across the high ground with the fields dropping away towards the river. The carriageway continued through the park and the tower of St Michael’s Church soon came into view. Having passed the thatched gardeners’ cottage, the carriageway came in front of the church.

Here the Freston carriageway meets the Holbrook carriageway coming the short distance from the public road to Shotley. Here, too, there was a new gatehouse, Holbrook Lodge (1660). This was constructed of mainly yellow bricks with some narrow reds and ashlar bands with ornate gables under a slate roof. 

Opposite Holbrook Lodge is Glebe Lane for making the short, one-and-a-half mile, journey to Holbrook Gardens.

From the junction of the two carriageways at St. Michael’s, the way climbs a slight incline and, on reaching the level ground and passing through a fine collection of sweet chestnut trees, turns sharp left and the Hall itself lies straight ahead.

An iron fence was now erected between the two wings of the building shutting out the deer and sheep. 

On the garden front, a curved balustrade was constructed to enclose a formal garden of around two acres. Entry to the undulating parkland on either side was through wrought iron gates, painted in blue and gold, let into the rectangular sides. At the furthest end, a ha-ha ensures the deer were kept out. A wrought iron fence, beyond sight, joined the ha-ha to the balustrade ensuring security from the animals.

The gates are monogrammed with the Berners’ initials. Mary Henrietta at the top, with the shape of the “M” echoing the symbol of the water carrier and John’s “J” and elaborate “B”s for the Berners, all in perfect harmony. 

The central feature of the formal garden was the parterre-de-broderie, one of Nesfield’s great skills. The area covered by the parterre is about 450 feet long  by 250 feet wide. It was almost circular in shape, with liminal scrolls on each side of a central ray, with the dominant feature – goddess Diana – set in a water basin where gold and silver fish swam. 

There was a level geometric pattern of low box hedges, different coloured gravels and blocks of coloured plants, retained by a low wall. The whole feature in the two acres of formal garden was bounded by beds of evergreen shrubs, rhododendrons and azaleas. 

In February 1867, a delighted visitor reported in the Gardeners’ Chronicle  :“I have never seen a happier combination of Box embroidery, flowering plants, gravel and grass than in the the garden at Woolverstone. It is perfect of its kind. Mr Nesfield will excuse me for saying it is the masterpiece of all his productions…”

It is a shame we can’t see it now except through the prism of our imagination and the planting plan.

Diana – huntress

Diana’s statue appears in the basin centre to the parterre. It also appears in the medallion on the pediment at the front of the Hall. She had a symbolic resonance for William Berners. Diana was the Roman goddess of  the hunt, the moon and nature. Oak groves and deer were especially sacred to her. We know from writing and images that there were “speckled” and white deer around the parkland. She is a copy in Coade stone of the famous statue of Diana in Versailles.