The Great Transformation Part 2

In the east wing, John Berners had a “handsome” span-roof conservatory built. It measured seventy feet in length, twenty-two feet wide and approximately eighteen feet high. By the magic of mechanics, the glass in the roof could be opened and closed to control the temperature and humidity. The floor was made of polished stone with a central pathway, about 4’6” wide, running down the length of the room made of tessellated pavement edged with Blue Lias stone. On the side of the path closest to the glass were placed huge stone vases 4’6” wide and 2’6” high, some housing camellias that reached to seven feet tall. Towards the back of the conservatory, on the opposite side of the path, were placed large jardinières for grouping flowering plants. Interspersed with these were smaller vases for individual specimens. Hanging baskets descended from the roof and climbing plants and creepers ascended the walls.

From the conservatory, a door led into a “most effective and beautiful Fernery”.

The Fernery

The “indoor” fernery was made of Lupa stone from Derbyshire, foundry refuse and other materials put together in a highly artistic manner in the form of arches, stalactites and natural rocks. At the entrance, there was a rocky recess, complete with water trickling down. A winding passage led through the ferns. Artificial chasms were created for the introduction of numerous rare and choice ferns and other plants. Climbing plants and other pot plants were to be found. Walking through the passage, the sound of tinkling water accompanied the visitor until they exited to the shrubbery. One visitor recorded that: “there is perhaps hardly it’s like in England.”

Another, “outdoor”, fernery was created some quarter a mile away across the gardens in a place where the ground dropped sharply towards the  thicker woodland and the river. Here the soil is rich, black and boggy. A multitude of small springlets trickle out of the soil. It is the perfect spot for ferns to grow. James Sheppard created another world here by using artificial stone and rocks to create winding paths along the steep hillside, surrounded by ferns and water gently trickling over the stones. Some of the ferns were frost sensitive and had to be covered through winter. There were also stands of small-leaved bamboos that grew to 30 feet in height. In this magical area “the soft music of falling water seems to bathe one’s spirit in cool satisfying pleasure and delightful repose.”

Amid the shady environs, a rustic looking summer hut was constructed.

The Kitchen Garden

“The kitchen garden is some distance from the house and consists of about eight acres in several walled compartments, including nurseries.” (Gardeners’ Chronicle 1861)

In 1861, the walls were described as covered in fruit trees. Beds of vegetables were disguised by borders of flowers which gave “the appearance of a flower garden and it has exemplary neatness”. Coping with the English weather meant artificial heating was required. A double range of pits for the production of melons were heated with hot water. The hot water was produced in a boiler room, brick with a slate roof, within the complex and running through a system of pipes which also supplied heated houses and rooms. The water from the boiler went first to the mushroom house and then further round various structures that required heat. Much of the fresh water came from wells but some was driven by a hydraulic ram from a fast-running stream in the valley running down to Deer Park Lodge. The water was stored in a brick water tower on the edge of the garden area.

In one of the slip gardens was a glass house devoted to vines. Various structures were built to house increasingly exotic plants as the Victorian gardener benefited from the expansion of Empire. One house alone provided flowers for the conservatory. A fern nursery brought on exotic plants for the new Fernery House attached to the conservatory at the Hall.

In the south slip garden, there was a second vinery producing Black Hamburgh and Muscat grapes, with a further peach house and fig house. Any space around these houses was used to grow flowers for cut flower displays. “It would be difficult to find a series of gardens more admirably managed both for the beautiful and the useful, doing credit to the taste of the owner, the genius of Mr Nesfield, and the skill of the intelligent gardener (Sheppard) under whose care they are kept in their present admirable condition.” reports the correspondent in the Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1861.

By 1867, a new Paxtonian peach house had been built. There was increasing use of glass and other buildings. The Gardeners’ Chronicle contains a list of buildings on the garden:

• An early peach house 27’ x 6’
• Paxtonian glass house 6 ½’ x 11 ½’
• Fig House 27’ x 10’
• One very long narrow vinery for late grapes 70’ x 6’
• Two wider vineries 20’ x 14 ½’
• Large span house, 80’ x 18’ – azaleas and other hard wooded plants
• Large greenhouse 40’ x 14’ – for flowering plants supplying the conservatory and cut flowers for the house
• Stove house 48’ x 11 ½’ – for winter cucumbers among other things
• Hot house 48’ x 11 ½’ – for ferns and fine foliaged plants. The front wall of this house has been surfaced with artificial stone for growing the ferns.