Review: Unforgettable Gardens

Amid a plethora of books that take us around the gardens of Britain, Unforgettable Gardens is a little different. True, like many, it suggests places that may be interesting to visit but this ‘visitor’s guidebook’ is woven through with the history of garden-making.

( I was given a review copy but am not paid.)

The book by The Gardens Trust follows a chronological path from the 16th century, the earliest gardens about which records survive, through to present day creations, including some, such as Plaz Metaxu in Devon, that are still being developed.

The unifying factor is their importance to the story of British gardens with all but a few listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Significance.

Set out in centuries, each chapter opens with an overview of the period, covering horticultural developments and changes in style, and written by garden historians and other experts. These are followed by notable examples of the period with short ‘essays’ on each garden’s development and main features, covering 60 sites in total.

We learn how gardens first started to be designed with the house during Elizabethan times, how in the 18th century Capability Brown was “not the only show in town’, and how the first publicly funded British park, at Birkenhead, influenced the design of Central Park.

Indeed, this ‘borrowing’ of ideas is common across horticulture with many of the gardens using styles and fashions from abroad. The Japanese Garden at Cowden took this one stage further by employing the services of Japanese people in both its creation and maintenance.

It’s not just what we would typically consider gardens that Unforgettable Gardens covers with parks and cemeteries also included, many of which were laid out by leading designers at the time.

There’s a range of sizes as well from the vast scale of Chatsworth to the cottage garden of Margery Fish at East Lambrook Manor.

Along the way, we discover the earliest record of tomato cultivation in Britain, the site of the first greenhouse for oranges and learn of the Jacobean fashion for bowling greens. The journey also covers the layers of history at Scotney Castle in Kent, Arts and Crafts classics and the modernism of the 20th century, the playfulness of Wicksteed Park.

The changes over the decades at many of these gardens emphasises their fragility. As we are told: “All are special, equally unforgettable, but vulnerable to change”. It’s The Gardens Trust’s mission to protect and conserve them. Making them better known to the garden-visiting public is one way of doing that.

Unforgettable Gardens by The Gardens Trust is published by Batsford Books with an RRP of £30. You can buy it here for £23.53. (If you buy via this link, I receive a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.) Alternatively, you may wish to buy from an independent bookseller here. All prices correct at time of publication of this post.

Top image: The Great Court at Athelhampton.

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