Hestercombe - Garden Romance With Stone

Hestercombe. House and Regular Garden

Deeper into the hills of West England, I sat on pins and needles - will we have time to inspect the farthest and most modern of the gardens of our route?.. At the same time I remembered the story of Hestercomb and the enthusiastic praises of those who were there. It is interesting not only because the famous gardener Gertrude Jekyll worked there. It is a living history of gardening styles and one of the most visited parks in the West of England.

Hestercombe. Regular and landscaped parks. Satellite image. B. Sokolov's scheme. North right

Hestercombe is an ancient estate located on a gentle slope of a rocky hill. This place is, as they say, a familiar place. The Werr family settled and settled on this estate from the 14th to the end of the 19th century, and the local gardens are first mentioned in the chronicle of 1249. In the middle of the 18th century, behind the main house, in the valley of a winding river, a large and very beautiful landscape park was built. By the 1980s, it had become a real forest, and its current paradise scenes are the result of colossal restoration work. At the reception center, a short film is shown on the theme of "it was - it is now", in which it "was" very similar to the Russian Palestinians, like Bogoroditsk or Yaropolts, and the current one is the ideal English landscape. The main lesson of this restoration is - don't wait for manna from heaven! By 1973 and the famous parterre,and the 18th century park were almost lost. The local government council decided to start clearing them with the help of … the local fire brigade (the mansion is occupied by the Somerset Fire Department).

Hestercombe. Main House, Right Regular Garden

Hestercombe. The visitor center itself is impressive. Photo by Elena Lapenko

The clearing entailed a search for old plans, then research and a restoration project. In 1997, the parterre and landscape areas were reopened and caused a storm of excitement, the next year they took over the Victorian Terrace, and in 2003 the Hestercomb Gardens Board of Trustees won a typically English grant - a Heritage Lottery grant. The fact is that the British state starts up the proceeds from the lottery for cultural purposes. And now Hestercomb has turned into a complex landscape object, the landscape part of which is intended not only for viewing, but for family recreation, and the regular part is for admiration and study by garden lovers.

Hestercombe. Visitor Center

We left the Hestercombe Landscape Park for another time, the impressions of the regular part of the ensemble were very rich. Here are a few words about him for future travels. The park offers a trip along the river valley, where the water either forms cascades or pours into ponds (the one closer to the house is called "Pear" because of its shape). The big cascade falls down in a long stream like Crimean waterfalls and glistens against the background of quartz rocks. Several rare and valuable pavilions can be seen in the park. One of them is a grassy hut built into the rock, the Charcoal's Burner Camp. The modest Charbonnieres, the "Coalman's Huts" are not so rare, especially in French parks, but here they recreate a structure that is more peculiar, theatrical and short-lived. there is the Witch's House - an open pavilion made of twigs, bark and straw.It is interesting that its owner, John Bamfield, got ideas for his park while traveling to places already known to us. The pavilion, called the Mausoleum, but serving as a rest among the landscape beauties, is decorated with a quote from a poem by Alexander Pope: "… Blessed is he who combined science with silence."

Hestercombe. Main house and Victorian terrace

The Victorian terrace is also good - standard roses, convex flower beds. Photo by Elena Lapenko

In 1872, the family line of owners was interrupted, and the new owner of Hestercomb decided to add modern features to the park. The house was rebuilt to include a Victorian terrace of lush flower beds and intricate fountains.

Hestercombe. Main house and Victorian terrace

Its dull, bourgeois luxury perfectly sets off the great creation of the next era - the Formal garden, for which we rushed to Hestercombe.

Hestercombe. The central part of the estate. Satellite image. B. Sokolov's scheme

In 1903, the next owner of the estate, the priest Edward Portman, decided to create a new terraced garden under the Victorian parterre. The order was entrusted to one of the largest architects in Britain, Edwin Lutchens (1869-1944; I note that his surname, despite the peculiar spelling - Lutyens - is pronounced that way). Lutchence built many houses and public facilities - we walked across the Thames to Hampton Court on a red and white single-span bridge he designed. The most famous ensemble was the city of New Delhi, the new capital of India, completed by 1930. But in the history of garden art, Lutchens played an outstanding role. Early in his career, he studied and worked in the architectural studio of Harold Pitot, an ardent supporter of Italian garden art. Pito believed that the Italian terraced garden, with its calm parterres,stone pergolas and lush greenery growing on them are most consistent with the idea of the "old English" style. He created exemplary gardens of the “Italian” type and gave the young architect the skills to work in this long-forgotten manner. All his life Lutchens had a great interest in architectural-type gardens - on a stone base, with powerful verticals associated with the manor house.

Hestercombe. Regular garden. Below us - the gray track

Hestercombe. Regular garden. Stone frame, blooming painting, distant views

In 1888, the architect met Gertrude Jekyll, who by this time had turned from an ordinary painter into a garden painter. Legend claims that the artist switched to gardening, having lost the ability to paint and watercolors due to progressive myopia, and that for this reason, her favorite form was "mixborder" - a floral ribbon with skillfully selected colors and shades. The artist's color compositions reminded many of the paintings of the French impressionists. Jekyll's simple yet graceful schemes, along with her books, became immensely popular. At Sissinghurst we have already seen the excellent work of her follower, Vita Sackville West - remember "The Purple Curb"? Starting with her own Jekyll home in Munstead Wood, Lutchence worked with her for many years.The situation is reminiscent of the history of the garden in Sissinghurst - the architect created the base, the artist weaved living patterns on it. Often, Jekyll's plantings were a kind of "farmhouse garden" that the British recalled with nostalgia at the turn of the century. But in Hestercombe the whole ensemble is so powerful and beautiful, the work of the two authors is so subtle and harmonious that you don't know who is in charge here and to what style this garden should be attributed.

Hestercombe. Staircase from the entrance to the house - suite of circles

Impressions begin already on the stairs leading to the garden. It is all built of stone slabs of irregular shape - steps, curbs, and high pillars at the entrance. There is a feeling of southern architecture, close to nature and reminiscent of ancient ruins.

Hestercombe. The staircase leading to the house is decorated with millstones …

… and Karvinsky's small petals

White daisies bloomed in abundance between the steps, life streaming through the warm gray stone. Rather, these flowers are very similar to daisies. It is a southern plant, Erigeron karvinskianus, which is sometimes called "Spanish daisy" for its sultry origin. The staircase ends in a circular landing with steps that circle like a tiny Roman theater.

Hestercombe. Continuation of the stairs - an amphitheater of steps …

… opening to the right to the landscape park, to the left to the Regular Garden

And on the sides of this theater we are greeted by two different worlds - on the right, a landscape scene with a field and picturesque clumps of trees, on the left, another staircase leading us into the garden. The juxtaposition of a free English landscape and austere "Italian" garden can be seen everywhere - it is especially interesting to look at the park through the round windows in the wall enclosing the parterre.

Parts of the regular garden at Hestercombe

Hestercombe. House, Gray path, Large parterre. Left behind the scenes Rose Garden, right Rotunda

Hestercombe. Large parterre, behind it a pergola - the border of the garden

Hestercombe. Western stream. Left Rose Garden

Hestercombe. Eastern stream, above it the Rotunda

Hundreds of uneven, wavy slabs are laid in the garden so beautifully, with such great taste that they are a wonderful sight in themselves. If you look closely, you will find that in the center of the round areas, the slabs with characteristic grooves in a circle are old millstones.

Hestercombe. Upper Terrace - Rose Garden

Descending to the first terrace of the garden, we found ourselves among low walls and slender pillars, small canals and small ridges of bushes. This space is open and closed at the same time, dry and humid by murmuring streams, stone and green. You soon realize that Lutchens used only two basic shapes here - a rectangle (path, curb, lawn), a circle and variations of these two elements.

Hestercombe. Upper Terrace - Western Stream

The canals are mesmerizing, really similar to Italian ones, but in addition decorated with pairs of round pools the size of a plate. And at the bottom of these water plates there are wonderful rows of stone slabs, set with an edge!

Hestercombe. Upper Terrace - Gray path connecting the edges of the garden - Rosary and Rotunda

Under the wall of the Victorian parterre is the Gray Walkway. Here silvery plants reign - lavender, santolina, lupine, clematis, soapwort. But not only along the path - shoots of sweet peas, sedum and other plants that love to climb rocks hang from the cracks of the wall itself. This is an image of an overgrown ancient ruin, given tactfully and without pressure.

Hestercombe. Gray walkway, Large parterre with corner staircase, pergola

Hestercombe. Plants growing from the walls of the terrace hang over the Gray Path

Below is the square of the main terrace. Its surface is skillfully divided between two elements, equally beloved in Italy and England. Green grass stripes form a diagonal cross, and the corners are filled with ornamental plants. And here you notice that the lawns have the same shape as the stone paths and stairs - a rectangle with rounded ends.

Hestercombe. Plants over the Big parterre

Hestercombe. Semicircular staircase to the ground

They seem to be carpets rolled over stone slabs. High, vigorous flower plantings stand out against their background. Among them you can see bushes of peonies, cannes, delphinium, gladioli, white and tiger lilies, phlox. All this splendor is set off by the elastic leaves of the herbs. The parterre changes its color during the season, but it is always bright, lively combinations of pure colors.

Hestercombe. Regular Garden wall with windows to the landscape

Below the garden is completed by a pergola on stone pillars of a familiar shape. The subtle spatial solution is impressive here.

Hestercombe. Wall with viewport and pergola

Hestercombe. View from the pergola to the landscape surrounding the garden

The edge of the parterre is located below the Gray Path from which we descended, and the upper border of the pergola is above it. The level of relief doubles in our perception, and the pergola also includes wide landscape scenes. This rich view ends with a blue silhouette of distant hills.

Hestercombe. Pergola

Hestercombe. East Stream, Rotunda, Greenhouse

Lutchence and Jekyll created not one but two regular gardens around the manor house. If you go up from the left side of the parterre, you find yourself on a round platform with a grotto, called the Rotunda.

Hestercombe. East stream and exit to the Greenhouse

From her pool, the view of the canal and garden is especially beautiful.

Hestercombe. Rotunda and Main House

Hestercombe. Rotunda and East Stream

From here you can get to a small greenhouse, as if it came from an old Italian park. Lutchens has made her windows huge and proportioned high and narrow, so in summer she turns into a cool pavilion with spectacular views of the park.

Hestercombe. Pavilion

Hestercombe. Greenhouse and the beginning of the landscape park

The Dutch garden is laid out behind it. Contrary to its name, this site is not planted with tulips or muscari, but with a sculptural combination of two plants: dark yucca caps and flexible lavender waves. And then the landscape park began …

… And our visit ended! We miraculously managed to inspect the most important thing before closing the garden, admired the orange rays of the sunset on the run, and, incredibly happy, settled into a comfortable bus.