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April 2003

The Kitchen Gardens of Wentworth Woodhouse.

Much of the Wentworth Garden Centre as we know it today occupies the site on which the former kitchen garden complex used to be. They were created in the late 18th century by the Fitzwilliams. The kitchen gardens were created for the purpose of producing a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as cut flowers for the house. Exotic fruits and vegetables were grown in the garden along side the ordinary everyday produce. No necessary expense was spared in the designing and building of the kitchen gardens, all the latest gardening practices and equipment were employed to ensure a constant supply of fresh crops and flowers all the year round.

In 1778, according to old maps, the kitchen gardens used to be in an isolated position in Swallow Close to the North East of the house. They consisted of the pleasure grounds in a walled enclosure with a semi formal arrangement of ponds and orchards as well as a vegetable plot and a hot house garden. In 1786 it was decided by the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam to move the kitchen gardens to a more convenient site, Windmill Close adjacent to Home Farm in Hague Lane was chosen to be the site of the new kitchen gardens and pleasure grounds. For this project John Carr of York was the architect commissioned to design and be responsible for the supervision of the work.

The foundations for the walls were dug in July 1786 and the following January the first "large payment" of �139. 9s. 8d. was made to John Boulby of Wragby, the specialist builder of kitchen garden walls who was recommended to Earl Fitzwilliam by John Carr. John Boulby had already built several kitchen walls for eminent gardens including Nostell Priory near Wakefield. The boundaries of the new garden were to form a simple rectangle between Hague Lane, The Camellia House and Conservatory Lawn and was to cover an area of some 4 acres. The East gateway and central footpath to the kitchen garden was to form part of the driveway from the front door of the West facing range to the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Wentworth exactly one mile distant and in a dead straight line.

Of the four new walls that were to form the boundary of the new gardens the North and South walls were to be "hot walls", that is to say these walls were to contain heated flues. During the 18th and early 19th century, before the advent of steam heating, such walls were the source of heat in most greenhouses. They were used with or without contemporary glazing and were deemed to be absolutely necessary in the green houses to support the cultivation and production of exotic fruits such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, figs, bananas and vines. Not unexpectedly this type of wall seems to have been used more frequently in the North than in the South of England. With estate coal available on the doorstep this type of heating for greenhouses could be utilised and exploited very economically.

The basic principle on which hot walls worked was very simple - the walls were built hollow in the middle with a fire house at the end which heated the air, the hot air was circulated around the walls via a series of flues. At the time of the walls being built the builders estimated the costs and tried to make out that they were very special walls which in turn made the estimated cost higher than was acceptable to John Carr, he disputed the estimates saying that the builders were "over charging for building nothing." With the decline generally of the large walled kitchen garden and with existing walled gardens nowadays tending to be neglected and falling into disrepair, hot walls are rarely found to be in as good a structural condition as those at Wentworth.

When the new gardens were completed the first head gardener to be employed was Benjamin Henderson and he was responsible for every aspect of the entire gardens. His wages were �50.00 per annum; this amount was considered to be a very generous amount in 1790 and was commensurate with the degree of responsibility and importance with which this position was held by his employers. Benjamin had under his control at Wentworth a total of about thirty gardeners.

One of these gardeners was a John Burgan who was in charge of, but under the head gardener, all the glass. John was paid well and his wages varied between 14d and 2s. 6d per day, one of his duties was to purchase flowerpots that he obtained from Green and Brameld of Rockingham pottery. Benjamin Henderson died in 1815 but he had been grooming his son Joseph to take over the head gardener�s position on his death. Records show that Joseph did succeed his father as head gardener at Wentworth and he held the position until his retirement, Joseph died in 1866 and was buried in the old churchyard at Wentworth.

Some of the very first fruit trees to be purchased for the new garden came from Telfords, a famous Yorkshire nursery, the trees were delivered in 1790. Some vegetable seeds also were obtained from Telfords, other seeds were obtained from different suppliers such as Perfects of Pontefract and Fox and Oldham. To ease the problem of watering the gardens, two 240-gallon troughs were purchased and positioned at strategic points within the gardens. A well was sunk to provide the large amounts of water required; the water was drawn from the well and pumped via a network of pipes to the troughs.

Today the old kitchen gardens form the biggest part of the Wentworth Garden Centre and the Craft Workshops. The Japanese Gardens and informal gardens are open to the public. There is talk of using the Camellia House as an Arts Centre that will mean the Camellia House opening to the public should the plans get the go ahead.

As the garden area was considered to be an important part of the Wentworth pleasure grounds, the residents of Wentworth Woodhouse would do a great deal of entertaining their guests within them, then of course things of pleasure were to be created and built. These follies included The Japanese Garden which was designed and created early this century by the wife of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, Maude, Countess Fitzwilliam. The Japanese Garden was formed around a former quarry and consists of mossy lawns, pools, stone bridges, waterfalls, duck houses and a tea house all of which can be seen today as part of the Wentworth Garden Centre grounds. Blended into the garden are many examples of Japanese Maple and Larch trees and the entrance to the gardens is guarded by life-size stone soldiers. Only a few carved stones remain of the old Conservatory that once stood on Conservatory Lawn. The remains of the balustraded terrace are still to be seen leading to what was once the Rose Garden.

To the South end of Conservatory Lawn there still stands The Camellia House designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1738 and into this building was incorporated a re used 17th century doorway. Further to the South there is the Ionic Temple which houses a marble statue of A Man on A Dolphin, the Ionic Temple leads onto The Great South Terrace.

The views to be seen from The Great South Terrace are vast and excellent and stem as far as the estates southern boundaries on which can be seen Keppel's Column. The Great South Terrace was a perfect venue within the pleasure grounds to spend a pleasant summer afternoon taking tea and entertaining important guests and visitors such as Kings, Queens, Princes of Wales, other Earls and Dukes and leading prominent politicians of the day. All enjoyed the superb, legendary hospitality offered by the residents Wentworth Woodhouse.

 

 

 

 

The 2^nd Marquis of Rockingham

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