Weaverham and District Gardening Club June 2015
At our June meeting Tom Acton spoke and showed us slides of some of the interesting and elegant gardens he’d visited. He is a lifetime gardener, including having been head gardener at Arley.
The pictures from Hampton Court Palace Gardens were taken before two of the ornamental gardens became vegetable gardens, as they had been in the past. All the gardens are well kept, if not pristine. One bed is vacant except for the enormous roots of the famous 245 year old grape vine, which produces about 5 cwt of grapes a year.
Hestercombe in Somerset is a masterpiece of Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. Much use is made of a yellow limestone called ham stone (from Ham Hill). Pillars of ham stone either side of a path support beams overhead, which become a mass of clematis and honeysuckle in season. Plants that were in season in May included a Scotch Briar, with white flowers, and Crinodendron, a bush with scarlet Chinese lantern shaped flowers. Tom grew one of these, and lost it during the cold winters; but he’d given a cutting to one of his daughters. Hers survived, so he was able to take a cutting back.
The slideshow then moved to Arley.
An old farmhouse, now called “The Old Parsonage”, had outhouses along Cow House Lane. These were converted to dormitory accommodation for pupils at the choristors’ school, set up by the Lord Ashbrook of the time, the present Lord Ashbrook’s great great grandfather. They’re now named “King’s Cottages”, after the first head of the school.
The school itself was in a converted cruck barn, and a house built on the end for the head. The boys wore caps and gowns until WW1.
The school became a primary school, until about 1990, when it was closed, and the property reverted to the Arley estate. They converted it to a home; the first tenants being Gail (from Coronation Street) and Michael. When Tom helped them convert the school playground (tarmac and nettles) into a lovely garden; surprisingly few weeds came up. They moved on, and subsequent tenants showed less interest in gardening.
50 yards from Arley Pool was an Ice House; they used to take ice off the pool and put it in this pit, where it would stay frozen for months, preserving their food. It was decided to turf over it. The uneven surface made it very difficult to mow; Tom would have preferred they’d used chamomile or woodruff to grass.
At the end of the barn is a dwarf lilac (Syringa microphylla), 4 or 5 foot high. Tom would cut it back after flowering, and get 4 or 5 shows a year out of it.
Hardy Orchids will be Jeff Hutchings’ subject for our 29th September meeting at University Academy Primary School, Northwich Road, Weaverham at 7.30pm. For further information phone 852671 or go to our website:-