The Glory of the Garden - A Bouquet of English Gardens

Throughout the country there are gardens great and small, formal and informal, private and public, that illustrate the English passion for creating green, growing spaces of their own. This show illustrates a selection of gardens created either by horticultural enthusiasts themselves or ordered up by property owners who wished to indicate their taste and status. In all cases, independent wealth was a key component in their creation!

Many of these gardens were created in times when manual labor was cheap and plentiful, and estate staff could run into the hundreds. Since the Second World War such properties have become increasingly challenging to maintain, and many have passed into the ownership of the National Trust. This charitable organization, whose full name is the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, was created in 1895 out of concern at the loss of open land and historic buildings to urban development. Thus, although Country Houses and Estates make up a significant part of its holdings, it is also known for its protection of wild landscapes such as in the Lake District and Peak District, historic urban properties, and nature reserves.

Nine out of the fourteen gardens depicted here are National Trust properties.