Summary

The formal gardens of Calke Abbey were laid out in the early 18th century and consisted of a walled formal garden on the east side of the house, known as the 'best garden' (NTSMR 61220) and this garden - a square parterre garden to the south-east of the house known as the 'Hanging Garden'. The formal gardens are no longer visible above ground as they were replaced by a 'naturalistic' pleasure ground by the 1770s.

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Description

[1] Much of the former formal gardens at Calke have now been lost. They were laid out in the 18th century and were focused to the east and south of the main house. A plan of the Calke estate by Samuel Wyatt, dated 1761, shows a walled formal garden to the east of the house (NTSMR 61220) and this garden - a square ‘parterre’ garden to the south-east with several orchards to the east. The 'parterre' garden is thought to have contained a melon ground, a central fountain, and geometric planned flowerbeds with radiating segments.

In the 1770s the formal gardens were cleared and the remnants incorporated into the current ‘naturalistic’ pleasure ground seen today. The pleasure ground itself was extended eastwards in 1816 when the sunken wall and fence were constructed (61123). Gravelled walks were laid out along its northern and eastern sides and the fence and wall were interrupted in two places where the coach roads to the main house were made (SNA67084 - Marshall, G. 1988: 227, Vol 1).

[2] In July 2019 local archaeologists notified the property that the square garden was visible on the latest LiDAR data made available by the Environment Agency. The data showed a square feature with radial pathways matching the layout of the garden on Wyatt's 1761 plan. As a result the Head Gardener at Calke undertook some research and her findings are below:

The formal gardens at Calke were built by Sir John Harpur, the 4th Baronet, who inherited Calke in 1681. When he turned 21 in 1701 and gained control of his fortune, he wasted no time in spending it by rebuilding the house and creating gardens to surround it. He remodelled the Elizabethan/Jacobean house to a more fashionable classical style, and the archives show that he wanted new gardens in the latest, formal baroque style to match. George London, the King’s gardener and the most sought-after designer of the day, was paid £2 3s in 1702 for ‘his garden draughts’ (£230 today). London and his partner Henry Wise also ran the very successful Brompton Park Nursery and were paid £28 6s (over £3000 today) for plants in the same year.

London and Wise were involved in the design and planting of the gardens of Calke from 1702 till around 1713, and it is at some point during this period that it is believed the ‘Hanging Garden’ was built. It is speculated that it is called the ‘Hanging Garden’ because it was on the hillside ‘hanging’ above the south-east corner of the House. It is in a square, with a Union Jack design, similar to other plans of London and Wise gardens of the period. Despite being on a hill, due to the angle of the slope, you would have had good views of this formal garden from the main first floor reception rooms on the south frontage, and from some of the family apartments. There is now a walk on the other side of the valley, which might have once been adorned with a summer house, that also would have been a wonderful viewing point.

The exact plantings in the ‘Hanging garden’ are unknown, but as further payments ‘for box and Yews etc.’, were sent to London and Wise during this time, they might have formed some of the main structural planting. In the current Pleasure Grounds there are also a number of mature beeches that follow the outlines of the garden and are possibly the remnants of long grown out hedges. There must have been some walls or brick structures inside it, as in 1713 there is mention in the accounts of bricklayers working in ‘the hanging garden’. It is also possible that white gravel ordered at this time was for this area, whilst red gravel was ordered for the ‘Best’ garden that lay to the east of the mansion directly below the ‘Hanging Garden’ (NTSMR 61220).

Analysis of the LiDAR scan suggest that the paths were over 3m wide. The 3D version of the scan looks at the landscape from the SW corner of the house and shows clearly the section of hillside that was blown up with explosives in the later 18th Century, when the fashion for the English Landscape garden was at its peak. This was described by the noted diarist The Hon. John Byng, who on visiting Calke in June 1789 wrote that ‘Many men are employ’d in blowing up a long extent of hill, in front [of the house].’ It had previously been assumed that this landscaping of the hillside had obliterated most traces of the hanging garden, and the rest had been subsumed in the planting of the Pleasure Grounds that are now in existence (SNA68120).

[3] During September 2019 a resistivity survey was undertaken of the site of the 'Hanging Garden' by NT volunteers and was in response to the outline of the former garden being identified on Environment Agency 1m resolution Lidar data.

The Lidar data and subsequent resistivity survey successfully show the central rond point and radial paths of the Hanging Garden and the volunteers were able to overlay the historic plan of the garden and see how well it corresponded. Careful analysis of a number of differently processed Lidar images hints at an extension of the Hanging Garden site immediately to the west (Whirrity & Farnsworth, 2019 - SNA68290).

Using these results, combined with the resistivity results from an earlier survey of the East Lawn (ENA8125 / 61220) we can start to assess what remains below the ground of the former 18th century gardens of Calke.

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