Royal Garden for Carisbrooke Castle

Carisbrooke Castle - View from Wall Walk A new Edwardian-inspired garden will open at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight this June. The Princess Beatrice garden which will include period plants, fruit trees and a fountain, celebrates the time when Queen Victoria’s daughter stayed at the castle in her role as Governor of the Isle of Wight. Princess Beatrice held this position from 1896 until her death in 1944.

The garden is a collaboration between English Heritage, who look after Carisbrooke Castle on behalf of the nation, and award-winning garden designer and BBC Gardener’s World presenter, Chris Beardshaw.

The new garden will contain just about every element of a fashionable Edwardian garden and will change a fairly unused green space with minimal planting into an exciting and colourful oasis. It will complement the Victorian garden at English Heritage’s other notable property on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House. While the garden at Osborne House reflects the  formality of the Victorian era, Carisbrooke Castle’s garden will reflect the Edwardian trend for softer planting.

Not only will the garden be a joy to look at from the ground but those with a head for heights will be able to look down on the garden from the castle’s medieval ramparts. Gardens are not generally associated with castles but this is one of two new castle gardens to be unveiled by English Heritage in 2009, the other is at Kenilworth Castle in the Midlands.

The design is based on the Edwardian layout of the Princess’s original private garden at Carisbrooke Castle with inspiration drawn from her blue, red and gold heraldic crest as well as from architectural detail on the adjoining chapel in the grounds of the castle.

Following a geometric pattern, the garden is divided into four quarters with the fountain, forming the centrepiece. Herbaceous plants will feature in colourful borders, while the chapel’s stained glass windows will be reflected in ribbon planting in ‘window borders.’  There will also be clipped hedges, a stone viewing platform and benches so that visitors can sit and enjoy this sheltered paradise.

Garden designer Chris Beardshaw said: “It has been a great opportunity to design a garden in such a historic environment. Inspiration can be found wherever you look and hopefully the keen-eyed visitors will be able to spot where some of my ideas for the garden came from.  Gardens bring places to life, they interest people and I’m positive this will add an extra dimension to Carisbrooke Castle.

English Heritage Visitor Operations Director for the South East, Tracey Wahdan, said: “We are very excited about this fabulous new garden and we are certain it will prove a great attraction for visitors to the castle.”

“We are grateful to the late Mrs Dorothy Frazer whose generous bequest and devotion to the Isle of Wight has enabled this garden to be created and enjoyed by future generations.”

Little is known of the garden’s layout or its uses during medieval and Tudor times up until the 19th century. It was then a kitchen garden, before becoming Princess Beatrice’s Privy Garden. Because archaeological excavation has revealed ancient walls beneath the garden, Chris Beardshaw has had the added challenge of having to make sure that roots do not cause any damage. The trees, for example, will be in containers.

The Princess Beatrice garden will add another dimension to the Isle of Wight’s popular medieval castle which is also the home of the Carisbrooke donkeys. Recent improvements include new and exciting interpretation, a new visitor reception and a shop which opened last summer.