Audley End House - Essex
Outline history of gardens
Once the extensive cultivated estate of an Abbey during the Middle Ages the landscape of Audley End has seen many changes reflecting the various tastes of its owners and the fashion of their time. After being converted into a private home the Abbey was replaced by a vast mansion of which the present house is only a part. The owner Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk created a great formal garden to provide a suitable setting for his new house consisting of straight alleys and rectangular ponds with long avenues of trees stretching out into the countryside. Audley End's most notable owner, Sir John Griffin Griffin had very different ideas and during the 18th century the magnificent park was transformed from formal gardens into one of 'Capability' Brown's most successful pastoral landscapes and remains substantially as it was when first created. Later features include a restored Parterre garden, a rose garden and fountains, and the restored 19th century walled kitchen garden now in use as a working organic kitchen garden.
Audley End is Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.
Garden highlights
The façade of Audley End, glimpsed across the superb landscape parkland that surrounds it, is one of the great sights of East Anglia. It contains delightful features such as the Elysian Garden (a woodland grove) with its elegant Robert Adam Bridge and cascade. Temples and a column create distant vistas at the edges of the park while the river Cam weaves a leisurely course through the smooth lawns near the house. Highlights include:
A restored 1832 parterre flower garden, recreated following the original design revealed by archaeological excavations, contains period flowers from the period. Beds contain Roses and Peonies with a wide range of herbaceous plants that include campanulas, Iris, dicentras, foxgloves, lilies and paeonies. Spring bulbs bring early colour. Up to 14,000 bedding plants are grown on site.
The Elysian Garden, designed by Placido Columbani, is a woodland grove with a Palladian bridge designed by Robert Adam in 1782, and a cascade, designed by Richard Woods, constructed in the same year on the site of an ancient mill dam.- Place Pond is the only remaining section of the medieval monastic ponds, which were once stocked with carp, an important part of the monks' diet.
In 2002 English Heritage restored the beautiful herbaceous borders leading into the parterre using period planting. - The 18th century Temple of Concord provides a stunning general view of the park. It was built to celebrate George III's recovery from his first attack of insanity.
The 19th century walled kitchen garden is being restored and the area known as Lady Portsmouth's garden is now being gardened as an organic working kitchen garden in a unique partnership between English Heritage and Garden Organic (previously Henry Doubleday Research Association).- The Temple of Victory (not open to the public) terminates the vista in the west park. Designed by Robert Adam, it commemorates the British victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War.
Enter the 1868 Pond Garden through an archway of scented honeysuckle into an enclosure with a wide range of old fashioned scented roses and clematis. The garden also has fountains which are operated by the 1860s waterwheel. At the far end there is a Pulhamite rockery whilst in the centre beds there are arrangements of subtropical victorian planting include bananas, cannas, abutilons and spider plants. A small door then leads you into the restored kitchen garden.
Across the East Park Lady Portsmouth's Column provides a further focal point in the landscape, dedicated to her memory the plinth carries a marble inscription tablet and is surmounted by a Portland Stone vase which was originally gilded. - Completed in 1764 to the design of Robert Adam, the Stone Bridge has a splendid open view of the house that includes the curving drive and Lion Gate surmounted by the Howard Lion.
Rare and unusual plants
The Howard Oak (named after the family) or its Botanical name Quercus x audleyensis (named after the house), recorded in the 19th century, is a unique hybrid with extra large leaves. Underneath the oak wild orchids including the bee orchid and cowslips grow. During the months of February and March Audley End has a wonderful show of natural snow drops and special walks leading up to the Temple of Victory are arranged for visitors on certain weekends. Period correct plantings within the parterre (1830s), pond garden and Elysian garden.
Early 19th and 20th century varieties of fruit and vegetables are planted in the organic kitchen garden including a large variety of fruit being trained as fans, espaliers and cordons on wires on the walls and bordering the beds, and established grape vines grown in the restored vinery.
Wildlife
Four Nationally Scarce species including the Wall Bedstraw which is found nowhere else in Essex. For more information on endangered wildlife and habitats visit the Environment Agency's Web Page.
View further information on Audley End House visiting times, facilities, entrance prices and directions.
