The Lost Gardens

The lost landscape of Grange Park is an ornate parkland featuring a lake was created here in the early 1760s.

Exterior of Northington Grange The garden terraces, overlooking the parkland and lake © English Heritage A recent archaeological survey to the side of the house has revealed the traces of an earlier garden with a fountain, probably of 16th-century date, and associated with a much earlier house.

In 1817, The Grange was bought by Alexander Baring (1773–1848), an international financier. He vastly improved the park and the gardens in the latest fashion.

Baring increased the size of the park, extended the kitchen and flower gardens, and planted many ornamental trees, such as the cedars which survive today. Just visible through the trees is the lake, to which he added waterfalls and a bridge designed by Robert Adam.

In 1788, the park was described as enclosed by 'well planted' boundaries, with several avenues. It was largely used for hunting. In 1795, when George, prince of Wales leased The Grange as a hunting lodge, there were over 400 deer.

The Lost Gardens

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