A talk by John Grundy on Monday 25th June in St Andrew's Church, beautifully decorated for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Flower Festival weekend. It was good to see as many as 100 people in the church for the talk.
 Jubilee Flower Festival, St Andrew's Church. Photo by A Curtis (2012) |  Jubilee Flower Festival, St Andrew's Church. Photo by A Curtis (2012) |
John, in characteristic humour, made this an illustrated talk 'with no flowers' but did sneak one or two flowery slide photos for those who were watching carefully. My notes don't allow me to give a full detailed account of all he told us and I can't hope to cover all the gardens he mentioned. I just give you lots of photos (mainly from Geograph) and flowers without the jokes!
The talk covered the history of gardens in the county from speculated gardens around our earliest castles to the planned landscapes of the big estates in the 18th and 19th centuries, many based on features shown in romantic paintings and the grand tours of classical Europe.
 East end of the Italian Garden, Chillingham Castle. Photo A Curtis (2004). |  Chillingham Castle. Photo A Curtis (2004). |
 Wallington Clock Tower. Photo A Curtis (2009). |  Urn in walled garden, Wallington. Photo A Curtis (2009). |
 Quarry Garden, Belsay Hall. Photo A Curtis (2004). |  Belsay Hall. Photo A Curtis (2004).  Belsay Hall. Photo A Curtis (2004). |
 Bavington Hall. Photo by Peter McDermott (2011). |  Bywell Hall. Photo by Bill Cresswell (2008). |
 Rothley Lakes. Photo by A Curtis (2010). |  Kirkharle, the birthplace of 'Capability' Brown Photo A Curtis (2010). |
Many of these gardens cost a great deal to make, a tradition which still continues with the garden at Alnwick Castle. Redevelopment of the garden was instigated by Jane Percy (the current and 12th Duchess of Northumberland) in 1997, with Belgian landscape designers Jacques and Peter Wirtz. It is the most ambitious new garden created in the United Kingdom since World War II, with a reported total development cost of £42 million (Wikipedia).
 Tree house, Alwick Garden. Photo by Mark Evans (2008). |  Cherry Orchard at Alnwick Gardens. Photo by David Clark (2010). |
Magnificent (and numerous) though they are, it is not just the mansion houses that dominate the gardens of Northumberland. Smaller properties and even the productive miner/farmer small holdings of our once industrial valleys are also part of the floral mix.
John mentioned the yards of terraced houses, cottage gardens of our villages and the gardens of the pit cottages at Beamish that would also house a pig and some chickens. Gardens by man in God's own garden of Northumberland.
Personal spaces created by their owners. Contrast merely in scale.
John mentioned the yards of terraced houses, cottage gardens of our villages and the gardens of the pit cottages at Beamish that would also house a pig and some chickens. Gardens by man in God's own garden of Northumberland.
Personal spaces created by their owners. Contrast merely in scale.
 Back lane in Blucher. Photo A Curtis (2010). |  Cragside. Photo by Mike White (2010). |
My favourites belong in this category too - the garden at the disused Langley Station, and the wonderful quirky Cement Menagerie at Branxton.
 Langley Station. Photo by Charlie Bell (2008). |  The Cement Menagerie, Branxton. Photo A Curtis (2010). |
THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN
by Rudyard Kipling
Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You will find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all;
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits and the tanks:
The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.
And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:--"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
by Rudyard Kipling
Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You will find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all;
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits and the tanks:
The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.
And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:--"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
Read the rest of Rudyard Kipling's poem at Project HappyChild - linking children all across the world.
Gardens of Northumberland by the Borders by Susie White (2006)
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