History of the garden at Lanhydrock

The 1600s

The garden takes shape

1650

Richard Robartes designed the double avenue that climbs through the parkland to the house tucked into the wooded ridge behind. Planted with sycamore trees, this imposing stretch was intended to provide a grand approach to the house for important visitors.

1694

The Lanhydrock Atlas of 1694 shows that the area where the broad path and magnolia glade are now located was once a kitchen garden.

1695

The 1695 Lanhydrock Atlas shows a bowling green in the area where the parterre now stands. The same publication depicts the north garden, beyond the tennis court, as a wilderness garden. This was an area interlaced with gravel paths in the form of a Union Jack between small shrubs and trees. Family members and guests could escape the busy house for a quiet stroll and to take in the fresh Cornish air.

The wilderness garden extended north to where, today, the National Trust reception building is situated.

Avenue of beech trees at Lanhydrock in Cornwall — How the double avenue looks today | © National Trust Images/James Dobson

The 1700s

Building the barn

The barn was built using stone left over from the demolition of the east range in the 1780s, though the doorways with the pointed arches may date back to the monk’s house that was here before the 16th century. The Trust has planted Wisteria sinensis, which clothes the gable end with purple flowers in late spring.

The 1800s

Ornamental touches are added

1820

Anna Maria Hunt replanted the double avenue leading to the house with beech trees. Throughout the 1820s, she also improved and embellished much of the higher garden - including the kitchen garden, which became an ornamental flower garden.

We have no record of the layout of the flower garden, but indirect evidence from Anna Maria’s accounts in 1827 suggest that a glasshouse had been built here to accommodate plants supplied by John Pond (possibly Pontey).

The tithe barn to the north was given an ornamental ‘gothic’ façade, becoming an eye-catcher from other parts of the garden. The blank window in the gable end was added when the chancel of the church was extended in 1886. The origin of the small stone cross at the peak is unknown.

1822

By this point, work had begun on a ‘ha-ha’ (a sunken ditch hiding a boundary wall or fence) that would separate the higher garden from the formal gardens nearer the house.

1840s

By the 1840s, the former kitchen garden had become an ornamental flower garden. William Booth, head gardener to Sir Charles Lemon at Carclew in Cornwall, designed a new kitchen garden for Thomas Agar-Robartes. Although no documentary evidence survives, it’s thought that William Booth may also have redesigned the higher garden between the thatched cottage and the farmyard to the north, and developed terracing to the south, starting with the broad path.

1858

The parterre was part of the redesign of the formal gardens in 1858, taking the place of what’s shown in the 1695 Lanhydrock Atlas as a bowling green.

First developed by the Frenchman Claude Mollet in around 1595, parterres originally had a simple interlacing of herbs surrounding sand or flowers. Box hedging was first used in the 1630s. Though parterres went out of fashion in England during the naturalistic landscape garden movement of the 1720s, they were back in vogue by the mid 19th century.

The Parterre at Lanhydrock, Cornwall — The parterre at Lanhydrock | © National Trust Images/Faye Rason

The 1900s

Vistas and magnolias

1914

In 1914, a semi-circular garden enclosed by an English yew hedge (Taxus baccata) was installed on the southern side of the higher garden opposite the glasshouse in front of the tithe barn. James Hawken, the head gardener to Mary and Thomas Charles Agar-Robartes, probably carried out this work. The low hedging allowed views across the garden to the terracing to the south.

1930s

Gravel paths between the box hedges in the parterre were replaced with grass when Gerald Viscount Clifden updated the design in the 1930s. The large box hedge surrounding the Parterre was added in 1935 to commemorate the silver jubilee of George V.

In spring, the parterre has block colours of tulips with an under planting of forget-me-nots while for the last 20 years the summer bedding has featured begonias.

1933

The overgrown ornamental flower garden, which had formerly been a kitchen garden, was cleared and planted by Gerald Viscount Clifden with magnolias, starting with two multi-stemmed magnolia campbellii and two magnolia x veitchii ‘Peter Veitch’. These four trees began the magnolia glade and are the largest magnolias in the garden and only the magnolia grandiflora clothing the north range of the house is older.

1947-49

The magnificent magnolia campbelli subsp mollicomata near the front of the gardener’s cottage was planted in 1947, and magnolia sargentiana var. robusta near the path at the top of the stream completed Gerald’s magnolia planting in 1949. Gerald was a keen amateur gardener and able to indulge his hobby with the help of his head gardener James Hawken. The surrounding park and trees allowed the magnolias to become well established, despite the east winds and frost that can blow in from Bodmin Moor.

Thomas Charles Agar-Robartes, his wife Mary and their children enjoyed many Victorian pastimes including tennis. The court area was grassed in the 1960s by the National Trust and, like the formal garden lawns, is cut weekly in season, being used as a children’s play area and for hosting other outdoor activities.

1969

The delightful stream in the higher garden was created by Peter Borlase in 1969, and it still bears his name. Peter was the head gardener at Lanhydrock from 1966 to 1993.

The magnolias planted by Gerald Viscount Clifden in 1933 developed their root systems to take advantage of water flowing down from St Hydrock’s spring higher up the garden, which was hidden in a culvert. They grew so well that the flow of water to lower parts of the garden was seriously impeded. Borlase carefully pruned the roots, opened the culvert and built a U-shaped stone-lined stepped trench to create the stream, adding interest to this area and allowing the development of a sympathetic streamside planting scheme.

1970s and '80s

The National Trust made plantings of several varieties of rhododendron and magnolia in an informal open scheme through the 1970s and ’80s, with three Indian horse chestnut trees grouped close to the wall bordering the parterre. The large rhododendron arboretum near the fence bears red flowers in spring and is over 100 years old. The 1860 picture shows this as a sparsely planted grassed area.

1990

Look out for a hollow lime tree that is over 150 years old. It was damaged in 1990 by a bad storm that destroyed over a thousand other trees across the estate.

1992

Head gardener Peter Borlase registered magnolia ‘Albatross’, magnolia sprengeri var. diva ‘Lanhydrock’ and magnolia campbellii subsp mollicomata ‘Peter Borlase’ with the International Magnolia Society.

Under the guidance of successive head gardeners (Peter Borlase and Nigel Teagle), the selection of magnolias at Lanhydrock has grown to 200 in the 30-acre garden, including 15 different species, three sub-species and over 100 different hybrids or cultivars.