Lancelot Brown by Nathanial Dance, photo by dcoetzee
Throughout 2016 the work of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown will be marked with a festival of events celebrating his life, work and legacy – 300 years on from his birth.
Brown’s rich legacy of work ranges form Highclere Castle, the fictional home of ‘Downton Abbey’ to the well-known estates of Chatsworth, Blenheim and Stowe, to hidden gems such as Milton Abbey, Weston Park and Compton Verney. In 2016, there will be a range of events for everyone to enjoy – from the most ardent of fans, to those that know nothing of his work but simply enjoy stunning landscapes.
Some highlights include the opportunity to tour the grounds of Belvoir Castle, where a lost Brown design was recently rediscovered and implemented; his first and last known commissions; his longest commission; and some of his crowning achievements. The Capability Brown Festival 2016 has been funded by a £911,100 grant from the Heritage lottery Fund, and is managed by The Landscape Institute. Festival director Ceryl Evans said:
‘Brown’s work was groundbreaking. He blended art and engineering, and moved mountains of earth and villages, to create beautiful naturalistic landscapes which are still much admired today, 300 years after his birth.’
Brown’s original plan for Blenheim
A prolific landscape architect, Brown is associated with more than 250 sites across England and Wales, with many more parks and gardens around the world inspired by his work.
Audley End, Essex
Capability Brown is a name well-known in gardening and landscaping circles, but among the general public his work and influence is less well-known. The Festival aims to address that gap as many of our best loved country houses are set as jewels in the wonderful landscapes he created, but often we recognise them for their architecture but sideline what makes them even more splendid – their amazingly landscaped and seemingly natural settings.
Three centuries after Brown’s birth, the Festival presents a unique opportunity to take a fresh look at how the father of landscape architecture shaped the nation’s countryside.
Blenheim Palace Grand Bridge by Boddah at English Wikipedia
Source: Landscape and Amenity Magazine, December 2015
Further information:
Old School Gardener
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I’ve loved Castle Drogo in Devon for many years. A classic Lutyen’s design, the house is as imposing (forbidding?) as the entrance suggests. The gardens are relatively modest for somewhere so grand, I guess partly because of the site perched on a granite outcrop overlooking Drewsteington and Dartmoor beyond.
We were very lucky to have a morning to spare before travelling home from seeing friends in Cheshire, recently. Tatton Park was a half hour drive away, so we headed off. I was eager to see this garden which is a prominent National Trust property (though run by the local Council) and features in the annual round of RHS Flower Shows. I wasn’t disappointed…
Having arranged to see our son in Leicester on the way home from Hull, we couldn’t resist trying to pop in and see the new tomb of Richard III in the cathedral there. We found the cathedral after parking in an ‘anywhere’ shopping mall: I loved the newly established informal landscaping and gardens that now surround the building, featuring some lovely flowering cherries. We arrived on the stroke of 5pm, to be met at the main entrance by a long grey beard attached to a man in a black vestment….
And the wider cathedral, though relatively small in scale had some wonderful features…including gilded screens and roof angels and some beautiful modern glass windows telling the story of King Richard. It was wonderful to see all this and to be the only people around…our guide explained that since the tomb had been installed the place was usually heaving with visitors.
Travelling back from our recent trip to Hull, we stopped off at a National Trust property in Derbyshire, the north midlands- Hardwick Hall. The Hall itself wasn’t open on our visit, but promises to be a fascinating example of high 18th century bling, so a return visit is in store….meanwhile how about the gardens?
This year’s UK City of Culture is Kingston upon Hull. We had a trip there recently to explore this old city, which, a bit like our home city of Norwich, is ‘off the beaten track’. I’d been here before but only briefly, and wasn’t overly impressed with its noise and scruffiness… but that was a while ago.
We had a fascinating guided walk around the city in the company of a local lad who showed us many wonderful places with fascinating stories, including the street named- no one knows why– ‘Land of Green Ginger’, which also has the world’s smallest window…see the picture below, to the right of the information board… yes that vertical slot; it was used by the inn’s stable lad to keep an eye out for arriving coaches so that he could be up and at ’em!
We were impressed with some grand old buildings (and stayed in the Royal Hotel, itself a remnant of the grand Victorian age of rail travel).
We took a mother’s Day trip out to this super National Trust Hall and Farm in Cambridgeshire. I loved the parterre with it’s combinations of Box and Euonymous and the Folly tower with some wonderful skeletal trees…
Old School Garden 