Gardens of the past

Above: In 1906 when Arthur Bott bought the Benington Lordship Estate, the only garden was the sunken garden to the south of the house, which is now the rose garden. The rest of the land was a golf course

Above: The West garden at Hatfield House includes scented garden, herb garden and knot garden. Within the gardens stands the surviving wing of The Royal Palace of Hatfield where Elizabeth I spent most of her childhood. An oak tree marks the place where the young

Above: The Japanese Garden in Cottered was first laid out at the start of the 20th century by a wealthy china merchant Herbert Goode after he and his wife were inspired by a visit to Japan.

Above: The rose tea cottage and tea garden at 34 Watford Heath has a Tudor appearance

THROUGHOUT Hertfordshire there are formal and informal, private and public gardens that illustrate the British passion for creating green, growing spaces of their own. An influence on Hertfordshire’s development of parks and gardens is its proximity to London which ensured that the gardens followed the latest fashion trends from the capital.
Dating from the early 17th century, the gardens at Hatfield House were designed by John Treadescant the elder who was employed by Robert Cecil to collect plants for his new home. The French architect Salomon de Caus designed a waterwheel driven pumping system for the fountain in 1612, one of the first of its kind.
Some of the most important country houses, like Cassiobury near Watford, which in 1871 extended over an area of 5,500 acres, and Panshanger have been demolished. However, many unusual Hertfordshire gardens such as Benington Lordship Gardens still survive and have been featured in television programmes such as Poirot.
In 1838 George Proctor decided to romanticise the ruins of the Norman castle and employed the Broxbourne landscape gardener James Pulham. James was famous for work using his ‘Pulamite Stone’, a secret mixture which was a sort of cement that could be moulded to replicate stonework. Benington Lordship Gardens can still be visited today. The early 20th century also saw the creation of three Japanese gardens at Fanhams Hall, Ware, the Node near Codicote and at Cottered.

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