Newby Hall & Gardens (2020-06-15) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
Newby Hall Gardens
The gardens at Newby Hall have evolved over the centuries since the house was built around 1695 by architect, Sir Christopher Wren.
Today’s gardens combine different period features from a lime avenue that existed in 1700 to the shell pavilions, created in 2017 by Lucinda Compton, who lives here with her husband Richard and is the Curator of the gardens.
Robert Vyner (1842-1915)
Before the First World War, Newby Hall was home to Robert de Grey Vyner, the current owner Richard Compton's great-great-grandfather. In 1892, Robert Vyner inherited both the house and a love of plants and gardening from his mother.
The Victorian Garden
The garden Robert Vyner knew at the turn of the 20th century was a formal affair of terraces and elaborate parterres but in 1913 he introduced a fashionable new element in the South West corner, devoting 1,600 square metres to a Rock Garden.
Why a Rock Garden?
The earliest rock gardens were inspired by a veneration of rugged Romantic landscapes but, by the late nineteenth century, an influx of new plant varieties from the Alps and Himalayas stimulated a craze for recreating mountain growing conditions on a more domestic scale.
Ellen Willmott (1858-1934)
Robert de Grey Vyner of Newby Hall was great friends with Ellen Willmott, one of the most influential garden designers of the late 19th century. At her garden at Warley Place in Essex, now lost, Ellen Willmott used a natural ravine to create a spectacular alpine rock garden.
Gardening books in the Library at Newby Hall (2021-02) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
From the Books
Robert Vyner’s gardening books are still at Newby Hall. They show that he had an early interest in alpine gardening. In 1865, he had purchased a garden near Cannes in France, within reach of both the Alps and one of Ellen Willmott’s gardens at Aix les Bains.
Several of these writers were very influential in popularising rock gardening, particularly William Robinson, the earliest advocate of naturalistic planting, and Reginald Farrer, a Yorkshire neighbour of Newby Hall, and the rock garden's greatest 20th century publicist.
Carved medieval stones add focal points in the Rock Garden at Newby Hall (2016-10-21) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
Plants and Pinnacles
Scattered among the rocks are carved medieval stones including pinnacles from York Minster. The overall effect is a naturalistic fantasy, designed to show off the planting rather than imitate a wild landscape which might have been favoured in an earlier scheme.
Alpine Souvenir
Robert Vyner’s copy of William Robinson’s Alpine Flowers for Gardens still has an Edelweiss pressed into the pages. The flower survived better than Newby Hall’s new Rock Garden, which was finished in August 1914, by which date 3 gardeners had already left for the First World War.
Major Edward Compton (1922-1977)
The fashion for alpine plants continued into the 1930s, when, at Newby Hall, Major Edward Compton restored the Rock Garden initiated by his grandfather, observing, “Nearly every plant of value in the Rock Garden had succumbed to the 1914/18 war neglect."
Big Trees
Over the years, many of the trees planted in 1913 had grown into Champion Trees including the foxtail pines, Pinus balfouriana. They cast deep shade, creating something of a secret garden, but it was far from Robert Vyner and Ellen Willmott’s original vision.
All aboard the Royal Scot train in Newby Hall Gardens (2020-08) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
Robin Compton (1922-2009)
In the 1940s, the aqueduct that supplied the waterfall and the house at Newby Hall fell into disuse. In 1980, Robin Compton used water drawn from the river to restore the flow. He also opened the gardens to the public and routed the miniature railway through the Rock Garden.
The gardening team in the Rock Garden at Newby Hall (2021-01) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
The Restoration Team
The 2021 restoration of the Rock Garden has been undertaken by head gardener, Phil Cormie and his team supported by Lucinda Compton as Curator. Lucinda Compton took over responsibility for the 40-acre gardens at Newby Hall from her father-in-law, Robin, in 2009.
Clearing trees in the Rock Garden at Newby Hall (2021-01) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
Letting in the Light
The first job was to clear overgrown conifers from the centre while retaining the shelter of trees on the perimeter. Some flowering trees in the current planting like Euchryphia nymansensis and the epaulette tree Pterostyrax hispida will love the new conditions.
The Right Plants
The restored garden will recreate a more, open sunny aspect ideal for alpine plants like primulas, gentians, saxifrages and pulsatillas. Just as in 1913, inspiration comes from Robert Vyner’s original gardening books.
New plants arrive at Newby Hall (2021-01) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
New arrivals
No planting plans from 1913 survive at Newby Hall Gardens to guide restoration, but recent excavation has uncovered nearly 50 plant labels of creeping alpine plants like Linaria alpina, Campanula pusilla and Salix serpyllifolia. Fresh replacements await their new home.
Head gardener Phil Cormie in the Rock Garden at Newby Hall (2021-01) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
Phil Cormie, head gardener at Newby Hall, explains the team’s approach to the restoration of the Edwardian rock garden
“…we are trying to interpret what we believe to be the original vision for the rock garden – huge rocky outcrops with intimate planting pockets for unusual alpines. We have started to unveil the scale and drama of the spectacular rock faces …”.
Restoring the Alpines
The team at Newby Hall Gardens is working with Alpine specialists Stella and David Rankin of Kevock Nurseries with plans to introduce new alpines, herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees with the first seven of over 20 beds already completed in 2021.
Restored alpine beds in the Rock Garden (2021-02) by Newby HallHistoric Houses
The Future Rock Garden
The restoration of the Rock Garden at Newby Hall involves renewing over 20 flowerbeds covering 1,600 square metres. The project will take five years to complete but visitors can soon look forward to colourful masses of tiny blooms in a true Edwardian fantasy alpine landscape.
Newby Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire www.newbyhall.com
Wooded River Landscape in the Alps by Thomas Ender, 1870, J Paul Getty Museum
Portrait of Ellen Willmott, Spetchley Park Gardens, Worcestershire
Gary Lawson Photography
Charlotte Graham Photography
