The earliest known reference to the gardens dates from 1535 when Sir George Darcy wrote to his father asking, "pray send me a good garthener". The house was substantial for the time and there would have been both productive and pleasure gardens. There may be one small relic of this Tudor garden remaining - a grassy mound to the south of the house that may have served as look out over the garden wall.

When wealthy businessman Sir Arthur Ingram bought the estate in 1622, he and subsequently his heirs created fashionable formal gardens with straight avenues radiating out into the surrounding deer park. The gardens were extensive and opulent with three separate banqueting houses, a bowling green, carved stone animals, terraces and grassed walks, not to mention the extensive orchards and kitchen gardens. These features and others are seen in a drawing made by Jan Kip in 1699, generally regarded to be a reasonably accurate picture of the estate at the time.

Most of these features were lost during the landscaping of the 18th century but the recent simplification of the West Garden reflects its past as a bowling green and many elements of the South Garden created in the 1970s were based on the designs seen in Kip.

Back to Introduction

On to William Etty - early 18th century