SGT Summer Garden Visits & AGM

Ashe Park is especially notable for its early-18th-century garden canals, as featured in Edward Martin’s Zoom talk in January. These remain from the gardens created for John Sheppard (1675-1747) and his first wife Anne, dowager Countess of Leicester (d. 1726), who had made ‘great additions to it’ by 1735. They also probably made the oval ‘bowling green’ surrounded (as described in 1823) by ‘a noble yew hedge which is clipped into grotesque masses in the Dutch style’. Some of the ’finest cedars in this country … all of them above 100 [years old]’ were also noted in 1823. The original house, known as ‘The High House’ was burnt down in 1865, and its replacement, designed by Anthony Salvin, was demolished in 1953 – a sad loss, but a garden has now been created in its footings. Gertrude Jekyll (Some English Gardens, 1904) found this whole place to be a ‘charming but puzzling garden’ – come and see if you agree! 

This magnificent moated Tudor hall has just been added to the National Register of Parks and Gardens, a well-deserved award for one of Suffolk’s iconic places. Approached uphill from the west, a long oak avenue called The Walk brings you to a courtyard that is flanked on one side by one of the longest barn ranges in the county – built of both brick and timber, it incorporates structures dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. In front is the brick bridge across the wide moat, leading to the 16th-century brick gatehouse and the surviving wing of the house. This was built for Sir Charles Framlingham c.1560, though Crow’s Hall has a history stretching back into the 1200s, taking its name from a John Crowe who was living at the end of that century. Gardens on the moated island were designed for the current owner by Xa Tollemache in the 2000s.

AGENDA

1. Apologies for absence (Officers and Council only)
2. Minutes of the 28th AGM held at Culford Village Hall on 15 July 2023
3. Reports from the Council
4. Election of Officers and Council Members
5. Any other business (of which prior notice has been given to the Chairman)

Afterwards, a chance to visit some of Orford’s gardens. (Members £8, guests £12). By the generosity of Tim & Elizabeth Fargher and John & Jill Broome we can visit the Old Rectory and Corinthians. Tim is a renowned artist and sculptor and he and Elizabeth have developed the gardens that were already distinguished enough to feature in Country Life in 1977, not least by adding a crinkle-crankle wall in 1990 (built by R & J Hogg of Coney Weston). Corinthians is a fascinating garden with a wide range of interesting plants and different areas, some like outdoor rooms. At the end the day, teas will be available in the garden of The Manor House on Market Square, by the generosity of Libby Archer

In the SW corner of the county, this is another of Suffolk’s splendid 18th-century ‘garden canal’ gardens. This canal is first recorded on an estate map of 1735 and was probably created for Stephen Soame (1709-1764), who inherited the estate in 1727. The rectangular layout of walls, gardens and orchards shown on the 1735 map is largely intact, but the original house, built around 1600 for Sir Stephen Soame, Lord Mayor of London 1598-9, was burnt down in 1809 and a new house was built on its site in 1847.

The garden will be open from 11am and do bring a picnic lunch if you wish; there will be a ‘welcoming’ at 2pm and tea at 3pm. Also a plant stall with gems to buy.

Located just outside Suffolk, near Newmarket, this is a splendid plants woman’s garden, greatly inspired and influenced by the late Christopher Lloyd and his famous garden at Great Dixter in Sussex, and we will be making a donation to the educational work of The Great Dixter Charitable Trust. Started from just a few trees and snowdrops in 1973, this 2-acre garden is now richly planted with mixed borders with rose, perennials and unusual salvias, a traditional potager with box hedges, vegetables, a wildlife pond, orchard and woodland area.

Image: Julie Coley