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Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/06/2022
7:30 pm

Location
Kilmington Village Hall

Categories


On Friday, 10th June, we were treated to a talk by James Cross, Head Gardener of the Bishop’s Palace Gardens in Wells on the past, present and future of the gardens. James has been Head Gardener for the past eighteen years and runs the fourteen-acre site with the help of five full-time gardeners and around thirty volunteers.

The Bishop’s Palace dates from the early 13th century. It is surrounded by a moat filled by springs rising in the Palace gardens, fed by water from the Mendips. The rampart offers lovely views of the gardens and the rampart bank has become a wild-flower meadow filled in Spring with camassias, primroses and orchids. Passing through the Gatehouse, visitors first see the immaculately tended croquet lawn, then pass through an archway into the South Lawn. In the 1600s this area was laid out as a formal Dutch garden with parterres, topiary and a canal. In the 1820s Bishop Law demolished two walls of the ruined Great Hall, added height to the remaining wall and created a garden in the then popular Picturesque style, which James has tried to re-create using the very limited archive material available. Specimen trees such as Mulberry, Tulip, Indian Bean and a mature Gingko add height and character to the area. The beds are planted mainly with shrubs and perennials giving colour and leaf structure throughout the year – the south side of the wall with sun-loving planting, the north side with plants more suited to shade.

The East Gardens, originally laid out in the Victorian period, featured twelve pillar yews representing the twelve apostles. They fell into disuse following the First World War, offering a blank canvas for James and his team who have created a new parterre, the beds edged with Euonymus ‘Jean Hughes’ with Cydonia (quince) trees at their centres. Irish yews pay homage to the 19C planting. Alongside the parterre is a hot border with colourful flowers such as Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’, Achillea ‘Cloth of Gold’, Echinops and Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’. Another feature is the stumpery, planted with moisture- and shade-loving plants such as bergenias, tree ferns, hostas, hellebores and epimediums. In front of the oriel window is a newly developed knot garden shaped like a portcullis to reflect the crest in the window glass; and in front of the old apple store there are beds with more relaxed, prairie-style planting.

Across the moat are lawns, borders and shady spring-fed pools. The rose-covered Well House was given to the people of Wells in 1530. A boardwalk leads to St Andrew’s Well, a shady area filled with damp-loving plants such as hostas, astilbes, rodgersias, Primula bulleyana, irises and rheums. The choice of plants was inspired by Beth Chatto’s damp garden. The long border was originally designed by Mary Keen but was re-planted in 2016 to provide a long season of interest.

Beyond the well pools lies the Quiet Garden, a contemporary space designed for contemplation in a glade of silver birches under-planted with wildflowers. A Colour Garden filled with bright bedding plants echoes the stained-glass window of the Lady Chapel in the Cathedral. In the Community Garden, volunteers and community groups produce vegetables and fruit for the Palace café. The Arboretum was designed in 1977 by Sir Harold Hillier to commemorate the Queen’s 25th Jubilee. Trees here include Silver Lime, Paulownia, Prunus ‘Tai Haku’ and Persian Ironwood growing amid a succession of snowdrops, primroses, daffodils, camassias, cow parsley and orchids.

James has clearly used his eighteen years at the Bishop’s Palace to great effect. Those listeners who had not already seen these beautiful gardens were most certainly inspired to pay a visit.

Beverley Perkins