Wimpole Hall walled garden – a late summer / early autumn visit to a productive ornamental walled garden on a sunny afternoon.
This wasn’t the first time I’d visited, but it had been a while as that was a pre-Covid visit. And, as it happens, also on a warm, sunny afternoon in late summer. That time we were on the way home after seeing our new puppy to be, then aged just 5 weeks. My visit this time coincided with a client visit about 45 minutes’ drive away. On this visit I had less time to spend here than I would have liked – but then that only makes me determined to come again, with less gap and more time to enjoy all that is on offer here, both in Wimpole Hall walled garden and the wider Wimpole Estate.
But I’m ahead of myself, let’s see what horticultural, literary and culinary delights I found on this visit.
Wimpole Estate a brief Overview
Children were running through a straw bale maze just past the entrance – definitely a fun idea and simple to do. But I headed rapidly on as my time was short and first stop had to be the stable courtyard for a coffee and one of the scrummiest brownies I’ve tasted for a long time.
The Wimpole Estate is in Cambridgeshire and was taken over by the National Trust in 1976. There was a great deal of restoration to be done and much has been achieved. Many landscape designers have been involved in creating areas of estate and garden since the mid-18th century, including well-known names such as Charles Bridgeman, Capability Brown and Humphry Repton.
Wimpole is a working estate and also holds a National Collection of Walnut trees, with some 130 species of Juglans, most of which are varieties of the English walnut.
Wimpole Hall Walled Garden
The productive enclosed area we see today had for many years not been in use until the Trust took the estate over (see potted history section below). It’s now 4 ½ acres of organic garden with fruit and vegetables, cutting garden plants for the house floral displays, and plenty of pollinator friendly flowers for the bees who live in the bee hives.
It was in in the 1790s that the walled kitchen garden was created by the 3rd Earl of Hardwicke. The walls were heated during spring frosts to keep the early flowering peach blossom warm and to guarantee the harvest. The Earl was at the forefront of agricultural progress.
The walls of the kitchen garden, the gardener’s house and ha-ha are all Grade II listed buildings, as they are of special architectural and / or historic interest.
Forming a rectangle with the longest walls being the north and south ones, the kitchen garden also includes the area immediately adjacent to the outside, known as the orchard slips.
We enter through the main gate in the south wall, led there by soft prairie style planting which had survived well during the hot summer of 2022.
Soane pinery-vinery
A huge glasshouse leans against the inside of the north wall. This is a new build, completed by the Nation Trust in 1999 and covers the same footprint as the original. That was built by John Soane c 1795.
The name ‘pinery-vinery’ confuses many people, who wonder why tall conifer trees would be grown in a greenhouse. However, once you know it refers not to pine trees but to pineapples it makes more sense!
Basically, the pineapples were started off in ‘tan pits’ a bit like cold frames, next to the glasshouse. They were called tan pits as the oak bark used in tanning leather was used to generate a steady warm temperature for 2 – 3 months, after which the sunken pots with plants beginning to flower were taken in to the glasshouse. Early hothouse growing is a fascinating topic and one I will return to in a later blog.
Unfortunately a bomb landed on the original heated glasshouse during the 2nd World War, hence the need for a rebuild.
An impressive structure, the new glasshouse dominates Wimpole Hall walled garden. For the full effect walk straight on when you enter.
Wimpole Hall Walled Garden – a potted history
As with many great estates, the walled kitchen garden we see today was not the first one built. Although some form of kitchen garden was present from early on, it’s not until the late 17th century and early years of the 18th that a walled kitchen garden is specifically mentioned. The vagaries of fashion and popular garden styles led to this kitchen garden being moved from west of the house to east. The third incarnation of the garden was built on the site we see today.
Moving the site of kitchen gardens went hand in hand with changing the layout and size of the ‘big house’ as well as a desire for the utilitarian aspects to be hidden form polite view. Although a promenade to the walled kitchen garden to show off the owners wealth by the extent of his heated glasshouses was a frequent excursion for visitors.
By the late 19th century, however the then Earl had to sell Wimpole to finance his debts.
Sale document
“The kitchen gardens of upwards of 5½ acres, are especially fine, being chiefly in two enclosures, entirely walled, exceedingly warm and prolific, and abundantly stocked with the choicest varieties of Wall, Espalier and Standard Fruit Trees in full bearing. The Gardens are perfectly supplied with Water from Spring supplying large tank in each. The Glass Houses Comprise Range of Forcing Houses, viz: – Green House, Store House, Cucumber House, Strawberry and Tomato Pits. [plus a ] range of buildings, Comprising Gardener’s House; Apple and Potato Room, Mushroom House and Store Rooms over; Tool House, Potting Sheds, Barrow Shed and 3 Stoke Holes. Long range of Lean-to Vineries Comprising 3 Succession Houses and a Plant House”
The estate was bought by the Earl’s main creditor Lord Robartes of Lanhydrock (another wonderful house and garden now in the care of the Nation Trust in Cornwall). The house and gardens were maintained and occasionally visited by the family. Visitors to Wimpole Hall walled garden during this time tended to be locals, who bought produce from there.
The house and gardens’ last owner was the only surviving daughter of Rudyard Kipling. Elsie Bambridge and her husband lived in the house from 1937, first renting then buying. It was Elsie who bequeathed Wimpole to the National Trust on her death in 1976. Little is known about the walled kitchen garden during this time, although there are a few first-hand accounts from staff and photographs. Certainly it seems that it was not really used as productive garden by the 1970s and had been allowed to revert to grass and scrub (and weeds).
Wimpole Hall Walled Garden – What to see
The central dipping pond is at the axis of the four main paths within the walls. Further paths follow the herbaceous borders and trained fruit trees around the perimeter. These are all easily accessed by wheelchairs and buggies. Other paths, some for the gardeners only, meander through each the quarters that are made by those main cruciform paths.
A good mix of planting creates interest even for those who not gardeners as such. In late summer and early autumn there are dahlias upon dahlias in all their glorious colours and flower shapes. Fruit trees are laden with harvest and I love the use of espalier trained forms to create internal divisions within the garden.
Sweet peas and runner beans vie to climb the highest up hazel wigwams; whilst pumpkins roam across the ground.
Around the bee hives, a range of herbaceous perennials and annuals provide food for these important pollinators from early spring right through to late autumn.
In and then Out Again
Taking the gateway next to the Soane pinery-vinery takes you out of the Wimpole Hall walled garden ‘proper’ and into the garden and glass house yard. Here you’ll find a well, the gardeners cottage with an interesting exhibition on the garden’s history and various outbuildings. From here you can also walk onto the home farm with various livestock including Shire horses.
However, this time I didn’t wander that far, but whizzed round the parterre to take photos as promised for a friend. And then headed back to the second-hand bookshop in the stable courtyard, where I had left previously bought books to collect on my way back out. (Well they were heavy!) those who know me are very aware that not going into a bookshop (new or second-hand) is extremely difficult for me…
And finally
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