Hindringham Hall English Garden in Norfolk

English gardens in Norfolk

Hindringham Hall is an extraordinary ancient moated property and one of the famous English gardens in Norfolk you out to visit. Garden surrounded all through the year with acres of interesting flowers and foliage - but when its owners arrived almost 20 years ago, there was no garden to speak of

Lynda and Charles Tucker never intended to open their English garden to the public, but living in such an impossibly beautiful setting - one of the few fully moated 15th-century houses in Norfolk - it was only a matter of time before they changed their minds.

The English house, built in two phases under Henry VII and Henry VIII. stands on an 'island' totally
surrounded by water, and is only accessible by bridge. The garden wraps around the mellow brick buildings as if it too has a pedigree as old as the house. In fact, it does not.

The present 10-acre garden grounds of Hindringham Hall include a wild woodland area planted with spring bulbs, a wetland and stream, and five acres of gardens in Norfolk including a sloping kitchen garden and colourful borders. It was nothing like this when the Tuckers moved to Hindringham Hall in 1993.

'Everything was grass,' Lynda says, "right up to the house and beyond the moat; even the kitchen garden had been turfed over. I wanted to make an English garden, but there were no clues as to what sort of garden had ever been here.' All they had to work with were some substantial evergreen shrubs - mahonia, viburnum and
laurel - and a Victorian photograph of the house, showing it covered in ivy and fronted by several somewhat awkward formal rose beds. The reason why this house still has its original Tudor features is down to its 19th-
century owners, who resisted the normal Victorian impetus for change. They lovingly restored it and left it much as we see it now. But the garden? It looked totally wrong.'

English garden photos

Lynda and Charles noticed that there were scores, if not hundreds, of rusted metal pegs on the walls and deduced that, before the ivy (which had to come off to save the Grade II listed English house), there had been climbing roses adorning the house. They set about reinstating them. Lynda and gardener David have reinstated borders they fell would have been there originally, mainly to house the climbers. 'I never plant a rose without, also planting a clematis or climber. I want repeal flowering, so I choose varieties lo follow on.'

English garden photos

The kitchen garden

The south-facing kitchen garden, which slopes gently to the water, was an obvious area to tackle next. There were two enormous box hedges, which we reduced in size and took cuttings to make new box edging,' Lynda says. We stripped off the turf with our son Edward, and marked out the shape of the beds with sand.' They took measurements from the back and side walls, to get a pleasing plan. 'We marked it all out, and then crossed back over the moat to the west lawn to review the shape.

It was totally askew! We had assumed that the garden walls were straight. Big mistake.' Today, the
rectangular beds form a working vegetable garden, supplying Lynda with 'everything the family likes to eat'.
The stream running through the grounds, a tributary of the Stiffkey, originally fed the moat.

Wetland English garden 

Digging its banks one day, they discovered some old stone steps, and soon Lynda had cleared decades of undergrowth and nettles to reveal what would become the wetland English garden. They planted hostas, candelabra primulas and day lilies to line the stream, and made a path to run alongside.

Gardening around the moat proved to be more problematic. 'It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, dating to the 1200s, and we are not allowed to touch the structure without permission,' says Lynda. "We noticed that the bearded irises planted alongside the wetland English garden were doing badly, and discovered that this was caused by the lime mortar used to bind the stones together. We just had to move the irises, and plant something else there instead. We have just put in some 'Star of the Veldt' African daisies, (Osteospermum
hyosefoldes) to see how they fare.'

English garden border plants

On the west lawn, the grass area was reduced and the borders widened to make a colourful display for nine months of the year. 'I hate bare patches,' Lynda explains. I always want to see something coming up, so we
plant for succession.' Here, the garden borders are vivid and colourful. Oriental poppies give way to Gaura lindhcimai and geraniums give way to Crocosmia 'Lucifer', so that in September it is just as engaging as it was in spring and in high summer. 'We rarely buy plants for this garden. We grow a lot of perennials from seed and then we divide and move things around. The flower planting is not really planned - we just feel our way, observing and seeing how things work. David and I sit down every week and discuss the garden jobs to be done. Charles does the mowing and the trees. It has rather taken over our lives.'

English garden photos

Hindringham Hall English garden openings

Starling with a few charily openings a year for the National Garden Scheme, Charles and Lynda then made the decision to make their English garden in Norfolk more accessible to the public. This, 2013 year, the
Engnlish garden and house will be open on these dates:

• Thursday May 9th at 2.30pm
• Thursday July 25th at 2.30pm
• Thursday August 15th at 2.30pm
• Thursday September 12th at 2.30pm

'It has sent us on a learning curve we hadn't expected - health and safety issues with the moat and the bridges, slippers' paths, toilet facilities and catering. At the end of the day, it's a private home and we want to retain that sense of individuality. We don't want to be a big commercial garden.'

Hindringham Hall's English garden growth

Moving slowly towards becoming a 'finished' English garden is perhaps Hindringham Hall's great strength. It has not been planned in one grand sweep. It was set about gently, by probing and digging, planting and
experimenting. A garden realised by touch and feel rather than by plan and intellect. In the visitors book, people describe it as 'unspoilt', 'magical' and 'personal'. Its unplannedness is its strength. Yet it is an English garden that is within reach of ordinary gardeners. It is something we could perhaps all achieve - even if it would be without such a perfect backdrop.

English garden photos

Hindringham Hall's English garden info

Hindringham Hall Blacksmiths Lane, Hindringham,
Nr Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 OQA.

Telephone 01328 878226 or email info@hindringhamhall.org
 www.hindringhamhall.org

English garden photos

PHOTOGRAPHS MARCUS HARPUR WORDS JACKIE BENNETT