Other Types of Gardens and Designed Landscapes
Garden history deals not only with the grand or picturesque landscapes of the wealthy but also with the public parks and gardens, landscapes of remembrance and institutional landscapes described above. It also covers other types of land use which involve open space, gardens or gardening.
The desire of people to have access to a plot of land for food production or recreation led to diverse developments in the C20, including speculative developments, private suburban gardens and the provision of ‘Council Houses’ with gardens.
In 1898 William Carter formed a company called Homesteads Ltd and bought 375 acres of land for development at Cranmore, near Shalfleet, most of it former brickyards or poor quality farmland. The land was divided into plots for 168 smallholdings and houses and several roads were laid out, linked at the Green. Little development took place until after World War I and even after 1918 development was piecemeal.
Although it originated as a speculative venture, Cranmore has something of the nature of a ‘plotlands’ development (mainland examples being Canvey Island, Jaywick Sands and Peacehaven) where ‘families made their own place in the sun, without benefit of councils, planners, architects, building societies, or even builders’. The roads and many of the plots at Cranmore, now containing houses, survive.
The name of Alverstone Garden Village, near Newchurch, may have been chosen mainly for marketing purposes and there does not seem to have been any real connection with the ‘Garden City’ movement of the early C20.
In the 1920s a group of businessmen purchased Youngwoods Copse and offered building plots to those who wished to live in a new rural, well-wooded development.
There were plans for over 100 houses and bungalows, a village hall, tennis courts and pleasure grounds. However, only 17 houses had been built by 1933.
It was not until car ownership became popular that Alverstone Garden Village began to grow, finally taking off in the 1970s.
The landscape types represented on the Isle of Wight by Cranmore and Alverstone Garden Village should possibly be recognised by local designation although early C20 structures are intermingled with more recent properties.
Allotments, defined as plots to grow fruit and vegetables on, generally fall outside the Register definition of ‘designed landscapes’, but these plots are of significance in terms of social history, townscapes and village layouts and merit further research.
No survey of local allotments has been carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust but such a survey might locate examples suitable for inclusion on the Local List.
Nurseries – enclosed ground for the successive cultivation of plants and trees – have, like allotments, been reckoned to fall outside the remit of the Register although it is possible that a national survey could identify examples which would merit inclusion. Similarly, commercial horticulture and orchards outside private gardens would appear to fall within the remit of agricultural history rather than garden history.
Historically, no large Isle of Wight nurseries concerned with the production of ornamental plants appear to have existed although local nurseries and horticultural businesses supplied plants to some of the Island’s larger private gardens in the C19 and undertook work in these gardens. For instance, a nursery in Newport is known to have supplied plants for Weston Manor in Totland in 1870 when the grounds were being laid out for W G Ward. At Springfield (now Springfield Court) near Ryde the grounds at Springfield were landscaped from 1879 to 1880 by Dimmicks, a Ryde firm of Horticulturalists and Florists.
Today, a nursery near Godshill (Deacon's) is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of fruit trees and bushes.
It is highly unlikely that any Isle of Wight nurseries would merit national designation but nurseries, like allotments, form part of garden history and local history. No survey of historic local nurseries has been carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust. It is possible that such a survey might locate one or two examples suitable for inclusion on the Local List although research is more likely to identify documentary evidence for the existence of these nurseries in the C19 and early C20.
Commercial Horticulture in the Arreton Valley has been a significant aspect of Isle of Wight agriculture since the C20 with salad crops being grown under cover.
In the 1790s Sir Richard Worsley tried to establish a vineyard at Sea Cottage in the Undercliff (see Section 12.7) although it is not thought to have been successful. Several commercial vineyards have operated on the Isle of Wight since the later part of the C20 and two still exist, one near Ryde and one near Brading with a third more recent site being developed alongside the Medina south east of Northwood.
Historically, the Isle of Wight does not appear to have had extensive orchards growing fruit as a commercial crop although the 1st edition six inch Ordnance Survey of 1862-3 shows that many Isle of Wight farmsteads had small enclosed orchards, as did local manor houses, gentry residences and villas.
Today, few orchards are maintained on Isle of Wight farms and old fruit trees are not commonly seen within historic gardens. One location where old espalier apple trees can still be seen is within the historic garden at Northcourt Manor, near Shorwell (NHL).
Walled kitchen gardens (also known as productive walled gardens) were important designed elements within domestic designed landscapes from the C17 to the early C20. Those that have survived either wholly or partly into the C21 provide physical evidence of varying design philosophies, landscape character and social organisation at different historic periods.
Walled kitchen gardens on the Isle of Wight mostly date from the late C18 and C19 (although there are earlier examples) and are generally associated with manor houses and villas. A Walled Kitchen Garden Project carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust (2014) has now identified 98 examples, either surviving or known from map evidence. Newly identified walled kitchen gardens will be added to the IWGT database.
Thirty of the walled kitchen gardens identified by IWGT pre-dated 1800, 59 were constructed from 1800 to 1875, and nine were later. Most were small (less than 0.3 ha), their walls being built of a mixture of brick and cheaper local stone. Relatively few had ambitious ranges of glass houses. One or two sites, however, were on the grand scale, for instance royal Osborne and Norris Castle, where James Wyatt’s combined home farm and walled garden is extraordinary, with crenellated walls and multiple turrets.
At least 12 of the Island’s surviving walled kitchen garden are listed buildings or have listed features associated with them.
Garden history deals not only with the grand or picturesque landscapes of the wealthy but also with the public parks and gardens, landscapes of remembrance and institutional landscapes described above. It also covers other types of land use which involve open space, gardens or gardening.
The desire of people to have access to a plot of land for food production or recreation led to diverse developments in the C20, including speculative developments, private suburban gardens and the provision of ‘Council Houses’ with gardens.
In 1898 William Carter formed a company called Homesteads Ltd and bought 375 acres of land for development at Cranmore, near Shalfleet, most of it former brickyards or poor quality farmland. The land was divided into plots for 168 smallholdings and houses and several roads were laid out, linked at the Green. Little development took place until after World War I and even after 1918 development was piecemeal.
Although it originated as a speculative venture, Cranmore has something of the nature of a ‘plotlands’ development (mainland examples being Canvey Island, Jaywick Sands and Peacehaven) where ‘families made their own place in the sun, without benefit of councils, planners, architects, building societies, or even builders’. The roads and many of the plots at Cranmore, now containing houses, survive.
The name of Alverstone Garden Village, near Newchurch, may have been chosen mainly for marketing purposes and there does not seem to have been any real connection with the ‘Garden City’ movement of the early C20.
In the 1920s a group of businessmen purchased Youngwoods Copse and offered building plots to those who wished to live in a new rural, well-wooded development.
There were plans for over 100 houses and bungalows, a village hall, tennis courts and pleasure grounds. However, only 17 houses had been built by 1933.
It was not until car ownership became popular that Alverstone Garden Village began to grow, finally taking off in the 1970s.
The landscape types represented on the Isle of Wight by Cranmore and Alverstone Garden Village should possibly be recognised by local designation although early C20 structures are intermingled with more recent properties.
Allotments, defined as plots to grow fruit and vegetables on, generally fall outside the Register definition of ‘designed landscapes’, but these plots are of significance in terms of social history, townscapes and village layouts and merit further research.
No survey of local allotments has been carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust but such a survey might locate examples suitable for inclusion on the Local List.
Nurseries – enclosed ground for the successive cultivation of plants and trees – have, like allotments, been reckoned to fall outside the remit of the Register although it is possible that a national survey could identify examples which would merit inclusion. Similarly, commercial horticulture and orchards outside private gardens would appear to fall within the remit of agricultural history rather than garden history.
Historically, no large Isle of Wight nurseries concerned with the production of ornamental plants appear to have existed although local nurseries and horticultural businesses supplied plants to some of the Island’s larger private gardens in the C19 and undertook work in these gardens. For instance, a nursery in Newport is known to have supplied plants for Weston Manor in Totland in 1870 when the grounds were being laid out for W G Ward. At Springfield (now Springfield Court) near Ryde the grounds at Springfield were landscaped from 1879 to 1880 by Dimmicks, a Ryde firm of Horticulturalists and Florists.
Today, a nursery near Godshill (Deacon's) is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of fruit trees and bushes.
It is highly unlikely that any Isle of Wight nurseries would merit national designation but nurseries, like allotments, form part of garden history and local history. No survey of historic local nurseries has been carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust. It is possible that such a survey might locate one or two examples suitable for inclusion on the Local List although research is more likely to identify documentary evidence for the existence of these nurseries in the C19 and early C20.
Commercial Horticulture in the Arreton Valley has been a significant aspect of Isle of Wight agriculture since the C20 with salad crops being grown under cover.
In the 1790s Sir Richard Worsley tried to establish a vineyard at Sea Cottage in the Undercliff (see Section 12.7) although it is not thought to have been successful. Several commercial vineyards have operated on the Isle of Wight since the later part of the C20 and two still exist, one near Ryde and one near Brading with a third more recent site being developed alongside the Medina south east of Northwood.
Historically, the Isle of Wight does not appear to have had extensive orchards growing fruit as a commercial crop although the 1st edition six inch Ordnance Survey of 1862-3 shows that many Isle of Wight farmsteads had small enclosed orchards, as did local manor houses, gentry residences and villas.
Today, few orchards are maintained on Isle of Wight farms and old fruit trees are not commonly seen within historic gardens. One location where old espalier apple trees can still be seen is within the historic garden at Northcourt Manor, near Shorwell (NHL).
Walled kitchen gardens (also known as productive walled gardens) were important designed elements within domestic designed landscapes from the C17 to the early C20. Those that have survived either wholly or partly into the C21 provide physical evidence of varying design philosophies, landscape character and social organisation at different historic periods.
Walled kitchen gardens on the Isle of Wight mostly date from the late C18 and C19 (although there are earlier examples) and are generally associated with manor houses and villas. A Walled Kitchen Garden Project carried out by the Isle of Wight Gardens Trust (2014) has now identified 98 examples, either surviving or known from map evidence. Newly identified walled kitchen gardens will be added to the IWGT database.
Thirty of the walled kitchen gardens identified by IWGT pre-dated 1800, 59 were constructed from 1800 to 1875, and nine were later. Most were small (less than 0.3 ha), their walls being built of a mixture of brick and cheaper local stone. Relatively few had ambitious ranges of glass houses. One or two sites, however, were on the grand scale, for instance royal Osborne and Norris Castle, where James Wyatt’s combined home farm and walled garden is extraordinary, with crenellated walls and multiple turrets.
At least 12 of the Island’s surviving walled kitchen garden are listed buildings or have listed features associated with them.