We are spending a lot of time on the allotment these days.  Regular readers of this blog will know that time spent on the allotment does not necessarily correlate with work done, as watching the neighbour’s hens is compulsive, therapeutic - and time consuming.  So this will have to be a short blog!  We do, however, want to tell you a little bit about one of our favourite ‘stately estates’.  For reasons which will become evident, we cannot really call it a stately home anymore, but the grounds still deserve the ‘stately’ qualifier.

Gatton Park lies on the North Downs towards the eastern end of Surrey.  The 1987 Surrey edition of Pevsner & Nairn’s ‘The Buildings of England’ refers to it as ‘under the downs N of Reigate’.  This is geographically incorrect (it is on the downs and north of Redhill) but probably illustrates the terrible snobbery which can exist between an old (ie recorded in Domesday Book) town (Reigate) and a new upstart Victorian railway town (Redhill).  So imagine Terroir’s delight on finding that Pevsner (or perhaps Nairn) refers to Reigate as a ‘characterless little town’!  But we digress. 

The Gatton estate seems to have been around since Saxon Times and was recorded as a manor in – yes - the Domesday Book!  OK, it only consisted of 9 households (6 villagers and 3 smallholders, compared to Reigate’s 67 villagers and 11 smallholders) but it passes the antiquity test nicely   (https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ2752/gatton/).

At around the same time, Colebrook also upgraded his estate on a much larger scale by employing a design/build contractor called Lancelot (Capability) Brown.  Gatton Park was ‘improved’ and became a fine example of the English Landscape style. 

By the 19th century, Gatton had also achieved fame as a ‘rotten borough’.  In 1830 William Cobbett described it as a ‘very rascally spot of earth’ and, following the 1832 Reform Act, Gatton finally lost its Borough status.   

Thanks to the Gatton Trust for above Image

By 1888, the Estate had been acquired by mustard-magnate, Sir Jeremiah Colman.  Tragedy struck in 1934 when the house burnt down and Monson’s Marble Hall was destroyed.  On a more positive note, however, Colman was a plantsman and became a global authority on orchids.  As with Sir George Colebrook before him, Colman also hired specialist help to create many new landscape features around the periphery of Capability Brown’s parkland. 

As an aside, the Milner White practice remained in business for over a century, and only finally closed its doors in 1995 with the retirement of Frank Marshall, who had joined the company in 1960 (https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/milner-white/).

The park and garden is registered Grade II, however, and is managed and maintained to respect the basic structure provided by Capability Brown and Milner White.  The wooded western part of the estate is also in good care, being now in the ownership of the National Trust.

The Japanese Garden is very special indeed.  Constructed in 1909, Edward White incorporated  lanterns, flowing water, bridges and a tea house, in a Europeanised style of what Edwardian Britain thought was Japanese.  Sadly, but probably inevitably, the garden ‘rewilded’ when maintenance ceased after WWII. 

Some 25 years ago, however, research and survey work began to piece together what this boggy corner of Gatton Park may once have looked like.   ‘Help’ came from many sources including Monty Don’s ‘Lost Gardens’ series in 1999, support from the Japanese Embassy, the skills and knowledge of a Japanese Garden designer, and the planting of 100 young cherry trees as part of the Sakura Cherry Tree Project https://japanuksakura.org/.  But the real power house for this restoration project was provided by the scores of Gatton Trust volunteers who donated thousands of hours of their time to back breaking hard labour, undertaken in all weathers.  Who knew that Japanese gardening could involve so much mud?  

Last month (April 2024) the project was declared ‘open’.  A very English tea was laid on with a very Japanese musical recital from Keiko Kitamura playing the koto, before a tour of the garden in very British spring weather. 

You weren’t invited?  Don’t fret.  Just watch this superb video filmed and edited by Sean Bate. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTTavjVJv6w&t=1s

Unless otherwise stated, all photos © Chris Hoskins/Gatton Trust

https://gattonpark.co.uk/