The Walled Garden at Cowdray Castle Ruins

Not able to go on Thursday 22nd of June to the Official Open Evening, part of the National Gardens Scheme, we were delighted to find Saturday advertised as another Open day. This proved to be a printing error but Jan Howard, aware of this mistake in the local press, decided to open anyway.

It was all a lovely surprise. We were welcomed to a small inside sitting area where we had an enjoyable chat about the Walled Garden and paid our entrance fee which goes to charity. We were then invited to have a glass of wine which was being dispensed by two young girls from Churchers School at a table in the North West corner of the garden.

As you can see from the picture above it was one of those still, warm June evenings which made everything look its best; and the flower borders, only planted one year ago, put on an amazing show of rich colour.

Jan Howard didn't have 'a handout' for us to digest so we've subsequently asked her for more information on the design and the history of the garden and the surrounding buildings. We were told that The Midhurst Society was prepared to help with the latter. This further information has been received and is set out below. In the meanwhile, please make a note of the next Open Day on Thursday 27th July between 5.30pm and 8.30 pm. Entrance: £3.50.

One thing which stood out for us. The visitors we met all enjoyed the social occasion and the opportunity of talking to other like minded people with whom they had something in common. The Walled Garden is therefore something very special for Midhurst and for local people generally: it's a place to meet new friends and rediscover that sense of community which was taken for granted in Tudor times.

Jan Howard's answers to questions I put to her about the garden:

"The garden is just under one acre. There were a total of just under 200 visitors to the garden on 22nd and 24th June.

The garden remained mainly unused from the date of the fire (1797), but occasionally it was used for allotments, although it was completely derelict and overgrown when I discovered it.

There was no original plan or template.  The design is my original. The layout was decided upon by taking elements of Tudor/Elizabethan garden design to create a simple but striking garden which has at its core the large expanse of lawn in the centre.  No one particular garden influenced me but I was certainly subconsciously influenced by many walled gardens I visited.

The planting was decided upon in consultation with nurserywomen and horticulturalists, Lucy Berry and Marina Christopher.  The main brief was to use brightly coloured flowers with no cream or white planting, and to have a mixture of early and late flowering perennial borders.

There are three sculptures in the garden.  The central Dancing Cranes sculpture is a work by Lloyd Le Blanc of Le Blanc Fine Art and is on loan from him.  The nude lady in the pond against the West wall is by Judith Holmes Drewry of Le Blanc Fine Art and is also on loan.  These sculptures may occasionally be changed to add further interest to visitors returning to the garden.  The water feature sculpture is a fountain designed specifically by Lloyd Le Blanc for The Walled Garden at Cowdray and has boars’ heads spouting water around it.(See picture above)   The inspiration for the design came from a medieval painting called A Scene from Roman de la Rose which I saw in a book called Medieval Flowers (p.90-91) by Miranda Innes and Clay Perry.

Development plans for The Walled Garden at Cowdray include planting a Rose Walk in the Autumn, completing the composting area and finalizing the vegetable beds.  The café next to The Walled Garden will be opening next year in conjunction with the opening of the Cowdray Ruins.

I’m afraid I don’t know when the Midhurst Society will have their history of the adjoining buildings ready.

The main plants in the picture are Verbena Bonariensis and Cynara Cardunculus.  The plants which will be at their best on the 27th July will be Clematis, Dahlias, Marigolds, Agapanthus and Echinacea."

The two pictures above were taken on the 27th July and show visitors relaxing in the gentle evening sunshine. It was quite astonishing to me to find everyone so relaxed and treating the occasion like a garden party for friends.Well done Jan. Not only was this a memorable event the garden looked splendid, even better than expected bearing in mind the plants have only been growing for a year. We shall all enjoy revisiting on the next Open Day to see the changes.

COMMUNITY - FRIENDSHIP - SENSE OF BELONGING - FLORAL BEAUTY - HERITAGE - WELLBEING - FIND ALL THESE AT THE WALLED GARDEN, COWDRAY CASTLE RUINS, MIDHURST, WEST SUSSEX

[MIDHURST HOME] [ TUDOR HOUSE] [ TUDOR KITCHENS] [COWDRAY CASTLE RUINS]
[TUDOR WALLED GARDEN] [ TUDOR INGLENOOK] [MIDHURST SOCIETY] [TUDORS FOOD]

Continue your interest in walled gardens with these websites

Barley Wood Walled Garden Winsford Walled Garden Easton Walled Garden Alnwick Walled Garden.