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Jun 2024
Newby Hall’s head horticulturist shares the garden’s surprising secrets
A recognisable North Yorkshire landmark, Newby Hall occupies a large swathe of countryside – approximately 300 acres of parkland - between Ripon and Boroughbridge.
Of this vast estate, 25 acres is taken up by its formal gardens, which have been a key feature since the house was built in 1695.
Indeed, it is the only garden to have been awarded Historic Houses ‘Garden of the Year’ award twice, in 1986 and then again in 2019.
Newby Hall estate is also open to the public during certain times of the year, and tickets start from £19.80 for an adult.
With such a long heritage, the gardens have plenty of tales to tell.
The Stray Ferret met with Lawrence Wright, the head gardener at Newby Hall to explore the gardens, and find out more about the surprising stories that run deeper than any roots.
Sylvia's Garden
The number of gardeners might surprise you
You might think that for such a vast estate there would be a need to employ a large team to keep it tamed – if one gardener per acre seems excessive, then perhaps a squad in double digits would sound reasonable.
Think again. There are currently only five full-time gardeners working across the grounds of Newby Hall, not only tackling the formal gardens but the remaining 20 acres of woodland too.
Lawrence explained that they do have some supporting staff, including students and volunteers that lend a hand. However, on a day-to-day basis it’s just him and his team, overseen by Lucinda Compton, garden curator and wife of Robert Compton, the ancestral owner of Newby Hall.
Former floral displays tackled turbulent political history
The herbaceous border known as Robin’s Walk was redesigned in 2008, with pastel blues and yellows replacing some altogether more topical topiary.
The space was previously affectionately known as The War of the Roses bed – so called because the white rose representing Yorkshire and the red for Lancashire were kept apart by a small hedge, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the battle for the English throne.
However, the gardening team felt the roses were past their best, and wanted to instead honour a more naturalistic style – with no more references to famous feuds.
Horticulturalists have a specific pet peeve about films
There’s been a number of films and TV programmes shot at Newby Hall, both in the gardens and the house itself.
The Billiard Room was graced by Cillian Murphy’s presence for Peaky Blinders, and both ITV’s Victoria and the 2018 horror The Little Stranger have shot scenes in the grounds.
According to Lawrence, if you’re in the horticultural world, there’s one commonly shared complaint about film continuity – and that’s out-of-season flora and fauna.
He’s noticed it most recently in fan favourite Bridgerton which he says takes him out of the action.
He said:
It’s a horticulture thing – it’s like a satellite on a house. For example, they’ll be walking in the park, and it’ll be very autumnal and then they’ll go back to the house, and it’s all covered in wisteria, which will probably be plastic.
You don’t have to create outdoor shots with props and CGI. There’s a lot of beautiful gardens to choose to film in.
World War One directly affected the rock garden
Covering 1,600 square metres, the Edwardian rock garden was established using boulders transported Pateley Bridge, 15 miles away – quite the feat of landscaping.
Construction was finished in August 1914, extremely close to the date that World War One was declared.
Consequently, the gardeners at the time were all conscripted to the front line and with nobody to maintain it, the garden fell into disrepair.
It wasn’t until 2019 that restoration – or as the team prefer to term it ‘a reimagination or revitalisation' – began. Today, some areas of the rock garden have been planted as recently as April 2024.
The type of Cornus can mean survival or failure
Newby Hall is home to one of only three UK collections of Cornus, which are otherwise known as dogwoods, a beautiful flowering tree.
Cornus are otherwise known as dogwoods
The first Cornus was planted in 1937 by Major Edward Compton, but the project was started in earnest by his son, Robin Compton in 1988 when he applied to hold a Plant Heritage National Collection status.
There are now over 100 Cornus in the gardens – but not all varieties can flourish here in Yorkshire.
While the Korean and Japanese cultivars (Cornus Kousa) do well, the North American cultivars (Cornus Florida) can struggle with the disease anthracnose.
A snapshot of the gardens
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