Abbotsbury Gardens, Abbotsbury, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.   

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Abbotsbury Gardens contain a late 18th century walled garden which was the kitchen garden of the former Strangways Castle, built by the first Earl of Ilchester (Poore 1997). The Castle was built in the late 18th century in a Gothic Revival style near Chesil Beach (outside the area here registered), about 850 metres to the west of the walled garden. It burnt down in 1913 and rebuilding works started immediately. The work was completed in 1916 but the new Castle was never occupied and was demolished in about 1935; only the foundations now (2000) remain.

During the first half of the 19th century, Henry Stephen Fox-Strangways, the third Earl of Ilchester, inherited the Abbotsbury estate. In 1808, he began enclosing open fields and commons situated within the estate, and three years later he planted Stavordale Wood, immediately east of the walled garden then known as Castle Gardens. In the early 19th century, the third Earl established, with the assistance of his younger half brother William Fox-Strangways, who was a keen botanist, an extensive plant collection in the Castle Gardens. The Gardens were extended westwards into the fields outside the walls and into the valley along the northern edge of Stavordale Wood. William was able, through his postings abroad in the diplomatic service, to collect and bring back many exotic plant species and varieties. During this period, the Fox-Strangways family established, through marriage, close contacts with other plant collectors and gardeners, including Thomas Mansel Talbot of Penrice Castle, Glamorgan, the photographer and botanist Henry Fox-Talbot of Lacock Abbey, and also with members of the Digby family (Sherborne Castle and Minterne). Their correspondence (held mainly in the private archives at Penrice Castle and Lacock Abbey), provides references to specific species and varieties introduced at Abbotsbury Gardens. After the third Earl of Ilchester's death in 1858, his brother William briefly succeeded as the fourth Earl until his death in 1865. During the 1860s he enlarged the Gardens further (Country Life 1899) and in 1865 appointed Peter McNeil as head gardener (Poore 1997).

During the 1890s, under the ownership of the fifth Earl of Ilchester and his wife Mary, the expansion of both the plant collection and the Gardens continued (Country Life 1899). They appointed Joseph Benbow as head gardener, who had previously worked for Sir Thomas Hanbury of Kingston Maurward, Dorset, in his garden at La Mortola in Northern Italy,created in 1867 (Gardeners' Chronicle 1899). It has been suggested that Benbow may have encouraged or influenced the fifth Earl and Countess in the creation of a subtropical, or rather Mediterranean garden, similar to that at La Mortola (Poore 1997). During this period, the Castle Gardens were extended to the north-east, more shelter belts were planted to the south-west, dams were installed along the stream in the valley, two lily ponds were created, and a new garden layout was introduced within the walled garden. In 1899 Mary Ilchester published a catalogue for Abbotsbury Gardens, listing over 4000 different plant species and varieties from every continent. By 1912 the collection had expanded further to over 5000 species (Poore 1997; Gardeners' Chronicle 1912).

After the First World War, Abbotsbury Gardens fell into decline, and it was not until the late 1960s that a programme of more active management began. This was instigated by the daughter of the seventh Earl of Ilchester and included, in 1982-1984, the further expansion of the Gardens into Stavordale Wood to house a Chinese plant collection. This phase of restoration and expansion has continued, and since the 1990s new plant collections and garden features have been introduced, as well as a shop, a restaurant, and a tea garden.

The site remains (2000) in private ownership.