Howick, Alnwick, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The Grey family have owned and lived at Howick since the 12th century. Sir Henry Grey, who became High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1736, built 'a large house and elegant offices' to the north of 'the old tower of Howick, mentioned by Leyland' (Wallis 1769). This tower probably lay in the vicinity of the village, clustered around the parish church to the south-east of the Hall. Sir Henry also laid out a shrubbery and plantation to the west of the house, and built a 'new bridge of ashler-work' over the Howick Burn (Wallis 1769).

This house was demolished and a new one built, in 1782, for Sir Henry's son and heir, Sir Henry Grey Baronet, MP for Northumberland, from designs by William Newton (1730-98) of Newcastle (see entry on Hesleyside, Wallington). The entrance front of the new house lay on the south. Charles, 2nd Earl Grey, who inherited the estate in 1807, commissioned George Wyatt (1782-1856) in about 1809 to undertake extensive internal alterations to the house and to change the entrance front to the north. His scheme included landscape works, namely new entrance gates, as well as: 'the approached altered, and the lawn broken in a better style. Howick Burn, a fine trout-stream skirts the lawn, and is crossed by a neat stone bridge, of fine ashlar-work. The brook, following its course from the west, between grass-lawns, shaded by a plantation, makes its exit by a gentle fall. A beautiful fish-pond abounds with fine trout and perch, and the surface is enlivened by the majestic motions of two beautiful swans.' (Mackenzie 1825)

By canalising Howick Burn, a wide, crescent-shaped lawn to the south of the Hall was delimited, in a similar style to that at Hesleyside (see description of this site elsewhere in the Register). The gardens, to the south of the Hall, consisted of a single terrace with lawns, sloping down to the Burn, set with specimen trees.

The parish church was rebuilt to appear as an Ionic temple within the park and the village was removed to the present site of Howick village in about 1850 (Lord Howick personal communication, 2001).

During the late 19th century a lower terrace was built, and set with parterres of low box hedges. A major phase of planting started in 1917 when Lord and Lady Grey developed a woodland garden within the existing 19th-century wooded pleasure grounds. A rhododendron garden, with many newly introduced species rhododendrons, was planted on the greensand from 1930 onwards.

Early introductions of trees and shrubs were obtained directly from Wakehurst, East Sussex and Westonbirt, Gloucestershire through family connections, and from a wide circle of gardening friends including Caerhays, Cornwall (see descriptions of Wakehurst, Westonbirt and Caerhays elsewhere in the Register). A series of bulb collections and herbaceous borders were developed to the south of the terraced gardens. This horticultural family tradition has been continued through the establishment of an extensive arboretum in the east park which extends through Cushat Wood, Crow Wood, and fields to the east and north of the Hall (1990s onwards). The site remains (2000) in private ownership.