Well, I thought I’d start my blog with Painswick Rococo Gardens. It’s a garden we visited with college last November on a particularly rainy and miserable day but luckily for us the rain held off for the most part during our visit. We were greeted by the Garden Director, Paul Moir and he talked to us about the garden’s history right through to present day. Painswick Rococo Gardens is in a 6 acre setting situated in a Cotswold valley and has a rather flamboyant and frivolous nature to the design which is typical of its time. I believe it is one of the only surviving gardens of this period of garden design history i.e. between 1720 and 1760 and has been documented as a time for the Georgians to have fun and generally let their hair down!
The home page of the gardens in my opinion really sums up the essence of the gardens well, it reads “a magazine article of 1753, describing this style of garden, finished with the line .......”You are taken to a pompous and gilded building, consecrated to Venus for no other purpose that the squire riots here in vulgar love with a couple of orange wenches from the local play-house”.”....need I say more?
It was built in the 1730s by Charles Hyatt who took refuge in the area due to ill health; sadly he died just as it was completed and his son took over and created this new period of garden history later named Rococo. In the 1970s the Rococo period became very popular and a trust was formed to begin the restoration.
Not only is this garden famous for its step-back-in-time feel and appreciation of the style it also has coach loads of people booking a year in advance to view the carpets of Galanthus nivalis (snowdrops) which are, by all accounts, a sight to behold. This year I have read that because of the really cold weather we’ve been having the growth has slowed down which means the display will last longer and may still be around in early March! (After reading ‘The Garden’ magazine I have noticed that entry to the gardens for RHS members is free in March. Please check before you go at www.rhs.org.uk )For me it wasn’t my favourite garden visit, whilst I can totally appreciate and support the restoration of our heritage I felt it really didn’t hang together. It was very bitty, an area for this and an area for that and neither of them were linked by theme, materials or planting. I will admit that I started off not liking it at all but as I began to really understand how the gardens were used I began to appreciate the indulgence of it.
We walked around the whole garden sometimes wandering by ourselves and other times with our tutors discussing the use, purpose and logic for certain areas. There are numerous garden buildings that have been carefully restored like The Eagle House, the white Gothic ‘exedra’, temples, meeting houses and sculptures dotted around – all totally different. I particularly liked the plunge pool area which again I felt didn’t fit with the surroundings but in understanding what the use of the garden was it kind of did fit in! There is even a small maze (a recent addition) which fits well with the frivolous nature of the setting. Of course, it had to be tried – it would have been silly to just watch others getting frustrated at not being able to get out! It took us about an hour and a half to walk around everywhere including the woodland walk areas with their formal vistas; I imagine you could be there a little longer in the height of season as there would be more plants to stop and admire along the way. I enjoyed the visit but I wouldn’t go again, I would however urge anyone to go and see the style of the gardens for themselves, as you walk around you can really imagine the wild parties they must have had!