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THE LOST GARDENS OF HELIGAN
I chose to open this virtual visit with a photo of the
above garden plaque by Tim Smit, garden savior, rather than a floral view because it seemed to epitomize the very soul of Heligan Gardens; its mystery and magic. Also because the personable tone of his note illustrates the passion and individual commitment of all those who have made the ongoing restoration possible. Only within the last decade has this historic classical garden been rescued from the past.
The
Photo Tour is below the following history of Heligan. Our pictures are only a taste of so much more to be discovered there.
The land has been know as 'Heligan', Cornish for 'The Willows', since the twelfth century and developed under
the same family line since the 1600's, evolving through descendant ownership until the end of the 19th century. The original garden plans were first drawn up between 1780-90 and the next 3 generations fulfilled the
constructions. Upon completion, Heligan was regarded as Cornwall's oldest and greatest garden within the heart of a fully self-contained 1000-acre estate of farms, quarries, woods and even its own brickworks
factory. The cultivated grounds within this massive estate rose to the epitome of Victorian gardening, providing a wealth of exotics and excesses as desired by an affluent society. Here lived the privileged class
portrayed in Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. Besides the classical and tropical pleasure grounds, this traditional estate garden provided year-round vegetable and cutting
gardens to fill the house with flowers and produce as well as supply the worker's larder. Productive estates with heated green houses such as Heligan's earned favorable Royal Family ranking by sending exotic
delicacies such as pineapples to the palace. Other hot house produce included grapes, bananas, citrus, peaches and more. In their heyday, the gardens provided everything from melons to mushrooms, strawberries as
large as plums and vegetables as tiny as those relished in today's Nouveau Cuisine.
The decline of Heligan's bountiful land began during the First World War when most of the garden staff left for
battle and more than half were slain on the Fields of Flanders. As the fatality reports arrived, fellow under gardeners inscribed the names of their lost on the bothy house wall, where they can still be read today.
With rural coastal proximity, the manor house was loaned to the War Department as a convalescent home for military officers in 1916. After the war, the family returned but only for a few years, as upkeep resources
had been depleted. In 1943 the house hosted American officers for the training and planning of the Normandy landings practiced at nearby Pentewan Beach.
By the end of the Second World War, the luxury of English estate gardening had succumbed to postwar economics and Heligan
fell into the ranks of the many deserted manor homes. She grew into a Sleeping Beauty's castle, awaiting the prince for seventy years. Many have been demolished in the name of progress, but Heligan slept in safety
until her prince awoke and revived her. Beginning less than ten years ago with the removal of seventy years of overgrowth and debris, the authentic restoration and unfailing dedication have kissed the princess back
to life.
Following a fortuitous pattern in architectural preservation, it was the desertion that actually precipitated the
possibility of revival. In her neglect, Heligan was spared 'modernization'; being left as a time capsule under 1500 tons of timber. Below the rubble, horticultural artifacts told her story. Zinc plant markers were
unearthed where last struck, a wooden wheel barrow remained parked outside the Head Gardener's cozy office and antique tools and terra cotta pots were preserved within the potting shed and glass house ruins. Using
the 1839 tithe map, two and a half miles of original paths were revealed under 18 inches of loam. The original annual practice of applying a salty sea sand dressing to retard encroaching root growth had kept the
paths intact below a blanket of earth and overgrowth. Wrapped in giant vines, felled trees and nature's compost, skeletal frames of brick, stone and iron still kept their stance. All remained to tell the story, to
direct today's exacting restoration and horticultural rescue. Despite jungle growths and self-sown trees, many rhododendrons, camellias and exotic rarities had competed to survive under the canopy, developing as
they would in their native lands and even taller with trunks as stout as trees. Still in the midst of ongoing restoration, she has managed to become the most visited garden in England, surpassing
Sissinghurst's previous record holdings (reference my BOOKS Vintage page, for more on Vita's Sissinghurst Castle Gardens).
The currently restored jungle garden, pleasure grounds, flower borders, kitchen gardens, service buildings and cultivation
structures are a living, working museum where visitors experience a trip back in time to the ways and days of what must be the ultimate realm of gardening. If I ever run away from home, my family would know just
where to find me.
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