Helmsley Walled Garden & Duncombe Park
A game of two halves
30 July 2023
By: James Lennox
No sooner did I say that ‘doing the double’ and visiting two gardens in one day was impossible in Yorkshire than I go and do just that. But whereas Kiftsgate and Hidcote share a penchant for all things herbaceous, the two gardens the subject of this review could not be more different in terms of planting, design and feel.
Let’s start, as I did, with the Walled Garden at Helmsley. Originally the productive patch for Duncombe Park, like many other walled gardens, it fell into disrepair until, phoenix-like, it was reborn in the late twentieth century as a garden designed with the needs of the local community in mind.
The emphasis here is very definitely on the therapeutic benefits of gardening. Volunteers care for the garden, a diverse series of events is organised to involve as many as possible, there are community plots for locals to grow their own and the walls are lined with mainly northern cultivars of apples and pears. Various sections are set aside as lawns for people to gather, relax, enjoy the space.
And for once the intended use of the garden clearly meets the needs of locals and visitors alike. There is an informal, friendly feel here, from the cafe in an old glasshouse to the chicken run and pond in the far corner.
Uniting the two ends of the garden is the undoubted horticultural star of the show - the double herbaceous Hot Border, so named for the vibrancy of the colour scheme at the height of summer. Great blocks of kniphofia, anthemis, crocosmia, salvia, helenium, echinops, achillea, liatris and agastache bounce down the length of the border, splotches of red, yellow, blue, orange, the brighter the better.
All of which is backed along its entire length on both sides by a beautifully clipped copper beech hedge, particularly startling as the background to a line of towering yellow verbascums.
And if you had a ruined thirteenth century castle as your next door neighbour, you too would be tempted to borrow the view and allow the looming stone hulk into your garden. Pretty much throughout, the castle is a constant presence, providing an impressive backdrop rather than intimidating or over-shadowing the achievements below.
But let’s not forget the original design genius that laid out the walled garden in the form of a parallelogram. No right angles here, most visible in the way in which the Hot Border seems to slice through the garden on a skew. Apparently, this is the shape favoured by northern walled garden builders in the eighteenth century to make the most of the sun hitting the walls and minimize the amount of ground in shade. Who knew?
Our eighteenth century forebears certainly had a trick or two up their sleeves when it came to designing outdoor spaces. Nowhere is this more in evidence than at neighbouring Duncombe Park. And a bigger contrast to the kaleidoscopic effects of the Hot Border would be hard to find.
Here, rationality and restraint meet the Yorkshire landscape of rolling hills and river valleys. Where the Walled Garden was abuzz with human and insect activity, Duncombe Park is enveloped by a serene atmosphere, as if nothing has happened to disturb its tranquility since the garden was conceived and laid out between 1713 and 1730.
300 hundred years later and the original design is still the most perfect response to the grand house (uncompromising in its northern solidity, a sober version of Baroque, no twiddles or curlicues here) and its lofty position high above the River Rye.
The unity of purpose has been preserved. Subtle later additions suggest that subsequent generations of the Duncombe family recognised that they had something special on their hands.
Perhaps inevitably given their proximity to each other, Dunocmbe Park is unjustly overlooked by visitors hell-bent on seeing all that Castle Howard (insert link to review) has to offer. Their loss was my gain on this occasion as I had the entire place to myself, a rare occurrence in the height of summer in any garden of this quality.
Therein lies the problem for many: does Duncombe Park really qualify as a garden? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Sure, there are no herbaceous borders, no colours other than shades of green, no exotic shrubberies. But it’s an eighteenth century landscape garden of the most refined, understated sort - no fripperies, just stripped back enlightened elegance.
The rear of the house looks onto a square lawn bounded left and right by blocks of deciduous trees, mainly oak and beech, with more trees on the rise beyond. Walk away from the house, across the lawn to the figure of Father Time peering at a sundial, look left and right and the genius of this place is suddenly revealed - the majestic sweep of the East Terrace.
The terrace stretches in a perfectly proportioned graceful curve determined by the course of the river below. The eye is drawn immediately to the north and the Ionic temple, an open rotunda possibly by Vanbrugh from which there are views over the surrounding countryside. The level terrace is of course a man-made embankment, the precision of the earth-moving heightened by the dividing line between manicured grass and the unmown evenly graded slope down towards the river.
Following the curve to the south the sight of the Doric Temple leads you on, an enclosed structure this time, a beautifully judged punctuation mark. The surprise here is that this building also marks the start of the South Terrace, a bonus expanse of green lawn that does nothing more than lead to the Broadwalk that cuts through the trees and returns to the house.
And that’s it. No noteworthy plants, no gimmicks. There are, however, incidental pleasures en route - an ancient yew walk, a substantial serpentine ha-ha, small Victorian sunken parterres, possibly by Nesfield, flanking the house and the secluded conservatory tucked into the trees, the perfect retreat for a horticultural hermit. Borrowed views of the ruined Helmsley Castle and the river far below merely add to the sense of being removed from the outside world on this remote man-made green platform.
Despite all their differences of scale, tone, planting and atmosphere, both gardens highlight the same lesson: be bold. All a garden really needs is one idea or grand gesture brilliantly executed, whether that’s a herbaceous border with startling colour combinations or a cool, refined expression of green perfection.
More information here: https://helmsleywalledgarden.org.uk/
