The Cascade Circuit

In this last in the series of posts from Scampston Hall in North Yorkshire join me for a walk around the parkland, and the Cascade Circuit, which is about a mile and takes in the wooded gardens and lakes around the Hall, with plenty of vistas along the way.

The parkland was redesigned by Capability Brown following a request from the 5th Baronet in 1771 replacing an earlier eighteenth century garden. Capability Brown continued to visit over the years to monitor the progress as his plans were brought into fruition.

He designed the landscapes to be both practical and elegant, and the expansive lakes were made to appear as if they were a river running through the landscape. Similarly by using a ha ha and avoiding fences’ the parkland also appears to be indefinite. The house wasn’t open when we visited but it’s said that the views from the windows are spectacular and even today you can clearly see how he created vistas across the landscape, frame carefully by trees and other natural features.

Which is amazing really, as given how long ago the parkland was designed and how much nature tends to grow, as I’m discovering with my own garden after returning from holiday!

The views from the Palladian Bridge were spectacular; the bridge itself stands at the end of three linked lakes in the park it was designed by Capability Brown in the style of the renaissance architect Palladio and makes a great statement as well as acting as a dam for an existing stream.

It looked like it might rain as we set out along the side of the lake towards the Cascade, but thankfully it held off.

We couldn’t resist a peek into the Old Ice House which dates from 1759 and has recently been restored. The building’s walls are multi-layered which kept the ice from the lake insulated, it was then crushed and moved to a deep shaft beneath the Hall for use in the kitchen.

We crossed the bridge, pausing mid way to enjoy the replacement Cascade; the original was destroyed with the dam further upstream burst in the 1950s. And it was quite a view.

At this point we headed through a field of sheep watching carefully where we walked - hence no photos! - and back towards the Hall. After a snack and a cup of tea in the cafe (well worth a stop) we were soon heading back to our hotel and wondering at how we’d managed to book somewhere so close to this fabulous garden completely unknowingly!

But we’re ever so glad we did.

The Walled Garden at Flintham Hall

I was pleased to learn that nearby Flintham Hall was opening for charity as part of the National Garden Scheme, and that I’d get a chance to have a look at another part of the estate’s garden. We’d visited in April for the Bluebell walk and that was amazing, so my expectations were high.

I was not disappointed.

I mean, what an enticing entrance.

And after turning the corner and spending quite a bit of time admiring the flowering wisteria, as well as the alliums and tulips planted beneath it, and the plentiful hawthorn blossom we headed through the wrought iron gate into the walled garden.

My first view of the walled garden was pretty special too.

We followed the path that led to the glasshouse, past many bushes of peonies whose buds looked ready to pop. In the glasshouse - which was also to die for - was this pastel blush coloured flowering amaryllis.

What a glorious space.

I finally left the glasshouse, which had a swimming pool at one end, to discover a non-native animal eyeing up the waterlilies in the pond, or maybe something else?

Next we headed towards an area with fruit trees which were clearly old - and shaped into a fantastic goblet. It looks, like me, that the estate will be expecting a fair few apples later in the year too.

Though their roses (and peonies) are way ahead of mine, but like the peonies before I was happy to stop and admire the blooms.

This was our exit from the walled garden, and passing another gnarly and twisted wisteria which to me the trunk of it looks like the face of an animal (if you look closely enough!) and the exit was just as thought out as either of the gates I showed at the start of this post, but I wasn’t prepared for what came next.

How beautiful, dreamy and enticing is this mown path through the cow parsley? I think I want to move in…

The Head Gardener's Office at Scampston

Not only were we able to look around the Gardeners Yard at Scampston Hall, we also got to look ino the Head Gardener’s Office - and while it was set up more as an exhibit rather than a working office, it was still a delight to see.

We made our way in through the Conservatory which was built by Richardson of Darlington in 1894 and restored in 2015 with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund amongst others and now housing a series of exhibition rooms, displays and with a space for community engagement too.

The blue flowered plumbago clambering up the peach wall inside the conservatory definitely drew me in, but turning around the view was just as spectacular and I can see how important it was for the garden to restore the glasshouse to its former glory.

If only all conservatories had this view!

Turning further into the building we found the Head Gardener’s Office, and wouldn’t it just be a dream to manage and plan the garden from here - and I’d especially like that wooden drawer unit to organise my own garden plans.

And while this is a great place for drying onions, garlic and seed heads I think this would be hard to replicate in my own garden setup, and actually I never seem to have much luck with onions anyway, so that’s probably just as well.

But I did see some inspiration on how I could pot up some succulents, isn’t it darling?

Of course I left with some seeds of my own - and actually this post is a great reminder for me to look them out and actually do something with them. I saw some Agastache in the garden centre earlier this week, and I thought it sounded familiar but I couldn’t remember why. Here’s why!

And finally one connection in history that I learnt as we read the interesting information boards around the space. The glasshouse was originally made by Richardson of Darlington, which went on to become one of the glasshouse companies in the Victorian era. It was also the only company to last into this century, rebranding in the 1960s as Amdega. That company finally closed in 2011, but the liquidators sold the brand to Everest the double glazing company, and so the brand lives on with heritage at its heart. I love discovering things like that.

Now I’m off to look out those seeds…