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THE ESSEX NATURALIST
The Gardens at Warley Place
By S. T. Jermyn, F.L.S.
The gardens at Warley Place were formerly the home of one of
the most famous women gardeners—Miss Ellen A. Willmott, who
died in 1934. They are now an outstanding example of the ability
of hortal plants to persist in competition with an aggressive native
flora. The purpose of this article is to place on record some of the
species which have survived here without care or attention for
over 30 years.
Warley Place was the name of a moderately large country
house with about 35 acres of land in the parish of Great Warley.
The name probably means little or nothing to most people to-day,
but 50 years ago things were very different. Warley Place
signified to thousands of people, especially horticulturalists and
botanists, beautiful and unusual gardens where living plants from
all over the world, as well as native species, could be seen and
studied in almost natural conditions.
The house was damaged by enemy action during the last war
and, as it was dangerous, had to be demolished. This was prob-
ably no great loss as there are no records of the house having
any claims to architectural distinction. Its main interest was
probably historical as John Evelyn, the diarist, lived there from
1649 to 1655.
It would seem appropriate here to give a brief sketch of
Warley Place, the gardens and the two occupiers who gave it
fame.
John Evelyn took over Warley Place in 1649 and lived there
until 1655, when he sold it on account of high taxes then prevail-
ing. He laid out the gardens and planted the Sweet Chestnuts,
which have now grown to an enormous size. It is stated that he
introduced the English Crocus, Crocus purpureus, to Warley, but
some past Essex botanists held the belief that it existed there
from time immemorial. The house then passed through a num-
ber of hands, some relatives of Evelyn, until it came into the
possession of the Willmott family in the early 1860s.
Miss Ellen A. Willmott was the last occupier of the house and
from an early age took a keen interest in gardening and as time
went on proved to be no ordinary gardener. When eventually
the gardens passed into her complete control she set about the
task of remodelling them and introducing new plants. Care was
taken to leave as much as possible of the original layout by John
Evelyn and the plants which he introduced. Careful planning
was necessary in the beginning and as years went by the gardens
took shape. The aim was always to make the artificial habitats,
which had to be created for plants from so many countries, look
as natural as possible. J. C. Shenstone, writing in The Essex
Naturalist of 1912 tells us that there were no fewer than 100,000
plants at Warley, if varieties were included as well as species.