The Cultivated Landscape -
Hylands and its planted trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants
Mark Hanson
By the late 18th century, Hylands had established gardens, a sale catalogue of 1795 mentions "......a
greenhouse, ice house, gardens and pleasure gardens........". Humphry Repton - commissioned by-
Cornelius Kortright around 1800 - is likely to have made a number of suggested alterations, amongst
them creating a kitchen garden and a shrubbery to be laid out north-west of the house and removing
the formal gardens.
In the 1820s, under the guidance of Pierre Labouchere, a huge 250ft greenhouse was built in the
gardens and in 1821, a netted cherry orchard was created by the architect William Atkinson. In tins
structure cherries (May Duke. White Heart and Circasrain) and other soft fruit such as gooseberries,
red, white and blackcurrants, raspberries and strawberries were grown. Labouchere also eventually
had a new kitchen garden built in its current location by the main gate.
Labouchere employed two gardeners; Francis Nieman (fruit and vegetables) and lohn Smith (the
flower and pleasure gardens) to supervise the gardens. Nieman, a Dutclmian, employed the Dutch
manner of forcing vegetables and fruit, substituting the heat of fermenting dung for that of coal.
Thus, fresh vegetables were available virtually all year round - lettuces, cucumbers, carrots, kidney
beans, cauliflowers, peas, potatoes, asparagus, sea kale and rhubarb. Herbs - such as chicory,
parsley, mint and tarragon - were all grown in the kitchen garden. Exotic fruits that we take for
granted now were also cultivated - melons, peaches, apricots, nectarines and grapes. Atkinson was
a noted designer of greenhouses and using hot water for heating thein. At least 16 glasshouses were
constructed in the kitchen garden.
The hard winter of 1837 - 3 8 was reported on by J.A.Ferguson, Gardener at Hylands, and its effect
on trees and shrubs. In the article published in the Gardeners Magazine are mentioned (amongst
others) Photinia serrulata. Magnolia grandiflora, Myrtus sp (Myrtle), Escallonia, Camellia, Arbutus,
Aucuba, Viburnum tinus, Prunus laurocerasus, Rhododendron arboreum and Carina indica. A
deodar (Cedrus deodara) mentioned at 9ft high, unfortunately succumbed to the cold. Tins graceful
conifer, a native of the Himalayas, was introduced into cultivation in 1831 and the free concerned
may have been one of the first grown in the U.K. Labouchere himself died not long after in 1839.
A subsequent sales catalogue of this date mentions ".....magnificent conservatories and stove
houses.....filled with a very choice collection of rare plants and exotics".
An article in the Gardeners Chronicle in June 1881 mentions Hylands Park as being "the largest
gardening establishment in the neighbourhood of Chelmsford". (In 1839 Hylands was said to have
employed some 30 gardeners and labourers). Plants noted here at this time included Erysimum
(Belvoir Castle and Tom Thumb), Aubrieta, Gloxinia and Calceolaria. Special note was made of
the Bougainvillea, today a common plant in the Mediterranean, but a native of Brazil. Two pine-
houses arc mentioned (for pineapples) and an Osborn's Prolific fig. Mention is made of the replanting
of the trees trained on the walls. The recent orchard of four or five acres containing apples and also
pears, notably had its trees protected from browsing cattle and rabbits.
Sir Daniel Fulthorpe Gooch, owner of Hylands 1908 -1920 employed around 14-20 gardeners at
Hylands. The vast greenhouse in the garden was by tins time a palm, tropical and temperate house
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Essex Parks: Section 2 - Hylands Park