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Historic Gardens 2010
BCD Special Report
Tracing the past
Archaeology and
garden reconstruction
Brian Dix
A
rchaeological techniques allow us
to rediscover the original form of
historic gardens and associated
parkland and provide essential information
for accurate repair and reconstruction. Yet,
by identifying areas of potential sensitivity
and importance, such investigation often
highlights the tension between preservation,
renewal, and enhancement. Some gardens
have been accurately restored but others
are partial or complete re-creations which
attempt to evoke an original spirit rather
than to be a faithful reconstruction. While
they may occupy the same site as an earlier
garden and follow its actual dimensions
and layout, they may rely for much of their
detail upon the interpretation of previous
descriptions and related historical sources,
as in the case of the recently refurbished
Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth Castle.
Like its predecessor, which may have
been designed expressly for a royal visit in
1575, the garden at Kenilworth is located
below the castle keep, where an earthen
terrace was constructed both as a processional
way and to provide a viewing platform.
According to a contemporary report a richly
decorated aviary stood directly opposite
and there were arbours at each end, with
the area between divided into quarters
by grass and sand walks, and filled with
flowers, fragrant herbs and fruit trees. A tall
sculptured fountain stood in the middle
and the rediscovery of its foundations
proved a vital key to understanding the
original geometry. Taken in conjunction
with various building dimensions and
other measurements recorded in the
historical account, the information provides
a reliable basis for rebuilding the garden,
although much finishing detail remains
necessarily speculative and is based on
analogy with contemporary practice.
Even where no remains have survived,
a carefully conjectured re-creation can
provide a vision of what might once have
existed. Entirely new gardens built in a
scrupulously researched medieval style
have been incorporated within appropriate
surroundings at Winchester (Queen Eleanor’s
Garden) and Tretower Court in Wales, and
‘Orpheus’, an inverted pyramid, under construction in the grounds of Boughton House, Northamptonshire
A modern garden feature in keeping with the surrounding historic landscape
was introduced after archaeological evaluation, including trial excavation, showed any earlier remains to have been largely destroyed