Formal Gardens

Dating back to the 18th-century, the gardens of Melbourne Hall are particularly majestic when covered in snow

The historic landscape of Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire is breathtaking in winter, when features such as its antique statuary, mill house and 20-acre lake take centre stage.

Early on a snowy winter’s morning, with black, bare branches silhouetted against a shell-pink sky, there is something truly magical about the gardens of Melbourne Hall. Viewed from the elegant Queen Anne house, they spread out in a grid of gravel pathways leading towards a formal pool, known as the Great Basin, beyond which a double avenue of lime trees runs up to the tree-fringed horizon. To the east are more avenues and a 20-acre lake complete with mill-house and weir. It is a view that seems unchanged since the grounds were laid out in the formal French style by landscape designers George London and Henry Wise in the early 18th century.

Since 1987, Melbourne Hall, in Derbyshire, has been the home of Lord Ralph Kerr, whose ancestors built the house, and his wife Marie-claire. A renowned painter, Marie-claire has found time to breathe new life into this historic landscape. The gardens took form when Thomas Coke, vice chamberlain to Queen Anne, commissioned their design in 1704, inspired by the work of André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV at Versailles. The gardens are regarded as the finest surviving example of the style in this country. When Marie-claire moved in, the formal heart of the gardens was well maintained, but the farther reaches were badly overgrown. ‘It’s not surprising,’ she says. ‘It takes so much work to care for a place like this. Maintenance is a huge job.’

Nevertheless, Marie-claire could see how it might be improved. ‘In the early days, we cleared away self-seeded scrub that was obscuring the marvellous views,’ she says. With the undergrowth dealt with, original features regained prominence, including the Four Seasons monument, a gift from Queen Anne in 1708. Marie-claire venerates the sense of tradition, but refuses to let it limit her scope for innovation. ‘I’d like the gardens to be as botanically stimulating as they are historically significant,’ she says. ‘Early on, we put in some marvellous trees, including a collection of oaks and limes.’ She also orchestrated painterly ornamental planting schemes, including a winter garden of witch hazels and hellebores and the mill stream borders, which are planted for colour, but at this time of year rely on the remaining pompoms of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ for interest.

Marie-claire had some of the historic elements modified, too, most notably the wall behind the distinctive blue-and-gold Birdcage made by celebrated ironsmith Robert Bakewell in 17061708. This wrought-iron pavilion is a significant focal point. ‘I think of the Birdcage as a gateway to the beyond,’ she says, and now it marks a literal gateway as Marie-claire recommissioned a blocked-up doorway in the boundary wall. This door, in turn, leads to a stream where a flooddamaged bridge is being rebuilt. It is the latest in Marie-claire’s list of improvements, although she insists ‘nothing would be possible without our amazing head gardener Ian Earl and his team’.

Her future projects include restoring the original parterres on the terrace. ‘We used geothermal imaging to see exactly where they were, and we intend to recreate the original pattern,’ she says.

Marie-claire may operate on a scale that few of us can relate to, but every gardener will understand what wonderful respite is offered by the quiet winter months. ‘I love it here at this time of year,’ she says. ‘The bones are what matters most about a garden and now, uninterrupted by extraneous detail, is the perfect time to appreciate them.’

There are two winter openings at Melbourne Hall on 30 December and 13 January, 11am-3pm. Visit melbournehallgardens.com for more information.

When their branches are bare of leaves, all the marvellous trees become amazing sculptural forms silhouetted against the sky.”