Spectacular glasshouse is restored to former glory
IT is a huge glasshouse and walled garden, all for a house which no longer exists.
Work to restore the walled kitchen garden and Grade II listed conservatory and palm house in the heart of Clumber Park has been completed and both are now fully open to the public.
The glasshouse, created more than 110 years ago by the Duke of Newcastle, is the largest in the National Trust’s estate, which is now owner and guardian of the 3,800acre site.
The house for which this enormous building was created was built for the 2nd Duke of Newcastle in the early 1760s, designed by Stephen Wright, it was regarded as one of the finest non-Royal houses in the country. But fire in 1879, and then again in the restored house in 1912, a decision was made by the 9th Duke to demolish the house.
The demolition of Clumber House was contracted out to Henry Boot Construction in 1938, with the sale of most of the contents the year before. Thornbridge in Derbyshire, Henry Charles Boot’s home since 1929, was one estate to benefit from much of the statuary and facades from Clumber, along with Newstead Abbey, home to Lord Byron, whose Clumber Lodge is built entirely from materials from Clumber House.
However, the glasshouse endured and is the grandest of structures, reaching 450ft, and split into 12 sections, the classhouse was installed by the 7th Duke of Newcastle and completed in 1910, with the design and construction attributed to horticultural builders, James Gray.
But after suffering timber rot, glazing breakages and significant timber decay over the years, work was needed to restore it to its former glory and work on the central area and east wing of the glasshouse started in August 2023.
The six-month long project involved extensive timber splice repairs and resin repairs to retain as much of the original timber structure as possible. The glazing, of which the roof alone has more than 800 individual panes, was removed, cleaned, and reused where possible.
Additional work included masonry and repointing works, limewashing walls and re-wiring the palm house’s climbing wires, and repair and redecoration of rainwater goods.
The work was carried out by heritage joinery specialists Jericho Joinery Ltd, based in Newark on Trent, and was funded by gifts in wills from supporters.
Now complete, visitors can access the full breadth of the building which also houses a tools and vineries museum, apple store and drying room, and the old gardener’s mess room.
The Clumber Park gardens team, which consists of seven staff and more than 45 volunteers, who come in regularly to create spectacular displays in the conservatory each season. And now plans are being made to organise events, including Blossom Week, which runs to Sunday.