Clumber Park’s historic walled garden restored and open to public again
WORK has recently been completed to restore and decorate the walled kitchen garden and glasshouse at Clumber Park.
The National Trust site near Retford features one of the finest surviving 18th-century walled gardens in England as well as a Grade II listed conservatory and Palm House.
The glasshouse reaches over 137 metres and is split into 12 sections, which makes it the longest in the care of the trust.
The building was first installed by the 7th Duke of Newcastle and completed in 1910, but over the years it had suffered from timber rot and broken glazing. Work started to repair it in August 2023, and the six-month project included extensive timber splice and resin repairs to ensure that as much of the original timber structure as possible could be retained.
The roof alone has more than 800 individual panes, which were all removed, cleaned and reused where possible. Some of the additional work involved masonry and reporting works, as well as limewashing walls and re-wiring the Palm House climbing wires.
Now that the restoration and repairs have been completed, visitors are once again able to visit the full building, which is home to a tools and vineries museum, apple store and drying room, as well as the old gardener’s mess room.
Although half-term may be over, the park is still holding all sorts of activities to help family and friends enjoy the site. Until Saturday, it is Rhubarb Week at the park. The walled kitchen garden is home to the national rhubarb collection, which includes more than 130 varieties of the fruit. And from Saturday until Sunday, April 28, it will be the National Trust’s annual Festival of Blossom, with activities including Japanese folklore storytelling, a photography walk, pop-up floristry and poetry workshops.