The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Gardens restored with love
Rescuing a Georgian mansion house and garden from a state of dilapidation and potential total loss is a daunting prospect that might overwhelm most people.
Philip and Marianne Santer bought Langley Park house and farm, on the A935 between Montrose and Brechin, in 2001.
Having sold their farm in Kent they expected to continue farming but events took over and they sold the farmland, retaining the house and 76 acres of garden and woodland policies.
Our agricultural improving forebears had a passion for planting trees – lime trees, sycamores, yews, beech, Scotch pine and Wellingtonias – and some planted in the 18th Century surround the house.
A Spanish or sweet chestnut tree is believed to be one of the oldest trees in Angus.
When Philip and Marianne arrived the house had stood empty for years and was in a distressed state.
They camped out in the two dry rooms and began the mammoth task of making the Big Hoose habitable. Dry rot was rampant, for two years there was no electricity or hot water and it was six years before it was complete.
After the Second World War, the four walled gardens were cultivated as market gardens but had lain fallow for years. The woodlands were hopelessly overgrown with windfall trees and pervasive rhododendrons beloved of Victorian gardeners.
What interested me as a wildlife writer was learning that in the apparent wildwood environment that had reverted to nature, Philip and Marianne heard little or no birdsong – it was like a silent spring.
While restoration of the house was ongoing the garden walls were repaired where they had been breached, rhododendrons and trees were cleared, weeds sprayed and the ground ploughed and sown with grass for easy management.
In 2007, they opened the first flower beds in the walled garden and planting began. Their hard work outside began to pay off.
Where the woodland floor had been cleared letting in light, dormant snowdrops and bluebells appeared in the spring and foxgloves in the summer.
From the start they put out feeders for the songbirds but it took two years for birdsong to return to the garden.
Now starlings, sparrows, wagtails, chaffinch, goldfinch, tits, jays, blackbirds, thrushes and robins are just some of the daily visitors.
Their next major undertaking was the creation of a traditional wildflower meadow in the 20-acre field below the house.
This is still very much a work in progress as wildflower meadows establish themselves naturally over years rather than being cultivated.
But their hard work is paying off and clover and cornflower, oxeye daisies, buttercups and yellow rattle, campion and sorrel are growing strongly among the sedges and ryes and fescues and other meadow grasses. Philip has cut walks throughout the meadow for visitors to enjoy it better.
The meadow has transformed the wildlife population, attracting large numbers of voles, mice and hedgehogs.
They in turn have attracted predators – sparrowhawks and buzzards, and foxes that have bred beside the meadow. Tawny owls and barn owls nest in the grounds. Roe deer are seen most days.
At night, bats hunt over the meadow and along the drives to the house. What was a wildlife desert has, with careful improvement and management, become a wildlife haven.
A huge standing stone looking as though it might have fallen from outer space sits in a corner of the meadow. Mallard duck and moorhens nest by the pond.
The greatest change has been in the formal walled gardens, which have been planted out mainly with herbaceous shrubs, perennials, roses, honeysuckle, clematis, delphiniums, peonies.
Philip says their planting plan has been largely unplanned and haphazard.
Whatever they saw and liked they planted wherever there was a space – if it didn’t work they moved it and planted it somewhere else. The gardens featured recently on the Beechgrove Garden.
The focus has been on bee and butterfly-friendly shrubs and flowers. A large bed of catmint was planted specifically to attract bumble bees. Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Peacock butterflies have appeared in past years.
The next project is clearing the old sitooterie for visitors to sit oot in. There’s a rare example of a traditional Scottish garden feature that I bet they had never heard of when they bought Langley Park.
From 1792 until 1940, the estate was owned by the Cruickshank family, who made their fortune from Jamaican sugar plantations. Cruickshanks, claiming kinship, have visited from Canada, the US, Australia and even Bulgaria, wanting to see the ancestral home.
It’s been a labour of love, I suggested to Marianne as I was leaving.
“Not really”, she said.
“More like just love.”
Langley Park gardens are open over the summer every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from
10am.