Chilham Castle Grounds
The beautiful landscape of Chilham Castle park extends to some 320 acres, but Chilham's triumph is its 24 acres of gardens with their 100 yards of terracing.
The terraces are attributed to Sir Dudley Digges, who (perhaps guided by his plantsman John Tradescant the Elder) made the most of the sloping site with a walled enclosure of tiered terraces from which to admire the view and to enhance the appearance of the castle from a distance.
There were two major avenues of sweet chestnuts which fanned out from the castle, across Digges'ss original 25 acre park, following the route of prehistoric tracks subsequently called the Pilgrims' Way.
The eastern one known as the Chestnut Avenue points straight to the courtyard at the heart of the house, where it meets another axis running straight across the village square to the churchyard entrance. The symbolism behind this geometry is now a matter for speculation but the orientation of the house and the Chestnut Avenue do relate closely to the position of the sun at certain times of year.
The western avenue is much shorter and twice as wide. This enables it to embrace views of the keep, which, in the mid 18th century, was capped by a viewing lantern or belvedere and was provided with two large arched windows from where the surrounding scenery could be admired. With the passage of time this western avenue has more or less disappeared.
Away at the bottom of the hill in the park, not far from the south corner of the garden enclosure, was a dove cote – a popular feature in 16th and 17th century parks.
An avenue of limes led straight from the the village square to the castle's grand walled forecourt, flanked by ornamental gates hung on urn-capped pillars.
Stretching down the slope from the castle, and across to the forerunner of School Hill, was a rectangular enclosure resembling the present layout, but with formal planting almost throughout – two parterres on the present bowling green, one on the plot that is now the quiet garden, and other less intricate designs elsewhere.
The stables, including coach house, granary and grooms' accommodation, stood just inside the main gate. Below them was the kitchen garden separated from the formal terracing by a line of seven mulberry trees, of which two still survive. If, as thought, they date from Tradescant's time, they are his only legacy to 21st century Chilham.
The park as it stands to-day (more than 320 acres, just over a mile from end to end) is largely the work of James Colebrooke – it is his achievement, just as the house is Sir Dudley's – though later on the Hardy family made big changes to both.
Having acquired an estate of over 1,000 acres, (including a park of about 25 acres), Colebrooke, a wealthy banker, seemingly little concerned with rental income at Chilham, enlarged the size of the park tenfold by enclosing within it about one quarter of the entire estate.
In so doing he enclosed one of Chilham's glories, located suitably at the crown of the park, high up towards the south. There a tree-lined path branches off to follow the Pilgrims Way to a point from which to admire a matchless view of Canterbury Cathedral.
Its name “the Colonel's Walk” associated sometimes with Col. Hardy dates back in fact to Col. Thomas Digges from whom Colebrooke bought the estate. The name reveals to each passing generation something of the fondness of Sir Dudley's great-grandson for this special viewpoint and hence his pain on having to part with it for ever.
In 1728 the old main road between Ashford and Canterbury, running through Mountain Street into Hambrook Lane and past the Woolpack Inn, was diverted at the south-west end of Hambrook Lane to enclose a paddock - over 23 acres - including some ponds where, long afterwards, C S Hardy dug a lake.
Running between the lake and the riverside water meadows, this part of Mountain Street was named 50 years ago “the road of the Thousand and One Toads” - so profusely did they once breed here. [“Pilgrimage to Canterbury” Henry Fearon 1956]
Facing down the new diverted road and along Hambrook Lane (where the Elephant House now stands - see Elephants) a gazebo was built – passing traffic was a great fascination.
The opposite corner of the garden enclosure was moved towards the dovecote in the park, achieving a rough symmetry - a tower at each corner of the garden.
In 1733, a much larger enclosure (ten times the size of the paddock) enlarged the park beyond recognition by extending it towards Godmersham to some 280 acres – almost its present size. This was achieved by enclosing what had been Winters Farm, around what became Keeper's Cottage (now renamed “Orchard House”) with part of Felborough Wood and diverting a lane from Dane Street south-westwards, around the new perimeter.
The two road diversions were authorised following writs of “ad quod damnum” - enquiring what damage would be caused by the change. The effect upon the villagers may be surmised from Colebrooke's prompt provision of the “Poor Row” almshouses in the village (demolished 1906)
Beyond the newly enclosed paddock, a new avenue of trees sliced through the random patchwork of ancient field boundaries - twin parallels running half way across the meadows towards the riverside about a quarter of a mile away, where. in later years, a boathouse was built.
The avenue, identified on old field maps as “Broad Walks”, was aligned with the castle terraces a quarter of a mile away in the opposite direction. Framed between the Keep and the old stable block at the front of the castle, the entire vista was centred on a hexagonal corner buttress made of white stone on the south wing of the house (an elegant decorative feature, which was swept away by Charles Hardy and, like the grand vista itself, was more or less forgotten -until now. At the roadside was a lay-by, where travellers could “park” their carriages to admire this remarkable example of 18th century landscaping. To allow unobstructed views up to the castle, the adjacent boundary wall was reduced in height across the full width of the avenue making a “claire-voie” topped for security with iron railings set between a pair of urn-capped pillars.
It was surely not by chance that the new park wall and the new roadway beyond it were positioned to cut exactly midway across this great vista from the top terrace down to the river. The angular course of the Stour at this point (where decades later "Capability" Brown proposed to "enlarge"the river) might suggest that Colebrooke changed its course to bring it within the desired distance from the castle. Each section of the vista was 80 perches long; the claire-voie (between the pillars and trees) was 80 yards wide; the avenue of trees in the water meadows occupied 800 square perches and to the outer boundaries, the entire length of 880 yards enclosed an overall area of 80 roods. Bankers are good with numbers; the mathematics must surely have been deliberate.
Most of the “Broad Walks” boundaries have survived, but otherwise, little remains of this remarkable concept except the claire-voie railing and the pillars whose urns (it is said) now grace the castle's entrance lodges in the village square.
As a finishing touch, on the castle lawn, a new sundial by the famous Thomas Wright bearing the new Colebrooke coat of arms was placed in a corner of the top terrace garden where the flank of the new “Broad Walks” aligned with the old Chestnut Avenue.
At the far end of the estate, near Godmersham Park, Robert Colebrooke (James's heir) enclosed another 8 acres. The adjacent Beech Avenue and intersecting rides across Felborough Wood, near the site of the ancient heronry, also date from this time.
In the 1760s Lancelot “Capability” Brown was employed by Robert Colebrooke's young brother George at Gatton Park in Surrey. There is no evidence of Brown's having been at Chilham in Colebrooke's time, but perhaps his landscaping style, with sweeping swathes of grass, influenced Robert to make changes – the parterre was now passé and by 1774 it was grassed over to make the bowling green.
Persuaded to come to Chilham in 1777-8 by the Colebrookes' successor Thomas Heron, Brown commented that “there is little to do in the park”. As Heron wrote in a letter to his brother Richard “He said there was little necessary; merely to follow fancy. The truth is he had little time for it”
Brown's main preoccupation was with views of the castle from far off, particularly the prominent block of stables. He produced plans for the stables' relocation: either at the entrance "having a good gateway at the centre" alongside a new porter's lodge - where their function would remain obvious to those in the house when wind blew from the north-east - or suitably tucked away beyond the keep beside the old castle ditch. Similar plans were put forward by Heron's talented steward and agent Christopher Greaves, who considered Brown's entire involvement a waste of money.
Perhaps it was Greaves who first proposed an oval drive covering most of the forecourt, as visualised in an estate plan produced in 1778 by Henry Hogben.
The entrance avenue of limes had been felled before Brown arrived, making the stables starkly prominent on the skyline. Unable to afford a new stable block, Heron improvised. The old straight drive was cut short by a small circle between the stables and the house like a lollipop on a stick. To hide the stables from the valley and the claire-voie, tall trees were planted on the parterre which, much later, became the quiet garden.
The top and bottom terraces were levelled and the garden walls round the house, including the grand gated forecourt, were all demolished. To separate the park from the lawns beside the house, keeping animals and other intruders away without interrupting the view, a ditch was then dug – to Brown it was a “sunk fence” - these days it is called a “ha-ha”. The south section of this ditch must have been dug after the bottom garden enclosure was narrowed, some thirty years or so later.
Brown also produced a plan for a “Green House” apparently the building with ornamental finials visible in engravings of the period backing onto the keep beside the service yard – nowadays we might call it an orangery. Though Heron considered it “very pretty and well designed”, after a generation or so, Brown's orangery was demolished and, to this day, the site remains empty – cleared to make way for more grass – the fate to which Mr Brown so often consigned the works of others.
Heron's most obvious change was the enclosure in 1777 of two parcels totalling just over 50 acres. By moving the road northwards, he enclosed within the park the south end of the Soles Hill road from Shottenden and, with it, the old castle barn (now the Village Hall). Prior to this, the old Maidstone road between Taylor's Hill and Dane Street probably followed what is now the lower drive from Taylor's Hill past the keep along the castle ditch.
Though Mr Heron may have been pleased to own a park with a famous heronry, he soon rid himself of Colebrooke's herd of deer. However, Chilham later resumed its role as a recognised deer park until the early years of the 20th century when there was a herd of 100 fallow deer, whose feral successors still contrive to frequent it.
With plenty of cash, James Wildman was able to implement two of Brown's proposals, which had been beyond Heron's resources.
A new stable block was built below the back drive, where Brown had suggested, and the old block on the forecourt was cleared away to improve the view.
Until then the entrance gate was set back from the village square, leaving the steward's house (now called Castle Cottage) outside the park enclosure.
Following another of Brown's proposals, James Wildman moved the main gate forward encroaching a little on the village square and enclosing the steward's house within the park.He flanked his new entrance with a pair of crenellated Gothick-style lodges, with corner buttresses resembling those on the house.
The old dovecote was demolished and the bottom garden enclosure was narrowed again - to its present shape.
James's son, James Beckford Wildman, had his own ideas and his own architect: John Shaw. To celebrate the second centenary of the house, the lime avenue leading straight to a square forecourt at the front entrance was reinstated and, executing in part another recommendation from Heron's time, the lollipop drive was replaced by one half of a sweeping oval connecting the new entrance lodges, the stables and the house. The huge holm oak south-west of the house, long said to date from 1616 celebrating the completion of the house, is now dated by experts to the Wildmans' time - an opinion supported by its absence from all the 18th century engravings. Probably, like the reinstated Lime Avenue at the front, it was planted by J B Wildman around 1816 to celebrate the 2nd centenary of the house.
The wall of the upper terrace was built up with hollow tile-work, a classical style of decoration common in Italy; perhaps safety was a factor – the Wildman family had several children.
Two handsome flights of stone steps distinguish Wildman's restoration work from the brick steps of Sir Edmund Davis. Below the steps, to the left, where John Shaw's plan shows a “maze”, the tall trees of the quiet garden, planted by Heron to screen the old stables on the castle forecourt, were now replaced by open lawns.
At the top and bottom of his new steps and flanking the twin platforms on the bowling green Wildman planted pairs of Irish yews. Hardy destroyed one of the platforms and only four of these trees have survived. In 2002 they were in a very bad state, overgrown with ivy, but after severe pruning, they are regaining their shape and in fine fettle.
The bottom enclosure remained walled in, eventually becoming an orchard.
In the lee of the Chestnut Avenue, beyond the ice house, Wildman planted another orchard - over 7 acres of apples and cherries – all now vanished.
Wildman also built glass houses in the gardeners' yard and arranged for the planting of what was claimed to be England's first wisteria, brought from China by Captain Wellbank a family friend – probably the ancestor of the wisteria thriving beside the castle to this day.
Brandon, on behalf of Charles Hardy, replaced the twin entrance lodges with a single building in his own style. Seemingly struggling for a polite word to describe its turret, battlements and Flemish gable, Hardy's grandson settled on “commodious”. Surely everyone approved when thick ivy began to shroud it.
Hardy must have thought that the 18th century ha-ha was a sufficient barrier between the park and the garden, making the South wall of the upper enclosure unnecessary. He removed the wall and the adjacent platform, opening a vista from the bowling green up the bank into the park. Hardy also nurtured and developed the yew topiary which Wildman had established at the far side of the bowling green. Early photographs show that originally these trees were uniform, but over the years, they have developed their own personalities and are now all very different shapes, attracting considerable interest.
Also around this time, the stable block was enlarged to its present shape. The entire block, now known as Stable Court, together with the former farmyard known as Dove Cote and the larger houses beyond, were sold piecemeal over the years.
C S Hardy, (known generally as Col. Stewart Hardy) inheriting from his father in 1867, planted thousands of trees, notably extending Digges'ss two main avenues.
To link with Colebrooke's Beech Avenue at the far end of the park, the Chestnut Avenue was extended to almost a mile in length.
At the far end of the upper avenue, beyond some random planting and a large square clearing, an avenue 100 yards wide and 300 yards long led to Felborough Wood. Running parallel, one of similar size was centred on one of Colebrooke's rides. This area suffered greatly in the 1987 storm but has recovered. Most of the evergreens planted by C S Hardy beside the mansion to screen his father's service-wing, thrive to this day. On the other side of the house, perhaps by way of balance and to frame views up the hill from the lake, tall trees grew again at the end of the bowling green recreating the quiet garden.
By 1906, Chilham was claimed to have the largest maple and ash trees in the British Isles. (Chilham Castle Kent, its history and guide to the ancient castle & keep, Ashford, Kent, Thompsons, 1906)
There was rebuilding in the gardeners' yard, including some greenhouses providing heat for a screen wall. A diesel pump was provided to serve the ancient well. Below the yard, Col.Hardy's terrace walk (once decorated with tile-work matching Wildman's main terrace) still overlooks the garden and beyond.
One of the Colonel's enthusiasms was cricket. Most of the parkland being far from level and dotted with ancient trees (objects of his veneration), the Cricket Ground was located down in the paddock beside Mountain Street. Public access was made easy by the roadside gates near the “claire-voie” and a path across the paddock to the gates facing Hambrook Lane. An existing building was converted to serve as a grand cricket pavilion, sporting twin Flemish gables and containing four rooms with a fireplace to help cope with the English summer. Its ruin survives, set into the old park wall. Click here to view page about the Australian cricket match.
Stewart Hardy's major legacy is the lake, (about 3.5 acres) built in two phases starting in 1869.
Two islands were made, one merely ornamental, the other very practical; approached by a bridge, it had a horse-driven pump connected to a new well.
An arm of the lake was brought round to the middle of the “claire voie” to provide a setting for a new boathouse aligned with another on the river bank a quarter of a mile away - both of them on the centre-line of Colebrooke's vista.
Before long the lake was extended, making this contrived arrangement less obvious.
Undoubtedly, Hardy's lake has added more beauty to Chilham than anything else done in his family's sixty years here.
His lakeside boathouse, reconstructed in traditional materials by the Chilham Fishing Syndicate in 2004, already looks mature and suits its location perfectly.
Sir Edmund and Lady Davis recreated the top terrace, which had been destroyed by Heron, planted it with new topiary and removed Wildman's tilework from the perimeter wall. An ingenious series of brick steps was built at either end connecting it with Wildman's terracing and the grassy slopes below. The summerhouse at the end of the lower terrace probably dates from their time. The new top terrace provided a retaining wall for a new gravelled platform for motor vehicles at the front entrance. This necessitated new steps to the truncated main drive, now for pedestrian access only, but still flanked by Wildman's lime trees.
Two large glasshouses replaced some of the Victorian ones and more gardeners' buildings were erected in the yard adjoining. The tile-work decoration disappeared from here too. A new water tank was provided near the greenhouses and an artificial stream with waterfalls was created in a new rock garden between the kitchen garden and the lake. This was all fed from a diesel pump in a new building on the site of the old riverside boathouse, superseding the old horse-pump on the island in the lake.
The water tank is now fed by a new pump installed in the ancient well nearby. The artificial stream no longer exists.
To the public, the most obvious feature of the Davis period is the pair of entrance lodges provided by Baker . Their congenial style, unlike Brandon's toy fort which they replaced, meets with general approval.
Chilham's only tangible legacy from davis'ss successor, the colourful Somerset de Chair, is the pair of huge urns brought here from Necton, Norfolk. Positioned at first either side of the steps up to the forecourt, they have now been moved to the outer corners.
Through more than half its lifetime the main entrance to the house has been graced with two successive avenues of limes, but the 1987 storm felled most of Wildman's trees, and the open appearance to the front of the house favoured by “Capability” Brown has now been reinstated, thus improving the view from the village.
© Michael H Peters 2008