The seventh episode of the fourth series of ‘Grundy’s Wonders’ produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy. In this week’s programme John explores the wonders of the English garden by visiting a number of both formal and cottage gardens across Northumberland and West Yorkshire. The programme also looks at the careers of such pioneering landscape gardeners as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown who was born in the Northumberland...

The seventh episode of the fourth series of ‘Grundy’s Wonders’ produced by Tyne Tees Television and written and presented by architectural historian and broadcaster John Grundy. In this week’s programme John explores the wonders of the English garden by visiting a number of both formal and cottage gardens across Northumberland and West Yorkshire. The programme also looks at the careers of such pioneering landscape gardeners as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown who was born in the Northumberland village of Kirkharle in 1716. An animation of a book with its pages turning revealing different buildings and architectural styles ending on presenter John Grundy holding the programmes title card. Title: Grundy’s Wonders Arriving at an allotment near his home in Gosforth in Newcastle, presenter John Grundy heads inside and after walking past several plots takes a seat on a bench to tell a story about once being a member of this specific allotment but being asked to leave. Over a montage of apples growing on a tree, raspberries growing on the vine and colourful flower John explains that this episode is about gardens and a celebration of their beauty. Following a montage of various decorative gardens that will feature in this programme John walks around the village of Castle Bolton near Leyburn in North Yorkshire and makes a point he has made many times in this series that no where came to be the shape it is accidently as somebody planned it out. With Castle Bolton in the background John provides a history of the castle build by Richard, 1st Baron Scope of Bolton between 1378 and 1399 before he moved on to design the village in a nice rectangular shape and making sure each villager was given a toft or homestead to build a house and garden. Over views of the many decorative gardens at Castle Bolton John explains that while the garden was initially used for the growing of vegetables and fruits as well as to keep animals, he doesn’t know when people decided they wanted to grown flowers instead. Over a Medieval painting that features a castle with formal garden John stating that while we can’t know when ordinary people decided to have gardens, this painting show that they were important to the rich and powerful. Returning to Bolton Castle in Wensleydale a montage of its formal gardens which John describes as a modern notion of what a Medieval garden would have looked like, delicate and carefully laid out in geometric shapes. Wondering confusedly around the castles hedge maze John believes that however it actually was laid out it would have felt ordered and quite artificial. John gives a reason for this order and formality in that it must have brought a little bit of a civilised human landscape in the midst of all its wilderness and chaos taking place beyond the castle gate. Walking across the Northumbrian moors a few miles from the village of Kirkharle John tells the story of Hugh Smithson nee Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland who visited the area in the early 18th century and describes the locals as ‘wild’. Resting on a rock John talks about Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown who was born nearby in 1716 and who would go onto play a huge part in taming the wildness of the English landscape and give it the gentle beauty we expect today. Walking around Kirkharle Courtyard and the nearby chapel of St Wilfrid’s John explains that most of the ordinary houses in the village were demolished later in the 18th century. Heading east along the road to Cambo John talks about this walk which Lancelot Brown would have taken to school through what is now parkland, over the River Wansbeck via Wallington Bridge and through a delightful pastoral landscape described by John as quintessentially English. However, coming to sit on a wall John explains that this wasn’t the walk that Lancelot would have taken, his walk would have been over wild moorland as this parkland didn’t exist. What is amazing, comments John, is that if it wasn’t for Lancelot then these parklands wouldn’t be here now. Continuing his walk along a country road John considers it remarkable that a boy raised in the wilds of Northumberland would go onto virtually invent the gentle English landscape garden. Walking past the four striking Dragon Heads laid out on the lawn of Wallington Hall John goes onto explain that thirty-years after leaving the region Lancelot would return to Northumberland and help transform several garden for some of the families that he’d walked past when a child. Continuing his walk John talks about Lancelot’s early career working as a gardener on the estate of Sir William Lorraine at Kirkharle Hall with Sir William being one of the first landowners in the region to start and improve their estates. Explaining that young Lancelot was lent out to other landowners in the region, John wonders if he worked on the estate of nearby Bavington Hall belonging to the Shafto family? Following a montage of the formal gardens at Bavington Hall John walks through it and explains that it is a small compared to what was once originally laid out. Taking the programme into the commercial break John states small compared to what lurks beyond the ha-ha. Title: Grundy’s Wonders End of Part One Part Two Standing up from behind the ha-ha at Bavington Hall John explains why both he and Capability Brown liked this feature which is an invisible fence to separate the garden immediately around the house from the parkland beyond. John explains that while the parkland is now gone, it survives just under the surface of the farmland beyond. John points out some of the parkland elements that still survives including a folly built on a nearby hill, a former driveway passing through an avenue of trees and lake now overgrown and become an otter sanctuary. Appearing beside an unknown ruin he speculates that Brown worked on this estate, he points out its features before showing a drawing of a bridge designed by him in the 1760s near Wallington where the stonework looks similar. Over a montage of Harewood House near Leeds in West Yorkshire John explains that these gardens laid out by Capability Brown are considered one of his most famous and apparently most beautiful. Following a brief history of both the house and estates at Harewood John points out some of the typical features of a Brown garden with its smooth and green landscape, serpentine lakes and picturesque sited trees. Sitting on Grey Stone with Harewood House in the distance John talks about critics of Brown who saw his designs as dull. While John does like what Brown has done, he does state it lacks any flowers or the ability to see what the designer played in creating the landscape. Over a montage of the grand Italianate terrace on the southside Harewood House John talks about how styles change and that his garden built in 1843 by Sir Charles Barry was very different from that of Brown’s being more formal and away from nature. Walking though Barry’s garden towards its Renaissance balustrade John looks out across Browns landscape where nature was lightly tamed, turning he looking back at this Victorian garden of Barry where nature was under control. Stepping down below the terrace John walks past one of the glories of any English garden, a magnificent and colour herbaceous border. Ten miles from Harewood as John drives along the driveway leading to Bramham Park between Leeds and Wetherby he talks about its garden which were produced by a different generation of gardener, and which was able to sneak through the Capability Brown craze without ever been changed. Standing on the steps outside the 18th century house John explains why he considers it one of the most beautiful houses he knows described it as strong, simple and noble. As he provides details on the strange geometrically designed garden a plan of said garden is shown. While initially providing confusing for John, once he saw the garden itself it all became clear. Wondering around this Louis XIV style garden similar to that of the Palace of Versailles John explains why he admires the rides which are long straight cuts through the woods that zoom off at apparently irrational angles. Over a montage of the estate including the Gothic Temple and dragons mouth cascade that forms part of the Obelisk Pond John describes Bramham Park as a peaceful place that is incredibly beautiful, where nature is under control and is able to carry the user back to a world that has survived hundreds of years in changes in fashion. Returning to Northumberland and the walk taken by Capability Brown to school, John arrives in the village of Cambo and admires the colourful flowers growing in many of the cottage gardens. He asks what would Brown thought of these gardens? Over a montage of other lush and beautiful gardens where insects such as butterflies and bees flourish, John believe the English have a genius for producing such gardens that gives him and others strolling past something pleasurable to look at. Leaning against a garden wall John explains he has one more garden to show, one that is completely new. Over a montage of nearby Herterton House Garden John talks about the work of Frank and Marjorie Lawley who since 1976 have been coming up with new ideas and extensions each year on a garden John doesn’t believe will ever be finished. As he walks through their garden, John explains that when Capability Brown started as a garden formal gardens such as these at Herterton House were all the rage and that he helped change the fashion and create a world of broad and spreading parkland that was utterly different from what came before it. Now with the work of the Lawley’s the cycle has come full circle with a return to formality in a wonderful way and because of this awards it this weeks ‘Grundy’s Wonder’. An animation of a fanfare of trumpets over the following title. Title: Grundy’s Wonders Over the closing credits a montage of some of the locations featured in this programme. Credit: Written and Presented by John Grundy Camera and Location Director Simon Elphinstone Sound Paul Graham Title: Archive courtesy of RIBA Library, National Portrait Gallery, The National Trust, Condee Museum Credit: Production Manager Christine Stewart-Tilling Production Assistants Karen Sharp Graphics Dave Richardson Title Music and Dubbing John Cook Online Editor Mark Duncan Offline Editor Dave Hindmarsh Executive Producer Jane Bolesworth Series Producer Steve Robins Title: © Tyne Tees Television 2003 End title: A Tyne Tees Television production. Granada