The Grounds and Garden of Watnall Hall

on

One entered the grounds of Watnall Hall via the main drive, guarded by a Lodge, on the corner of Trough Lane and the main Watnall Road. In front of the Lodge building (which still exists) were the wrought iron gates about which everyone who saw them remarked with pleasure. The gates are thought to be the work of Nottingham's greatest smith, Huntingdon Shaw, who constructed them about the time of the last major reconstruction of the Hall, 1690. Mr. Shaw also helped to build similar gates at Hampton Court Palace, where he died in 1710.  To quote Mr. Jacks,


"The beautiful iron gates, some of the best work of that famous ironworker
Shaw, which serve to make fast the entrance to the shady drive leading to the higher ground upon which the building is situated, bears traces of antiquity. In some places the metal is worn thin, and has slowly succumbed to climatic influences. The gilded eagle's head, the crest of the Rollestons, which looks defiance on the very summit of these tall gates, has lost its lustre; the lower work is tarnished with age. Formerly these same gates occupied a different position. They served to guard a flight of ancient and worn stone steps, almost immediately in front of the house. "


Inside the gates one continued up the drive, (trees on the left - garden on the right) which in the 20th century went in a gradual loop up to the Hall and then continued back down to the main road again about a quarter of a mile further on. There is some evidence that at one time there was a sweep in front of the north-east side of the Hall, but on the map of 1915 this was no longer extant. Continuing up the main drive beyond a grove of trees, with its extremely noisy rookery and an orchard, one bore right round a bend and could see ahead the Hall itself, and on the right a series of high brick walls, screening the gardens themselves. There were several gates into the garden, but these were between high brick pillars with half ball on the top and only accessible to those with permission.

The stranger would continue up the drive, with a high bank on the left topped by railings, behind which was the grassy parkland containing the Rolleston’s grave plot, and if it were Spring, ablaze with daffodils. Gentry would swing right, round the south-east corner of Hall itself to the gravelled area in front of the porch, but others would continue straight on to the back of the building, still following the high bank, towards the kitchen entrance. About half way along the south-west side of the Hall the railings changed to a retaining wall, and let into the bank on the left was the game larder. Continuing round to the north-west side, the retaining wall had several apertures let into it - three or four - and these were the coal stores, and the flagged area in front of the wall was the drying area for use on wash days.

The main drive continued past the front of the house with its porch, and then round another right hand bend. Here the outbuildings could be seen on the right. They contained a generator room for electrical power to the house, stables and a saddle room, pig sties, a garage, the Mission Room where Lady Maud ran the Sunday School for the village children. It seems likely that she had moved them to the Hall from the village Victorian Institute building when the Rollestons themselves returned to the Hall after 1900. On the north side of the lawn was a large and magnificent 16th century tythe barn. The main drive - now the Back Drive - went on past more trees on the left, and a paddock with donkeys and chickens in it on the right, until it emerged back on to the main road through the village.

The gardens themselves were described as rather fine even in their decline in the 1950's, but Mr Jacks in 1881 thought the garden in those days was an “...old-fashioned garden, with its gigantic laurel bushes in front of those old steps, like a huge wigwam made of foliage - its curious yew hedge, which encloses the arena wherein cock-fighting formerly took place; its old bowling green, which is now occasionally used for that game of bowls, .....With its small conservatory, bright with geraniums and calceolarias, and with its thatched bee-house, full of murmurous sound.”


The bee-house is of interest as it shows the attitude of the times when Lancelot Rolleston was a young man. It was expected in the high Victorian era that scientific progress was to be advanced by worthy individuals, rather than by teams - for example the team lead by the American, Thomas Edison, later in the period. Lancelot Rolleston decided to study bees. He had the bee-house, as he called it, built in such a way that he could sit comfortably inside with a chair and desk, and watch the bees through glass windows let into the rear of each individual hive. To quote from Mr. Jacks, "The boxes in which the insects deposit their honey are so arranged that they cannot fly about in the interior of the apartment, whilst their operations can be watched and studied through glass. So the bee-house serves a double purpose, besides being an ornament to the garden". There’s more about the bee house in a separate article. There are many stories in the village about the trouble the bees caused when swarming in the wrong place. They nearly always seemed to swarm on to the high yew hedge round the old cock-fighting pit, but they also ended up in the rose pergola and once even interrupted a Sunday School lesson taking place on the lawn as it was a hot day. What Lady Maud said on that occasion is not recorded!

On the north-east side of the Hall one emerged via French windows on to the old steps, which swept down to a lawn with a fountain and pond in it. The lawn was surrounded on the house side by a sweeping path, that rumour suggests had once been the carriage drive in more distant times. Be that as it may, the old gates by the lodge were placed at the bottom of the steps until the time of the Colonel's father who had them moved to their final site. The old steps were obviously held in great affection by the Rolleston family. The Colonel and his Lady were photographed standing by them on special occasions, and it is said that his friend Baden-Powell proposed to his future wife while standing on them. It is also suggested that Mary Chaworth of Annesley Hall, teenage heart throb of the young Lord Byron, escaped the vigilance of her guardians and left her home surreptitiously to be at the balls for which Watnall was famous, sweeping down the steps to dance the night away on the lawns of Watnall Hall.

On the north-west side of the lawn area, by the pool and fountain, the Rollestons had a gazebo built at some time after 1915, for it does not appear on the O.S. map of that date. It was an open fronted structure in which Lady Maud would sit on fine summer Sundays and hold the Sunday School there, with the children sitting on the lawn. Alternatively, she sometimes held them in the rose garden under the shade of a large old yew tree. This was growing in the south-east corner of the rose garden. close to the small gravestones where the family pets had been buried for for many years. The main site of the Sunday


School was in the Mission - part of one of the Hall's outbuildings. Many villagers remember these lessons and still tell stories about them. Miss Iris Clay, a farmer's daughter, who lived and worked at Hall Farm, the home farm of the estate, left a manuscript written in 1960 and, amongst other village stories, mentions the Sunday school. "Lady Maud used to hold a Sunday School in the Mission Room against the Hall (part of the stable block) . Every Christmas she gave the children a wonderful party with presents for every child. Once she hired a fire-engine to bring these, and on another occasion she had a house built in the rafters out of which emerged Peter Pan to distribute the gifts. After the party it was the practice for Lady Maud to hand a current bun, and Sir Lancelot an orange to take home.

“She was a well travelled woman and told us many delightful tales of her journeyings; she was a hard taskmaster though, and made each child learn two or three verses of a chapter of the Bible each week, and then at the conclusion of the chapter we were expected to know it off by heart. One story she told was of nursing a boy who had attended her Sunday School in the Boer War who lay dying; he was saying to himself all the chapters of the Bible he had learned when he was a boy at Sunday School." Lady Maud obviously left a deep impression upon those who knew her.

Like many of these estates of the time, the garden was not only designed for ensuring quiet and beauty, but also was highly productive in order to supply the Hall with fruit and vegetables throughout the year. Mr Peart, the last gardener, who was there from 1946 to 1956, was able to give many details of this aspect of the garden. By his time, of course, the 18th century orangery was in a ruinous state, but fruit and vegetables too, were still grown in quantity. After WW2, the Hall was partly used by a girl's school and they were not only fed by the vegetable garden, but the surplus was sold to greengrocers in the area as well. The orchard by the Lodge also produced a surplus of apples, pears and plums, but to quote Mr. Peart, "There was a huge wall along here (at right-angles to the main road) and on this you'd got peaches all the way along - and it used to be lovely going in and finding a nice ripe peach. I can't say they had them all at the Hall.” Finally, along the wall that followed the main road itself was a large golden drop plum that was espaliered, e.g. trained to grow along the wall. The village lads knew of these fruits too, and often would climb up and sample the plums. Mr. Peart says that he suspected the village policeman would help himself on occasion too, but he could never prove it!

Eye-witness account of the gardens 
We'll leave the final words on the gardens to a former Sunday School pupil of Lady Maud's who now lives in Australia...

From the "Nottstalgia" website
From tambourine2 - A lot to tell. In the fifties I cycled around Nttm as a district nurse. So you see I am an old woman, not that conversant with the iternet, if I make mistakes you will know why. Have only just found this site and very pleased I did. Came to the land of OZ in 1961. Enough 'abaht me sen". Susyshoes I am a woman! 
OK here we go. the two driveways formed a semi circle to meet at the Hall. Main drive way nice red gravel you came to Hall side entrance in front of which was a huge lawn where garden parties were held. In my day called Fete and Gala's. Sir Lancelot,(Rolleston) mainly opened these. There were egg and spoon races if it was easter, punch and Judy and such like. The chauffeur for the Rollestons made ice cream which was sometimes good other times horrible. The Rolleston's had a Rolls Royce about 1930 vintage - they were never driven at more than 20 miles an hour. 
Lady Maud ran a Sunday School for the village children that I attended for many years. We had to use the tradesman's entrance, this meant a walk of an extra half mile or so. On the left of this were open field and Watnall wood. On the right old stables etc. We entered the hall by the back door up worn sandstone steps - our room held chairs and a harmonium which Lady Maud played the hymns on. 
The gardens were lovely and the picture on the net must be an early one - When I knew the Hall the main front doors opened onto worn flag stones and went forward to a sunken garden down a dozen or so steps. There was a fish pond surrounded by lawn and shrubs - on the left of this a gate to a rose garden of quite some length with standard roses and trees. All these gardens were walled and behind the wall was a large orchard. 
At the back of the Hall the ground rose steeply, probably had been leveled for the building. Over this lay fields and quite close to the hall a burial ground enclosed by iron railings -- it was the family grave ground. 
I wonder what happened to that when this gracious place was demolished. I walked the site in 1970 and could not believe my eyes. Not a brick or flower to say what had been there. Vandalism of the first degree. I hope your move to Watnall is a good one - my heart is there and I wish I was moving with you.



All of the other "Tales From Watnall Hall" in the series are available here 









Notes and sources
Source : Watnall Hall and the Rolleston Family 2000 RA Horton

Comments

Post a Comment