Glorious Gardens from Above episode 3: Mid-Wales is today’s destination on Christine Walkden’s balloon tour of some of Britain’s finest gardens. At Powis Castle Garden, she learns how to brace an ancient yew and meets David, generations of whose family worked there. At the Dingle Garden she helps restore an obscured view.
And we hear the story of Mona Holloway, a wartime land girl who found love on a neighbouring farm.
Glorious Gardens from Above episode 3 – Mid-Wales
Powis Castle Garden
The garden at Powis has survived the 18th-century reaction against the formality of earlier garden design, and Powis is thus one of the few places in Britain where a true Baroque garden may still be fully appreciated. It seems the terraces were hewn from the rock in the early 1670s under the direction of Frenchman Adrian Duvall of Rouen, although William Winde may also have been involved, up until his death in 1722. The concept for formal or terraces was introduced into northern Europe from the gardens of 16th century Italy.
It seems that Duval may well have been an expert in hydraulics, having been principally responsible for the impressive original water gardens, which were dismantled by 1809. One notable item salvaged from the garden fountains is the lead statue of “Fame”, attributed to the workshop of Dutchman John van Nost (d. 1729), and now situated in The Courtyard. The piece seems to have been struck from the same mould as the Pegasus and fame supplied by van Nost between 1705 and 1716 to Sir Nicholas Shireburn at Stonyhurst, Lancashire.
A great deal of work to restore and improve the gardens was undertaken in the early 20th century by Violet wife of the fourth Earl. Her most considerable achievement was the relocation of “the entire kitchen garden, glasshouses and all, to a new position behind the Wilderness ridge”, and the laying out of the formal gardens at the far south-eastern corner.
Dingle Garden
The Dingle Garden is set in the heart of glorious mid-Wales, just two miles from the bustling market town of Welshpool and a 15 minute drive from Powis Castle. This peaceful, secluded, R.H.S. partner garden winds down a south-facing slope to a lake and small waterfall. Colour themed beds full of many varieties of shrubs and perennials with a backdrop of unusual trees, acers and mature conifers. Autumn is a particularly good time to visit with spectacular colouring and a magnificent view looking back up from the other side of the lake.
The Dingle Nursery runs alongside the garden and stocks a huge range of plants including many of the more unusual shrubs and trees which grow in the garden. To make a full day out combine a visit to us with one of our nearby gardens of Gregynog, Glansevern or Bryngwyn Hall.
