Public Places
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The history here percolates through your life and the school room to reinforce an
emotional link with the property
boules, on the lawns for visitors to try.” On cue, Gary strikes up conversation with long‐time volunteer Jean Walton, who is overseeing the croquet, among her other duties, today, as the usual lawn on the West Terrace will be accommodating staff and volunteers for their Summer Soiree. The Trust’s team of helping hands first came to Lyme in 1995, with Jean amongst them. “She has worked with me since I arrived,” says Gary, “carrying out stewarding and engaging the public.” Keeping visitors happy is part and parcel of volunteers’ tasks, but the grounds team do their fair share of face time too, he adds. “Managing a garden can be a chore sometimes,” Gary admits, “it’s a maintenance regime with little of yourself in it, but at Lyme we are restoring features not seen for nearly a century and that’s really exciting.”
In that respect, he relishes cultivating a “tinge of immortality” and feels that, at sixty‐two, he can starting preparing a gardening legacy for future generations to enjoy. “I remember planting that blue cedar,” he recalls, pointing across the lake. “I take it as a huge compliment that garden lovers come here in such numbers to see our work.” (Visitors through the gardens reached 145,000 in 2015, the largest recorded to date).
“This has always been a family garden,” Gary adds, referring to the devotion generations of Leghs gave to it. That family tradition expresses itself during open days, when visitors are invited to don period costume and play their part as Legh family members. “It’s another way to engage with our public.”
Under a remit to attract families across its estate, the Trust draws youngsters to Lyme with features such as the Lego trail ‐ somewhere there’s a crocodile head poking out of the lake to pique their interest, Gary reveals ‐ and the play area in Crow Wood, near the timber yard.
“Are you Disneyfying the National Trust?, 84 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018
I’m asked, but we need people to come here to create memories to pass on. It’s all about building up links. The history here percolates through your life and the school room to reinforce an emotional link with the property.”
Formality flourishing
The 17‐acre formal gardens are laid out on terraces ‐ upper and lower, East and West ‐ each with its own design and character and each etched out of the moorland contours. They are graded into discrete areas ‐ the restful rhododendron walk and rose garden for example ‐ and most popular spots, Gary explains, so that the space satisfies differing horticultural tastes. “This is anything but a plantsman’s garden,” Gary declares, “rather one of distinction.”
Dotted around are several specimens to celebrate. A Celtis glabrata ‐ “our rarest tree and Grade 1 listed”; a Hungarian Oak, introduced in the 1830s, with its lustrous deep green foliage; flowering Korean Dogwood (Cornus kousa) and rich red
Penstemon rubicunda, given to Lyme from the renowned garden of judge Sir Vicary Gibbs in the early 1900s. The Edwardian Rose Garden was conceived by the 2nd Lord and Lady Newton, who made many changes and improvements at Lyme. The Trust remains faithful to their original design, featuring highly scented varieties and dazzling summer hues. “The lower garden comes through early,” Gary explains. “Once the first batch of bulbs have come out, we plant the summer bedding second batch.” Now in summer, hot yellows, oranges and flecks of flaming red blooms burn brightly in the sun. The planting scheme reminds Gary of “3D chess”. “We cannot put two varieties of bulb in the same bed as we need to know which ones we are selling on.” (The on‐site nursery, which once supplied the hall with herbs and cut flowers, offers a range of produce to the public). For the first time in ninety‐five years, the complete garden scheme has been
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