PUBLIC PLACES
croquet amid both formal and landscaped settings that Mike and the four-strong grounds team tend.
After his apprenticeship in horticulture and commercial experience in a large nursery, Herefordshire born and raised Mike West (63) moved to the county council’s parks department before spotting an advertisement for the head gardener’s position at Holme Lacy.
“That was in 1994, when the Rank Organisation owned the property, one of the most important 17th century houses in the county, before selling it to Warner in the early 2000s,” Mike recalls.
“I started in September 1995, as a £6.5m construction programme began on the house and gardens, including upgrading the existing pool, creating a leisure club with gym, Jacuzzi, steam room and restoring the orangery.”
Six years later, Mike set up the gardening team at the then newly acquired Thoresby Hall in Nottinghamshire, another of Warner’s heritage sites. “Each property has differing
acreages, with differing demands,” he explains. “The grounds teams meet twice a year to discuss their plans for the year and to swap ideas - time well spent I think.” Mike saw his own team disperse over time and, in 2013, he moved to a supervisor’s post at Holme Lacy.
In looking after allocation of resources across the estate, Mike reports to maintenance and grounds manager Simon Farley-Higgs, who will pass proposals for new machinery and equipment and other capex projects valued over a certain threshhold to Warner’s Hemel Hempstead head office.
“The basic structure of the gardens was still in place when I came here. The grounds include nearly a mile of yew hedging, between 200 and 300 years old, mentioned in horticultural books as unique in the country. Lawns and paths were overgrown. As the gardens are Grade 2 listed, we have to be extremely cautious and careful about managing them and the fertilisers and chemicals we apply.”
It’s a suntrap on the south side and attracts up to fifty guests daily round the year, so it can become heavily compacted and encourage moss
112 PC April/May 2019
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