SP9912 : The Modern Garden behind the Monks Barn, Ashridge House
taken 12 years ago, near to Hudnall, Hertfordshire, England
The Gardens of the house were planned by Humphry Repton, in 1813 and his design showed 15 different styles of garden to the south and west including a lawn, rosary, flower garden, souterrain and grotto and monk's garden. It was completed in 1823 by Sir James Wyatville in a way which retained the spirit of Repton's original design and remains intact today as the finest surviving examples of Repton's work.
When the estate passed to the Earls Brownlow in 1849 she added an Italianate garden and extended the gardens south into the park creating an arboretum, Wellingtonia avenue, rhododendron walk, formal moat, paths and skating pond.
The Ashridge (Bonar Law Memorial) Trust is currently working to preserve the gardens and have already restored the Italian Garden, Rose Garden, Herb Garden and flower garden, but further work is needed, for example on the grotto, and the bridge over the moat, depending on suitable funding being available. Link
Ashridge House is one of the largest Gothic Revival country houses in England and is Grade I. listed.
The building stands on the site of Ashridge Priory, a medieval abbey founded by the Brothers of Penitence. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the building eventually became the private residence of Princess Elizabeth - later Elizabeth I. - and it was here that she was arrested in 1552 under suspicion of treason. In 1604 the priory was acquired by Sir Thomas Egerton. A descendant of his, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater - he of canal-building fame - demolished the old buildings but did not live to see his plans for the House completed. His successor, the 7th Earl of Bridgewater, commissioned James Wyatt to build the present neo-gothic building as his home: it was completed in 1813.
In 1921 the House was acquired by a trust established by Andrew Bonar Law, a former Prime Minister. In 1959 it became a management training college, and it continues in that role today with its own degree-awarding powers and an international reputation.