Identification and description | |||||||||
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Name | QUEEN'S GARDEN | ||||||||
Location |
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Localisation | Latitude: 54.320295 Longitude: -2.5394839 National Grid Reference: SD6500691769 Map: Download a full scale map (PDF) |
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Overview | Heritage Category: Park and Garden Grade: II List Entry Number: 1400679 Date first listed: 26-Jan-2012 Statutory Address 1: Queen's Garden, Station Road, Sedbergh |
The creation of a public park has often been seen as an admirable means of marking
a national figure or event, and in particular, members of, or events connected to,
the royal family. The Golden and Diamond Jubilees of Queen Victoria were most often
linked to the public park movement and a good number of towns saw fit to celebrate
the occasion in this way.
Queen's Garden was designed and laid out by Thomas Mawson shortly after the death
of Queen Victoria in 1901. Mawson is a garden designer and town planner of national
importance, who became the first President of the Institute of Landscape Architects,
was a President of the Royal Town Planning Institute and an honorary member of the
RIBA. Twenty-one of his designed landscapes are included on the Register, one at Grade
I and three others at Grade II*. His designs were site-led, each garden and landscape
being subtly different from the others. A watercolour design for the Queen's Garden
produced by Mawson, indicates that, with only minor adjustments, his design was executed
in its entirety. It is a solid design, which makes use of the natural topography of
the plot by using the highest, central point as its centrepiece and the site of the
memorial cross. The site has been landscaped to produce a symmetrical layout with
a complex of straight and curvilinear paths essentially dividing the garden into a
series of compartments, each comprising a mixture of planting blocks and open spaces.
Overall, it a well executed example of an early C20 public garden, which reflects
the quality of its design and the level of attention given to its landscaping. For
these qualities the garden has special historic interest. The land for the park was
given by Mrs Upton-Cottrell-Dormer of Ingmire Hall. Mawson's original watercolour
design (undated) survives in Kendal Record Office, and with a few minor exceptions,
the gardens are considered to reflect this design. Mawson's entry in the Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography outlines his achievements and he is widely considered the founder
of modern landscape architecture and garden design. The gardens were formally opened
at the unveiling of their centrepiece, a commemorative Celtic cross to Queen Victoria,
on October 31 1902 and were formally handed over to the parish council on March 26
1906. During the early C20, a bowling green was constructed to the south of the park
upon land donated by the Upton-Cottrell-Dormer Family.
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Queen’s Garden lies on the western edge
of Sedbergh, fronting onto the main A684, and comprises a total of 0.95 ha. It is
bounded on all sides by dry stone walls with the north side and parts of the east
and west sides having triangular coping stones. The north side has a central gated
entrance with narrow gated entrances to each side. The garden occupies a low knoll,
the top of which forms the centre point of the garden.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The principal entrance to the park is from the north off
the present A684. It is marked by an entrance with an ornate wrought iron gate between
ashlar sandstone piers surmounted by ball finials. The entrance leads directly south
along a straight central pathway towards the Queen Victoria Memorial. There are two
further entrances, one to each side of the central entrance towards the corners of
the north wall with similarly styled, but shorter, gates and piers. Each of these
gates leads south along flanking straight paths. Other entrances are later breaches
and that in the north-east corner now forms the principal entrance to the park in
order to avoid traffic on the now busy A684.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING The Queen Victoria Memorial Cross stands at the highest part of
the garden on its central axis and clearly forms the centre point of the design. It
is a 5m high tapering Anglo-Celtic cross.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The gardens have a formal symmetrical design with an
axial path leading from the principal entrance, flanked on either side by straight
secondary paths leading from each of the secondary entrances; all three paths run
the full length of the garden and are linked by a transverse path at the south end.
Within this geometric structure, other paths form a truncated figure of eight.
The axial path runs southwards from the main entrance flanked in part by low stone
walls and specimen cedar trees mixed with a variety of maples. It rises to the highest
part of the garden via a series of stone steps with flanking low walls. Before it
reaches the memorial cross, stone steps also lead left and right along curving paths
to the north and south forming the truncated figure of eight. The low knoll forming
the highest point is partially revetted with stone and at its summit the memorial
cross is situated within an octagonal gravelled space marked by low edging stones.
The axial path continues to run southwards flanked by low yew hedges with at one point
small rectangular recesses. After its junction with the south end of the figure of
eight path system it approaches a large circular garden feature defined by high stone
walls with rectangular coping and after passing through this, descends the knoll via
a stone flight of steps to emerge at the south side of the park into what was once
a formal planted area, now occupied by a large bowling green and public toilets. The
site of a former bandstand is visible on the grassy bank to the left. Within the compartments
created by the highly structured designs much of the original planting and open spaces
survive including holly, cedar, a variety of maple, beech and conifers.
A public memorial garden to Queen Victoria, 1901-2, designed and laid out by Thomas Mawson.
This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England for its special historic interest.
This early C20 memorial garden to Queen Victoria is designated at Grade II for the
following principal reasons: * Date: a good example of a public garden laid out as
a memorial to Queen Victoria * Intactness: the garden remains substantially intact
and very closely reflects its original design * Landscaping: although a relatively
simple design, significant attention has been paid to the landscaping and enhancement
of the natural topography * Designer: Thomas Mawson is a renowned national figure
and acknowledged as the founder of modern landscape architecture and garden design
Books and journals
Waymark, J, Thomas Mawson: Life, Gardens and Landscapes, (2009)
Websites
, accessed from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37748
Other
Copy of original watercolour plan for the proposed Queen Victoria Memorial Cross to be erected in Queen's Garden Sedbergh (undated); available in Kendal Record Office.,