{"id":694,"date":"2019-09-13T09:19:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T09:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/?p=694"},"modified":"2019-09-13T10:14:20","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T10:14:20","slug":"gunby-hall-the-glory-of-the-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/heart-of-the-county\/gunby-hall-the-glory-of-the-garden\/09-2019","title":{"rendered":"Gunby Hall: The Glory of the Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Gunby Hall in Spilsby – Tennyson’s Haunt of Ancient Peace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Our England is a garden,\u201d wrote Rudyard Kipling in his book, The Glory of the Garden. \u201cAnd such gardens are not made by singing, \u201c\u2018Oh! How beautiful!\u2019 and sitting in the shade.\u201d\u00a0A\u2008hard-working team, headed up by Natasha Johnson, which keeps Spilsby\u2019s Gunby Hall looking beautiful would concur with Kipling, a regular visitor to the beautiful National Trust estate which offers more than a little autumn interested for those who enjoy gardens in October…<\/h3>\n

A\u2008haunt of ancient peace is the strapline by which Spilsby\u2019s Gunby Hall is described. Created in 1700 with later editions including the estate\u2019s walled garden the house sits within 1,500 acres. Its landscaping was commissioned by Peregrine Massingberd and his wife Elizabeth, landscaping being completed by William Pontey, with eight acres of Victorian Walled Gardens enveloping a 42-room Grade I listed hall and II* listed clocktower.<\/p>\n

Tennyson, to whom the previous quote can be attributed,\u00a0 is not the only literary figure with whom Gunby Hall is associated.\u00a0Rudyard Kipling – a school chum of Field Marshal Sir Archibald Montgomery Massingberd, fellow alumnus of Cambridge and old mucker from India during the Raj – also visited.<\/p>\n

His take on gardens is that beautiful gardens are \u2018not made by sitting in the shade.\u2019 You don\u2019t have to tell Natasha Johnson or her fellow gardeners. Keeping the gardens neat and tidy is an undertaking requiring great industrious, even when the blazing sunshine during our visit would make less steely gardeners retreat into the shade with a G&T.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no respite from the workload of maintaining the place during the autumn months. In fact, during October when most gardens are losing the final flourish of late summer colour to the copper hues of autumn, Gunby is, by contrast, looking at its best.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a really busy team but we\u2019re so committed. Alongside 12 very dedicated volunteers and four garden hosts who show visitors around, we maintain the garden and delight at the way the landscape changes throughout the year. Every single day yields the sight of something new and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur three full time gardeners are Clive, who has been at Gunby for 27 years and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the garden. He\u2019s also the resident vegetable expert and garden machinery mechanic. Sam is the lawn expert and works hard to maintain the ruler-straight lines that Gunby Hall is locally famous for. In October I will be starting the process of dividing the herbaceous borders with Clive straight after Apple Day, we will be taking cuttings and sorting out the gardens and greenhouses for the winter months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunby Hall comprises two walled gardens. The soils of the easterly garden heave with kitchen garden produce, and flowers, whilst the west garden is full of cut flowers, herbs and over 50 different varieties of roses.<\/p>\n

This month though, Gunby Hall will attract an audience keen to see the garden\u2019s 54 varieties of apples from native fruit trees – the oldest of which, Catshead dates from 1629 whilst the most recent is 1985\u2019s Winter Gem.<\/p>\n

Apple Day at the stately home takes place on Sunday 6th October with garden volunteer Trevor Rogers, who\u2019s also the founder of the Northern Fruit Group, present on the day to identify apples on the day by appointment; it\u2019s usually one of the most poplar elements of the annual event, hence why the team has had to implement appointment shots which must be booked in advance. Alongside craft stalls, visitors will be able to enjoy apple pressing and can purchase some of the estate\u2019s kitchen garden produce and there\u2019s a display of the Hall\u2019s own varieties in the Orchard Gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cGunby Hall sells produce from the gardens when available. Inevitably we do get windfall apples which are utilised when possible.\u00a0Apples that are too badly\u00a0damaged will be left on the ground to provide a\u00a0 winter food source for birds such as Fieldfares, Red Wings & Blackbirds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore nothing goes to waste as the apple orchard provides a huge role in the ecosystem. Orchards are a fantastic habitats for wildlife from the apple blossom that provides the nectar for the bees, the tree bark which hosts lichens & mosses to wild flowers that grow around the trees on the ground. A small selection of produce will be available on the day from the gardens\u201d<\/p>\n

Natasha was born and raised in Skegness before living in Northumberland, volunteering in Howick Hall Gardens just three miles from Anwick in Northumberland before returning to the county via York where she gained a Level Three National Diploma in horticulture at Askham Bryan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2008returned to the county I volunteered at the National Trust\u2019s Gunby Hall. I jumped at the chance when a seasonal position arose here, an eventually, the position of Head Gardener. I love working for the Trust as they\u2019ve conservation in mind and do a great job preserving both house and garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

The very fact that Gunby Hall endures as a local visitor attraction is in itself nothing short of a miracle. Back in the 1944 swathes of Lincolnshire were being torn up to be used as airfields. Gunby was under threat until Archibald Massingberd petitioned the King to save the place. Hitler, he reasoned, had destroyed quite enough of the country without tearing Gunby Hall down too.<\/p>\n

Sir Archbald and his wife Diana were the last owners of Gunby Hall before gifting the estate to the National Trust in 1944. This year, represents the 75th anniversary of Gunby Hall enjoying the custodianship of the Trust. Open throughout autumn, we think October is the perfect time to rediscover Tennyson\u2019s Haunt of Ancient Peace.<\/p>\n

Gunby Hall is open throughout October from 11am to 5pm. Apple Day takes place on Sunday 6th October from 11am. Visit Gunby Hall, Spilsby, PE23 5SS. Call 01754 890102 or see www.nationaltrust.org.uk\/gunby-hall<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Our England is a garden,\u201d wrote Rudyard Kipling in his book, The Glory of the Garden. \u201cAnd such gardens are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[61,114,115,117,116],"class_list":["post-694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heart-of-the-county","tag-garden","tag-gunby","tag-hall","tag-national-trust","tag-spilsby"],"acf":false,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":699,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}