R&S Pride AUGUST 241.qxp 29/06/2022 13:43 Page 90
DEENE PARK GARDENS
Enjoying the Parterres of
DEENE PARK They reckon an English person’s home is their castle, but that’s definitely the case for the Brudenell family of Deene Park, a local country estate whose crenellations overlook the border of Stamford and Northamptonshire... and its gardens look especially impressive at this time of year! THIS MONTH, a gardener to whom I was speaking was grumbling about the impending annual trimming of their hedges. Stepladders, clippers, the din of a petrol engine cutting through summer birdsong and all that raking up of clippings. It’s bad enough having to keep fairly utilitarian hedging looking neat, so spare a thought for Andrew Jones and the team at Deene Park. They don’t mind though... after all, their topiary and parterres are an enormous source of pride, and the results are certainly something to behold. The stately home is right on the county border where the countryside surrounding Stamford ticks over to become Northamptonshire. Extending to a 568 acres of leafy parkland within an estate that expands to cover a sizeable 10,000 acres, the stately home has been owned by the Brudenell family for over 500 years. Deene Park is designated a Landscape of Special Interest by English Heritage and at its very heart is a tudor hall. Adjacent to the property now owned by Robert and
Charlotte Brudenell and their son William, on its south side, is a parterre overlooking parkland and lakes linked by a canal. The place could almost have been landscaped by Capability Brown but can in fact be attributed to Edmund & Marian Brudenell, Robert’s father and mother, who restored the estate, working with David Nightingale Hicks. Hicks certainly moved in the best circles, marrying a Mountbatten and working as an interior and landscape designer for other posh clients like Vidal Sassoon, Mrs Condé Nast and Mrs Douglas Fairbanks Jr., then designing the Prince of Wales’ first apartments in Buckingham Palace before – and making carpets for the rest of the palace. We reckon the parterres of Deene Park are his finest work, though... even if they do create rather a lot of work for Andrew. “The box hedge parterre designed by David Hicks and planted out in the early 1990s,” says Andrew. “The planting consists of clipped lavender, perennials
Words: Rob Davis.
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