Secret gardens of Jersey

We feature Jersey gardens that are in private ownership and not always accessible by the general public. In this issue, Alasdair Crosby was shown around the garden of Seafield House, Millbrook

At one time, the gardens of Seafield House stretched down to the sea, merging into dunes and beach. A defensive wall was built and was unearthed a few years ago - but that was not to make more difficult the incursions of the sea, just the incursions of the French.

Later in the 19th Century the construction of the railway first of all cut it off from the sea; then the creation of Victoria Avenue made the sea even more remote.

Nevertheless, the garden and the house it serves are still there, although invisible from Victoria Avenue and hidden away on its other side from the St Aubin’s Inner Road, where the entrance gives little clue as to what might be tucked away in between the two busy thoroughfares. This secret garden encompasses a double fronted fine Regency Greek revival villa, originally built in 1808. Its architect is uncertain, but it has been suggested that it was David Laing, a pupil of the great Sir John Soane, or possibly another Regency architect, Robert Lugar. The house, originally named Beaumur, was built for François Giffard, a leading Jersey banker, merchant - and smuggler. The Baron de Frénilly wrote of Giffard: ‘he brought up his children in fear of God and in horror of customs men.’ It was bought in 1821 by Michel Le Gros; his grandson, Gervase, was a leading Island figure of the time: Greffier, Vicomte and Jurat. In 1922 it was purchased by Maxwell Vandeleur Blacker-Douglass and passed down through the family until 1975 when the present owner, Richard Miles, inherited it from his grandmother, The Hon Mrs Florence Westenra.

In September 1887, Seafield was let for a month to Princess Stéphanie of Austria, daughter of King Leopold of the Belgians, and wife of Archduke Rudolph von Hapsburg, the heir to Emperor Franz-Joseph of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She travelled to Jersey with a retinue of 16. Two years later she was widowed when her husband, Rudolph, committed suicide together with his mistress in an apparent suicide pact, in the notorious ‘Mayerling Incident’. In 1943 the house was requisitioned as a ’Soldatenheim’ for German soldiers.

“The house,

originally named Beau-mur, was built for François Giffard, a leading Jersey banker, merchant - and smuggler

“Richard is

keenly interested in maintaining the beauty of the gardens and in the many diverse and unusual plants which are grown there

The garden layout is probably contemporary with the date of the house and retain ‘Island flower beds’ with flowing, serpentine edges reminiscent of chinoiserie.

Richard is keenly interested in maintaining the beauty of the gardens and in the many diverse and unusual plants which are grown there.

Prominent among these are a number of exotic trees and plants: Gunnera from Brazil, false pepper trees from Argentina and tree ferns from New Zealand.

There are also two species of banana tree, strawberry trees from California, and sugar cane (not often a feature of Jersey gardens).

A monkey-puzzle look-alike is a very rare so-called ‘dinosaur tree’. It had only been found in fossilised form and was presumed to have become extinct at least two million years ago; then 20 years ago an extreme sports climber in the Blue Mountains of Australia found a steep, inaccessible gorge or valley where he found 15 of these trees alive and well. Fortunately, there were no dinosaurs lurking there.

Cuttings have been taken from these trees - and Richard has three of them in his garden.

There is an exotic connection with some of the Brazilian gneiss used for edging and walls in the garden, brought back to Jersey from the hills above Rio de Janeiro, as ballast, during Cod Trade times. “ A monkey-

puzzle look-alike is a very rare so-called ‘dinosaur tree’. It had only been found in fossilised form and was presumed to have become extinct at least two million years ago

And - worthy of special mention is the chocolate Cosmos plant, the flowers of which waft the appetising smell of hot chocolate. The owners of garden cafés might care to make a note of the name for tickling the taste-buds of their customers: Cosmos atrosanguineus.