Garden Open: mid March - end May: Wednesday
to Sunday ( including Bank Holiday Mondays) 10:30 - 5 pm
June - end
August: Wednesdays 1 pm - 4:30 pm
Admission: Adults £5.00,
children free
Groups by arrangement
Enquiries Mr Tom Hudson, Tregrehan,
Par, Cornwall PL24 2SJ
Phone/ fax: 00 44 (0) 1726 814389
Shop
and facilities: tea and coffee, snacks. We do not supply lunches but
you can bring your picnic basket. WC suitable for disabled. Parking
for cars and coaches. No dogs in the garden.
Nursery open during
garden open hours and by appointment anytime. Specialising in rare
and unusual plants of species origin propagated from the garden. Professional
advice available.
A small history of the garden.
In a letter
to Jovey Carlyon from Gilbert Rogers a Cornish forester based
in India at Dehra Dun, N.W.Provinces, dated 1st July 1894 -
"
My dear Carlyon, It is so hot down here that I find it impossible
to write decently. I only came down from the hills yesterday…
I am writing to tell you that I have sent you a box containing some
seeds of Quercus semecarpifolia in charcoal … the acorns may have
all germinated on the way as they germinate here almost as soon as
they fall to the ground but I hope that some of them, if they have
germinated, will reach you alive. This species of oak covers
the highest hills in Yarmsa & grows at elevations above
the spruce & mixed with the silver fir, so should do well with
you. It is very hardy grows very slowly & makes a fine tall
straight stem if grown in close canopy…. "
This oak now stands proud
at 25m height at Tregrehan. Veteran trees, oak and sweet chestnut
survive since the first half of the 1600's in the Park. Tregrehan
garden is a woodland garden rich in exotic plants collected by enthusiasts
from the early 19th century. This 20 acre woodland garden
concentrating on species from temperate regions has been described
as Cornwall's temperate rainforest. Consequently she is
an important green gene bank of known source plants.
This
tradition continues with Tom Hudson today, whose own collection of
rare and unusual plant specimens begins to fill the void beneath Tregrehan's
majestic 19th century botanical heritage.
1565 Tregrehan
became home to the Carlyon family
1680 the construction of Tregrehan
House was begun by Thomas Carlyon, possibly the first double-pile
house in Cornwall and continued by his son, also Thomas.
1734
Philip Carlyon, successful mining entrepreneur, also had horticultural
interests selling laurels, elms and oaks in 1738 and also 'planting
up the moor by the Whitewater with 264 trees, larch, fir, walnut,
chestnut and beech'. Philip's son died childless leaving the
estate to his nephew Thomas IV.
1770 - 1854 Zenith of the families
wealth and influence rapidly growing on the back of the Industrial
Revolution. This had the greatest effect on the landscvape and
house and firmly established the family in society.
The landscape
was contrived during the hey-day of the Picturesque period whereby
landscape should be constructed as a picture with foreground, middle
ground and distant views. Thomas IV chose a Reptonian
apprroach at Tregrehan. Repton, of the picturesque school, was
popular with the Cornish gentry of which Carlyon desired to be associated.,
which allowed for a productive, tenanted landscape. Remnants of this
design are seen in the western drive. The more revolutionary
'natural' landscapes proposed were thought to do with a more violent
order associated with the revolution of France.
The barns and
a dairying complex were developed with some ornamentation fashionable
at the time. Thomas's son William built the Stable block and
may have started conifer planting. His younger brother Edward
Carlyon, who bought Greenway on the Banks of the Dart, inherited Tregrehan
on his brother's early death in 1841. William suffered some
form of dementia in his final years and was labelled a lunatic.
Colonel Edward Carlyon moved with his family back to Tregrehan following
a complete refurbishment of the house and landscape. Architect
George Wightwick redesigned the house as a stately home in 1842 in
classical style with Ionic colonnade.
1844
The walled garden was remodelled to become one from two separate gardens
and the extensive glasshouses stretching 128ft were erected.
1845
Edward employed noted gardenesque architect William Nesfield and together
they designed the entrance court, parterre and probably the Yew walk.
Nesfields involvement in the wider landscape is uncertain. However
the design followed his intentions with major view lines running from
the parterre in picturesque tradition with ill defined park boundaries,
creating an illusion of infinity. Before Edwards death he gave
the land and paid for the construction of the church and steeple at
St Blazey which form the Bastion view. He created the formal
drive to the beach at Crinnis and negotiated the construction of the
ornamental bridge with the Cornwall Railway.
Edward
also was a keen gardener. He purchased form Veitch's for whom
the Lobb brothers collected (including the monkey puzzle). The
Hooker rhododendrons were an introduction at this time, evident from
Edwards account books.
1850's Thomas Tristrem Carlyon
attached the ornamental piggery to the southern side of the barn which
survives today as a courtyard garden
1880 - 1894 Jovey Carlyon
continued with the planting of his grandfather (his father George
emmigrated to New Zealand) and founded a large part of the present
collection. Over 13 nurseries supplied the garden in the
1980's, with records of species type, provenance, position and sometimes
condition.
1914 Professor Sargent of
the Arnold Arboretum stated " Tregrehan is the best thing of
its kind in the world"
1916 W.J. Bean visited from the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew and published a detailed article about 'The Arboretum
at Tregrehan' , noting fine examples of rhododendrons and was especially
taken by the conifer collection.
1935 Carlyon family absent from
the estate when Rupert Carlyon, Jovey's nephew, returned from New
Zealand. Rupert imported a large amount of material particularly
the newer rhododendron hybrids
1960's Gillian Carlyon (Rupert's
daughter) began a major camellia breeding programme producing many
of the hybrids still in collection today.
1987 Tom Hudson (Gillian's
cousin) continues planting
