4. Pond area and Conservatory
Narrator:
The pond is not a natural feature of the garden. It was created when Myddelton House was built in the early nineteenth century. The heart-shaped area formed when workmen were excavating for the soil and gravel that were used to create the raised ground on which the house stands.
The pond was originally lined with clay to make it watertight. - This process is known as ‘puddling’. But there must have been a hole somewhere – because the pond always leaked. A spur of the New River used to run through the garden and the pond was topped up from it, through a pipe with a stopcock. But this water proved unsuitable for some aquatic plants, which failed to thrive. Bowles wrote:
Voice of Bowles:
The New River water comes chiefly from chalk wells of great depth, and therefore is hard enough to look blue, and cold enough in summer to make you look blue, if you were in it for long.
Narrator:
Because of this Bowles had to plant tougher British native species in the pond - many of which he collected on visits to the Norfolk Broads and the Cambridgeshire Fens. But some water lilies grew well here. A former gardener, Charlie Smith remembered how the lilies grew so thickly that ducks could run from one side of the pond to the other without getting their feet wet.
After the New River was filled in in the 1960s the pond all but dried up. Since then it has been completely re-lined – this time with rubber lining. Now the water stays inside it!
Victorian Conservatory
Narrator:
Bowles kept seawater tanks in the Victorian conservatory. He filled them with seaweed, sea urchins and fish. Each week the seawater was changed. It came from barrels that were brought by rail to the local station. Bowles also kept rocks and minerals inside the conservatory. – He collected many of these during his plant hunting expeditions. You can still see some of them in there, [OU1] along with other curiosities. - There is a carved stone, which came from the old St Paul’s Cathedral that burnt down in the Great Fire of London. And there is an 18th century lead cistern that Bowles used to hold rainwater for his fern collection.[OU2]
These objects are just an example of the numerous items that Bowles brought to Myddelton, to add interest and variety to his garden. You will come across many more as you explore the grounds. Let’s hear from Wesley Kerr, the chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund committee:
Wesley Kerr :
Myddleton house, very much, in its 4 acres embodies that idea of the genius of place. The water courses, the rocks, the hills in the distance, the mansion. But it’s also a cabinet of curiosities of architectural ornaments like the old market cross, the ancient walls, the Irishman’s shirt, the outbuildings and they all move to a forefront at different times of the year when the planting near them makes you look at them.