Renaissance for Devon garden
17 September 2010
An abandoned Italianate garden in Devon, one of the few to survive from the mid-19th century, is being brought back to life after community volunteers won a £200,000 grant from English Heritage for its repair and restoration.
Little documentary evidence remains of the Grade II* registered garden at Lupton House, near Brixham in Devon, believed to have been created in the 1840s when Italianate gardens were the height of fashion. Researchers are having to piece together the gardens’ original layout from archaeological evidence, a few photographs from the late 19th century (see above), and a single watercolour painted in about 1860 by William Callow, one of Queen Victoria’s favourite artists.
Despite the years of neglect, several of the garden’s original features have survived intact: they include an octagonal aviary, empty and neglected for the last 20 years, as well as paths, balustrades and a fountain, all of which will be fully restored.
Lupton House and its gardens had lain derelict for five years until last year, when the local community got together and formed a charity, the Lupton Trust, to take over the property.
The main building is being turned into an events venue as well as becoming home to several community businesses, and now teams of volunteers from the Groundwork Trust, Prince’s Trust and British Trust for Conservation Volunteers are starting work on clearing the overgrown four-acre gardens.