The Larmer Tree Gardens near Tollard Royal in south Wiltshire, England, were created by landowner Augustus Pitt Rivers in 1880 as pleasure grounds for "public enlightenment and entertainment". They were the first private gardens opened for public enjoyment in the United Kingdom, and were free to enter. [1] [2] [3] The 11-acre (4.5 ha) Grade II* listed gardens are within the Rushmore Estate in Cranborne Chase, an ancient royal hunting ground and now an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. [4] [5]
The gardens lie in the far south of Wiltshire, on the county border with Dorset, south of Tollard Royal village and about 1+1⁄2 miles (2 km) southwest of Rushmore House. They cover around 11 acres (4.5 ha). [6]
The main entrance is on the south side, where there is a two-storey lodge or caretaker's cottage, built in 1881. Apart from a central lawn the site is planted with mature trees, mostly conifers, oak, and yew, with laurel beneath, [7] and is surrounded by further woodland on all sides except the south.
Three Grade II listed buildings dating from around 1880 surround the lawn: the Temple, in limestone ashlar, octagonal with a domed roof and pedimented doors; [8] and two timber-framed ornamental Indian pavilions, brought here and re-erected. [9] [10] Originally there were six pavilions, provided as places where parties could hold picnics while being entertained from a central bandstand. [11] In 1895 an open-air theatre with a semicircular proscenium arch was added; called the Singing Theatre, it is also Grade II listed. [12] Other buildings are the New Pavilion and the Jubilee Hall. [6]
The gardens are listed as Grade II* on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England by English Heritage. [7]
In 1880, Augustus Lane Fox inherited the Rushmore Estate, centred on Rushmore House (now part of Sandroyd School); a condition of the will was that he should change his name to Pitt Rivers. [13] He started making the Larmer Tree Pleasure Grounds almost immediately, and they were opened to the public in 1885. [7]
The gardens are named after the Larmer Tree, a landmark tree on the ancient county boundary. The tree was possibly an ancient Wych elm (Ulmus glabra) under which King John (1167–1216) and his entourage were reputed to have met when they were out hunting. [3] The original tree was still living as late as 1894, around which time it was replaced by an oak, which was planted in the centre of the decayed rim. [14]
Pitt Rivers built several structures around the main lawn which were intended to educate and enlighten visitors to the garden. There was also a racecourse, an eighteen link golf course, a bowling green and lawn tennis courts. There were eight picnic areas, each enclosed by cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) hedges and with thatched buildings in case of inclement weather. Pitt Rivers provided "crockery, knives and forks for picnickers, gratis", as well as "chairs, tables and dumb waiters" and accommodation for 20 horses. [3] [15]
Music and entertainment was provided at the Singing Theatre, where plays were performed by workers from the estate, and poetry recitals given. A band was provided on Sunday afternoons during summer. Thousands of Vauxhall lights, hanging glass lamps lit by candles, illuminated the gardens in the evening, when there was open-air dancing. On the night that Thomas Hardy danced with Pitt River's daughter Agnes in 1895, he described the gardens as "Quite the prettiest sight I ever saw in my life". [3]
By 1899 the gardens were attracting over 44,000 people a year, some of them making a day trip from the growing seaside resort of Bournemouth. [16] A map of 1900 names the area as Larmer Park. [7] After Pitt Rivers' death in that year the gardens closed, opening only occasionally after that time.
In early September 1895 Thomas Hardy and his wife Emma were staying with the Pitt Rivers at Rushmore. An annual sports day was held at the Larmer Tree Gardens on 4 September 1895, followed by a night-time dance. Hardy led off the country dancing with Agnes Grove, Pitt Rivers' youngest daughter and the wife of Walter (later Sir Walter) Grove. Agnes later became a literary pupil of Hardy's, and after her death in 1926 Hardy wrote the poem Concerning Agnes, reflecting on the night they first met. [15] [17] The first two stanzas read:
Restoration of the gardens started in 1991 under the direction of Michael Pitt-Rivers. [19] [20] In the 90-odd years that the gardens had been closed, the cherry laurel had taken over almost all the gardens apart from the main lawn, and many of the buildings had decayed. The gardens were re-opened to the public in 1995. In 1999 a new Larmer Tree was planted to mark the new millennium. [1] [3] [21] [22]
Many of the Victorian buildings, including the Nepalese Room, the Roman Temple and the Colonial-style pavilion which was originally the Tea Room, remain. The open-air theatre has a backdrop painted by the scenery department at the Welsh National Opera based on The Funeral of Phocion , a 1648 painting by Nicolas Poussin which is in the National Museum Cardiff. Wide cherry laurel-hedged rides radiate out from the lawn, leading to woodland beyond. There are displays of camellias, rhododendrons, hydrangeas and eucryphias among the other trees and shrubs. Peacocks and free-flying macaws, neither indigenous to the United Kingdom, roam the gardens. [22]
The woods contain one of the largest discrete areas of semi-natural broad-leaved woodland in southern England, which were managed and exploited for the hazel underwood trades for many centuries, involving coppicing to produce strong, straight hazel wands. [23]
The gardens are privately owned and are open on a fee-paying basis from Easter to the end of September each year, but closed on Fridays and weekends as they are used for weddings and events. [24] True to the spirit of Pitt Rivers, picnickers are encouraged at the gardens, croquet equipment and deckchairs are provided at no charge, and free music is played on Sunday afternoons. [3] The gardens have been grant-aided by English Heritage. [25]
Film director Ken Russell first visited the gardens as a child and used the gardens in a number of his projects over the years, including The Debussy Film (1965) and The Music Lovers (1970). [26] [27]
A music and arts festival, the Larmer Tree Festival, was held at the gardens in July of every year since 1990; it was cancelled in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to return. [28] Since 2006 another music festival, the End of the Road Festival, is held in late August or early September every year. The Enchanted Garden, a music festival that was part of The Big Chill, took place from 1998 to 2002.
Other events and concerts take place at the gardens throughout the summer. In 1999 Dining with Alice, based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and produced by Artichoke, the company that went on to produce The Sultan's Elephant and La Princesse , was performed at the gardens as part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival.[ citation needed ]
Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections. His international collection of about 22,000 objects was the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford while his collection of English archaeology from the area around Stonehenge forms the basis of the collection at The Salisbury Museum in Wiltshire.
Shaftesbury is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, 20 miles west of Salisbury and 19.4 miles southeast of Longleat, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about 215 metres above sea level on a greensand hill on the edge of Cranborne Chase.
Iwerne Minster is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It lies on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, approximately midway between the towns of Shaftesbury and Blandford Forum. The A350 main road between those towns passes through the edge of the village, just to the west. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 978.
Sixpenny Handley or Handley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge, in north east Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase ten miles (16 km) north east of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 1,233. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 2015 and merged with Pentridge to form Sixpenny Handley and Pentridge.
Farnham is a village and civil parish in North Dorset, in the south of England, on Cranborne Chase, seven miles northeast of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 183.
Cranborne Chase is an area of central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Tollard Royal is a village and civil parish on Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire, England. The parish is on Wiltshire's southern boundary with Dorset and the village is 6 miles (10 km) southeast of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury, on the B3081 road between Shaftesbury and Sixpenny Handley.
Berwick St John is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Shaftesbury in Dorset.
Woodcutts is a hamlet within the parish of Sixpenny Handley and is located in the north of Dorset, near to the Wiltshire border. Originally named "Woodcotes", in its present form the 18th century country estate still consists of the Manor House, the Manor Farm, a number of cottages, a school house and a chapel.
Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering 379 square miles (980 km2) of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is the sixth largest AONB in England.
Larmer Tree Festival was a three-day music, comedy and arts festival held annually from 1990 until 2019 at the Larmer Tree Gardens, near Tollard Royal on the Wiltshire-Dorset border in England. The 2020 festival was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the event was not held in 2021, 2022 or 2023.
The Larmer Tree Festival near Tollard Royal on the Wiltshire–Dorset border is a music and arts festival which has taken place annually since 1990. There are several different stages and areas, and many diverse forms of music, performance and workshops can be found on site.
Sandroyd School is an independent co-educational preparatory school for day and boarding pupils aged 2 to 13 in the south of Wiltshire, England. The school's main building is Rushmore House, a 19th-century country house which is surrounded by the Rushmore Estate, now playing fields, woods and parkland. Sandroyd School was originally established by Louis Herbert Wellesley Wesley as a small private coaching establishment for boys hoping to enter Eton College.
Major Michael Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers was a West Country landowner who gained notoriety in Britain in the 1950s when he was put on trial charged with buggery. This trial was instrumental in bringing public attention – and opposition – to the stringent laws against homosexual acts as they then stood.
William Gronow-Davis was an Indian-born British artist. He was the last partner of Michael Pitt-Rivers and inherited from him the Rushmore Estate in Wiltshire.
Wor Barrow is a Neolithic long barrow on Cranborne Chase, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Sixpenny Handley in Dorset, England. It is a scheduled monument.
Woodcutts Settlement is an archaeological site of the late Iron Age and Romano-British period on Cranborne Chase, England. It is situated about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the hamlet of Woodcutts, and about 1.75 miles (2.8 km) north-west of the village of Sixpenny Handley, in Dorset, near the boundary with Wiltshire. It is a scheduled monument.
Rotherley Down Settlement is an archaeological site of the late Iron Age and Romano-British period on Cranborne Chase, England. It is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Berwick St John, and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Tollard Royal, in Wiltshire, near the boundary with Dorset. It is a scheduled monument.
South Lodge Camp is an archaeological site of the Bronze Age, about 0.6 miles (1.0 km) south-east of the village of Tollard Royal, in Wiltshire, England. The site is on Cranborne Chase, near the boundary with Dorset. It is a scheduled monument.
King John's House is a former manor house in the south Wiltshire village of Tollard Royal, England. Just south of the church, the building has at its core a 13th-century hall house. Remodelling in the 16th and 17th centuries added wings, in part timber-framed. By 1811, it was described as a farmhouse. Augustus Pitt Rivers restored and extended the house, and opened it to the public around 1890 as a museum to display the finds from his excavations on Cranborne Chase, but by 1907 it was again a residence. Architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes the house as "memorable".
