|
 Renishaw Hall and Gardens is a regular visit, a short trek from home but always worth the effort and we have never been disappointed as the gardens change throughout the year or different events add an extra reason to visit, as if the gardens alone weren't enough. It's not on the scale of Chatsworth House and Gardens, not is it a historic site like the National Trust properties nearby like Hardwick Hall or Kedleston Hall. However, the scale of the park is impressive at 300 acres, there are 8 acres of wonderful Italianate Gardens, the Hall dates back nearly 400 years and there are many historic, literary and artistic connections that have made their mark. Privately owned by the Sitwell family since it was built, the Hall is opened occasionally for guided tours and the gardens and park are open Thursday to Sunday (plus Bank Holidays) from early April to late September every year. See their website for further information.
The Head Gardener, David Kesteven, has continued the formal design originally laid out in 1895. He started work at Renishaw in November 1997 and has led the work to restore and develop the gardens in conjunction with Lady Sitwell and the garden designer Anthony Noel. Together they have created gardens that are bold, theatrical (as befits the Sitwell family history), colourful and beautiful. Alongside the formal gardens are walks down to the lakes and through the woodland, the floor of which shimmers with bluebells in the spring, having taken over from the masses of snowdrops.
Today's visit was timed to coincide with the plant fair being held in front of the Hall. A marvellous collection of nurseries which managed to empty my wallet and fill the back of the car with more plants destined for "the trench", the trough that runs around the edge of our newly built terrace. There were our favourite geraniums and pelargoniums, eryngiums and echinops, many interesting dahlias, fuschias, shrub clematis and many more.
In mid-August the herbaceous borders are in full swing and truly wonderful they are. A credit to the enormous amount of work that has been put into the gardens.
But my favourite bit of the garden is, unfortunately, now finished for this year and the plants neatly cut down. The delphiniums. The white garden did contain some, but the border in the south west corner is particularly spectacular in June/July. I was asked to photograph this in early July 2008 by David Kesteven - I just couldn't believe my eyes when I first walked into this corner of the garden. My gasp must have been quite loud and I can quite clearly remember being stopped in my tracks as I walked round the corner into the garden to see a magnificent show of the bluest delphiniums you can imagine standing perfectly to attention along the long border. I was there for the morning sunshine from about 7am - a bit later than I would like but I had two uninterrupted hours to photograph this wonderful border. I returned a few days later during normal visiting hours and enjoyed a few minutes listening to other people's gasps as they walked into this garden! David was particularly proud of this border as part of the plan to develop the gardens. And rightly so!
One of many challenges in photographing a garden like this is to capture the drama of the view. Walking into the garden your breath is completely taken away by the view. As you walk in the deep blue of the tall plants that stretch from one end to the other is seen first. Then you look from one end to the other, very quickly, to take it in. Given the colours there is a relatively narrow field of view (vertically) that matters - from ground level to the top of the delphiniums. And this is at an angle rather than being square in front of the border. So how to capture that in a photograph? A very wide angle lens is not the answer - I tried with a fisheye lens and whilst the row of delphiniums does looks ok, the distortion takes away the drama. I have what I think are several great images of parts of the border and individual or small groups of plants, but I do not think I managed to capture that dramatic moment, the image my mind could see when I first walked round that corner. I missed the opportunity to try again this year, but I hope that I will have another go next. A view I would like to create is a long panoramic view, but printing at a scale that works visually will be another challenge (but one I am happy to have a go at!)
Renishaw Hall gallery |
0 Comments