THE ROYAL FAMILY’s SECRET GARDEN in World War II | - Newby Hall & Gardens

this time on American VI Countess I enjoy Summer Sunshine in one of the most glorious historic Gardens in Britain newbie Hall in North Yorkshire [Music] welcome to the beautiful italianate gardens here at maverton and to a very special episode of American VI countess [Music] the enduring Fascination and love the British have with their Gardens is almost embedded in the National psyche and it's clear to see here at mapperton but also at every historic house I visit across the UK [Music] [Music] recently on a visit to North Yorkshire I was fortunate enough to spend time in the stunningly beautiful historic Gardens at newbie Hall the home of our friends Richard and Lucinda Compton [Music] lovely to see both of you again and I mean I I don't want to say that I brought the weather because I don't think I did but thank you whoever I don't always like this in Yorkshire I believe you I'll try to believe you there but you know what's so wonderful about drop people come here because your Gardens are so well known I mean you've won award after award for these Gardens I've walked through them a bit just to get to this bench but can you tell me just a little bit more about the history of your Gardens here yeah well originally when the house was built there was some very formal Gardens as you would expect at the time that's 1690 but really the the gardens that you see now are my grandfather's creation and when he inherited he said um he said that he'd inherited a picture with no frame so a lovely house which is newbie but without a garden and so he set about creating that frame for his picture um and that was in the in the 20s so you get this formal Garden running down to the river with arguably the longest double herbaceous borders uh certainly in Britain yes absolutely and then formal compartments set off it rather like rooms you know of a house that was his vision that is that right and how many years did that because these these Gardens are vast he did about 50 years yes gardening here yeah so he designed it and he was he realized that occasionally in Yorkshire you get a strong Southwest wind and then he made that wonderful decision in about 1930 that his design could actually get to fruition uh and that's when he turned the first Turf and then you've got the second war and during that period houses weren't really right so he no well this was actually reserved for the royal family I hope it was one of the three houses that was reserved for the royal family it should the Germans invade oh my goodness so he even had to prepare for that yeah well yeah yeah and there were letters there was a famous moment when uh the general in charge of the north wrote to my grandfather who was a mere major right and said we're going to requisition the house and he said I'm so sorry sir but I think you ought to refer this to Buckingham Palace oh so newbie was was never requisitioned by the Army yeah so so that you were quite lucky then because of course the house was intact and the gardens they stayed intact but of course there was nobody to to do the gardening right because they were all fighting yes so it was very much put on sort of hold yep and indeed the lawn in front of the West Front was growing vegetables for the for the war effort and there were pillar you know pill boxes you know with guns in and all that sort of stuff so it was a very different place obviously yes yes uh during the war right and then after the war my grandfather then went back to trying to get it back together again right you know we do see so many historic houses opening up to the public after the second world war due to of course the taxes that were leaving and it was you know it was almost as if the hand was forced on many of these historic houses which is a blessing for of course visitors like me and the public and you know and it's wonderful to be able to showcase the house and the gardens but so he then your grandfather did open up to the public yes he did and he had a tragedy because because my grandmother died she got cancer and she died very young and and so he was you know unhappy in things and it was my father who said well why don't you open to the public because it gave him a resident yes everything else and he used to literally he used to park the cars I mean he would get his handkerchief out and wave at somebody and say no you're parking in there so he was he was out he was doing everything and then he sold his plants in a little plant stall by the car park and yeah so we're actually celebrating 75 years of being open to the public this year you're kidding me yeah laughs [Music] looking at the gardens now I know Lucinda your you are head Gardener let's be honest here right you'll meet the head gardeners right it's a real passion curator would you call yourself it has become a real passion I was very fortunate that Rick's father Robin taught me a lot about gardening and I had 10 years with him right and you know showing me around teaching me about the plants and he was a phenomenal horticulturist he had a royal medal from the rhs right Victoria nettle so you were able to spend 10 years with him just that is incredible and then and then when he died I obviously had to sort of take on the role of curator of curator yes no I was only joking head Gardner I know you've got one but you are I mean listen I've you know I found you this morning in there yes exactly gardening away I think um gardening become become so addictive or obsessive and I have to absolutely love it and it's not only the creativity but also actually enjoy weeding and pruning and yes you know the maintenance roles yes and it's it it's sort of within you it's it you're able to go into that present moment we all talk about staying in the present moment you know and forgetting about the past and not worrying about the future and gardening has that ability to do that because you really need to be focused on what you're doing but also you're a beauty beautiful setting and you're in nature and it's so beautiful yeah it's so beautiful so you are then of course open to the public you have been as you said you're coming up to 75 years and but you've also the two of you have seen this Garden you know expand under under your own Wings is that right you have made expansions and additions to it well we've certainly done adaptions yes I mean and Lucinda's in the middle of doing the restoration of the rock garden and then replanting the main borders yes which is a very brave decision to make but uh and the palate colors have changed from what they were to know a much softer palette which is fantastic yeah and I think just sort of one last question is obviously I am American and lots of Americans come over here because we don't have what the Brits have sort of these glorious Gardens you know England and Britain is there you are known for these spectacular Garden and I guess just maybe a bit of the history in one sense what is this Fascination that I think looking at the the British people with their Gardens because I I it's hard to find another country that has this love so much I think we we have the we have a great climate for gardening so you know we're because of the the Gulf Stream we're warm enough and we're always fairly wet so there's this wonderful climate we're not too far north or too hot right so we can grow a whole range of plants and the other thing is the gardens have evolved over centuries haven't they so you know Rich was talking about this the framework of this Garden from 1690 and there was a house before that and that's fairly typical of English country houses you know they've evolved over centuries and so yes you've got mature trees amazing ancient walls and when and when we do get a very dry summer um you'll get you get the outline if you look from the roof you can get the outline of the old partner right um on in the grass of the 1690s yes well it's probably that's amazing maybe the Victorian one but yeah you can get the part here at the Victorian exactly it's amazing isn't it is amazing cream and it just then goes to show you sort of how these Gardens have evolved and with each generation you're constantly thinking well what can I do to the garden and it's what and what you are doing of course is you're as you say adapting and maybe bringing back to life the rock garden absolutely yeah which looks stunning well I can't wait to see it so Lucinda you're about to give me a little tour is that right I'd love to she's brilliant thank you both so much [Music] thank you hi everybody I am here at the beautiful newbie Hall and there are glorious Gardens and I've just bumped into Carolyn and Colin who are new historic house members is that right and what made you become a historic House member so a year or two ago we went with my parents to one of the historic houses sites and we looked them up on the website and saw that there were so many places around here that we could visit we decided to join ourselves right and this is your first time first Wow first visit first visit and first of all what do you think of newbie and their Gardens well it's beautiful we haven't done the house tour yet we're doing that in an hour's time but we're looking forward to doing that and the gardens are just amazing yeah just incredible and really I'm of course uh not a member but I'm actually a member house so we have a historic House in West Dorset I do hope you come and visit to try to get down to West Dorset but for us personally of course it's incredibly important to have um you know visitors who are historic house members come to these houses and enjoy them and we're really trying to get the word out and so did you know with your membership you're also going to be receiving the newsletter you'll be getting a copy of the mag magazine and there's lots of things that you can find online like live lectures so it's not just about visiting the houses and the gardens there's also special benefits as well were you aware of that so didn't know about the lectures but we know about the magazine and we've already got our handbook and that's kind of why we came today because we were looking for somewhere to go because we knew it was going to be a nice day and this was fairly local so we used a handbook to find this yeah and decide to come fantastic and I think also it's important just to say that being a member of historic houses is being a part of a membership where these are privately owned houses and so they're living history so it's not hasn't stopped 100 years ago and telling the same story it's carrying on and each of the custodians at these historic houses are really making their their own Mark and putting their imprint on something so you can constantly see how the gardens and the house is evolving with the custodians who are living there absolutely and that is something different going to a house where he's still really a home so you've got to see it as two things history and home yes exactly and it's sometimes I mean you'll probably see it when you go into newbie but definitely when you come to mapperton I'm still shooting my own horn here but when you do a tour at mapperton you'll see photographs of my kids and me and my husband and so you're able to come in there and be like oh my gosh somebody lives here and those of you who are thinking well I have to live here in the UK in order to become a member of historic houses that is incorrect you can become an international member as well because you'll receive the magazine you'll receive the newsletter there's lots of amazing um uh bits online that you can be a part of as well did you know that that you could become an international member and actually we have a son who is married to an American and lives in America and they're actually really interested in English History and so they will be really interested to know that they can get information in America about places like this exactly and I definitely didn't know that oh my goodness well this is what we want to really convey to this International audience is that their support goes a long way even across the pond probably you know this because you have what an American daughter-in-law is that right let's be honest we are slightly obsessed with British history and these British historic houses yeah and they would love to be able to look up information knowing that they were kind of still linked to it somehow yes so I think they would really enjoy that and I know her family her dad's side are very interested in English History so I think they would be very interested in having access to that as well might even make them come and visit amazing so do check out the link down below and use my promo code to become a historic House member and you've heard it right here first hand that you as an international person watching this right now can become a member as well [Music] listen to this is this is the view whenever I think of we'll be in the gardens this is the the famous herbaceous borders yes which are 172 meters long and they're designed to be at their best for July August and September and we replant them in 2014. you did each job everything out and started again so and we put this netting across which you can see yes to protect the plants from the wind okay and maybe this is the sort of Main North South axis and then the statue walk up there's a main East West and then off them there are about 14 or 15 rooms or individual Gardens for it wow yes throughout the garden that is incredible so this job here 2014. this how long did it take to understand who was curating so it took us um in all about four years because it took us about two years of research visiting nurseries buying in the plants in nine centimeter pots we laid them out in our Nursery area and bulked them up planned the garden and it was designed by a Mark I then head Gardener Louise who looked after the borders at the time and myself so the three of us together and then we planted it all in-house and we did it over two Winters did you and it was really a huge job of course [Music] foreign the herbaceous borders are breathtaking stretching down to the river they give the most glorious view back to the hall which over the centuries has been designed and remodeled by some of the greatest British Architects including Sir Christopher Wren in the 1690s and Robert Adam in the 18th century at newbie the house and Gardens complement each other all around there are glimpses of the hall framed by trees and plants and it's absolutely stunning and to create and tend to all of this beauty I think you'll be so surprised as to how many gardeners it takes [Music] I act as Croatia helping with weeding and decision making primarily then we have Lawrence our head Gardener who I hope you'll meet and we're a team of six and a half gardeners at the moment and probably a more institutional Garden of our size might have 30 and maybe 100 volunteers yes so we have a very very active very professional team and they manage incredibly well that is and you're right that I mean considering the scale of um this Garden here six and a half gardeners is not and then especially when you look back in time between the walls here they had 22 right yeah 22 but the garden was less intensive at that date okay uh newbie Now is really a garden For All Seasons you know and we're open six months of Summer but there's an enormous amount of interest um you know every week it's changing and yeah something exciting Gardens change within the seasons and you can see them constantly evolving yes and and you're always everyone who might lose a tree or you know and they need regenerating yes so how much Lucinda you know as you sort of you know I could kind of call you sort of curator of the gardens yes and do you spend quite a bit of time out here because I saw you earlier I have various other roles yes yes yes um I fit the gardening in around them okay and um and often that might be weekends or evenings yeah it's a beautiful Summer's evening I might be out here you know till nine or ten at night um I absolutely love it and it's so peaceful in the garden yes and during the weekends it's a fun time for me to actually meet visitors and hear their stories and they tell me problems in their Garden yeah and I love that too foreign I hope you are enjoying these wonderful historic House episodes we put so much time and energy to make sure that these are of high quality Productions and we want to thank our patrons because the reason that we're able to create such beautiful episodes is because of their support so do consider becoming an American by Countess Patron here you'll get behind the scenes you'll also get American by Countess merchandise all episodes are ad free and you get early access to them as well Christmas cards and it's a wonderful community of like-minded people who also love historic houses as much as I do so do check out the details down below at patreon.com forward slash American VI countess good as Lucinda mentioned the dedication of newbies gardening team means that whenever you visit the gardens are putting on the most wonderful displays I met up with head Gardener Lawrence Wright to explore the Rose Garden foreign [Music] Lawrence it's a real treat that I'm with the head Gardener here at newbie I mean because these Gardens are Sensational I mean they're vast they are vast and you have a big job a very big job 25 acres of formal Garden um for essentially six full-time people so it is a lot of work yes but you know the Lord is all around us yeah it it is and how long have you been here then as head Gardener so about 18 months okay and so still very new to the role and it takes such a while to get your head around a garden on this scale right and this importance as well you know it's a couple of seasons of work to just understand how you fit into a space and how you can work with what is already there and how you can take it forward so that it's always getting better for the future yes exactly and when you you know since you're relatively new so to speak 18 months when you come in and see a garden of this size I mean does your imagination and creativity just sort of sort of sort of just go what what do I want to do first it's exactly that there's so much that you when you walk around you think oh you know this is this particular view is beautiful you know that bit maybe we can tweak and the Temptation is to run straight into it right and actually you need to pull yourself back tell yourself to get a grip you need to sort of understand the space you're in before you then start making decisions that take the garden forward yes so this is at the Rose Garden and has been a Rose Garden for the last 40 years and actually it's a beautiful space and everyone loves roses the visitors love roses and we're just about to start you know the first balloons are just coming out oh my gosh yes so we had an issue in here where actually the majority of our visitors come in the summer holiday and they come into the Rose Garden expecting to see beautiful roses right right and actually they can be disappointed in August so we've gone through under planting we've put in a load of mid to late summer flowering perennials that actually bolster what when the Rose Garden drops in terms of rose color all of the herbaceous comes through and added a few modern shrubs right so it's balancing how the garden the traditional feel of the garden but also making it move forward and be more more present in the garden as well yes all year round and especially because this Garden is open to the public yes so it's being able to sort of smell see for extended periods exactly and you know it's right in the heart of the garden so it's got to work hard for its place yes so now we've extended That season of Interest over many months rather than three weeks yeah no wonderful and you know also when we look at when we come to Gardens I think as a visitor we're blown away but so beautiful and the sense incredible but your job is not just when the gardens are open to the public it is all year round and almost in one sense so it's almost that off season where you're working the hardest yeah and we often have visitors say to us oh it must be really nice in the winter because you know we're not here and actually we do all of the Dirty Work in the winter we do the hard work in the winter yes um but also we're thinking you know sometimes a year in advance 18 months two years in advance it's not just what you see in front of you day to day it's it's the process of getting to where you want to be in you know five years time sometimes starts now of course it does be plants need nurturing they need time to get to that maturity State and that's just not an overnight no it's one of those things that you know Interiors are a classic example it's very instant you go and buy a picture you buy a vars you put it down it's done with this we start with a seed or a cutting and it can take years before you get the desired effect really yeah yeah exactly well I mean listen Lawrence Sensational job I've walked around uh and it is stunning what you have done and this Rose Garden oh gosh incredible [Music] as we saw with the Rose Garden there the 25 acres of Gardens at newbie are divided into little rooms and in each you're met with this gorgeous tapestry of different atmospheres colors and textures [Music] [Music] this one on the left is looking very colorful today I mean you can't help but smile when you see this yes exactly um I think this is one of the most popular areas of the garden with our visitors and it's just a color it's like a sort of box of sweets or something these are candelabra pramilas from the Himalayas and we've got wonderful collections of primulas throughout the garden and these are Hollow car hybrids and they do this every year without fail and it's a just a joy just a joy and so there in in one sense right now I feel like they were in full bloom is that right or just about to be in yes and they carry on for a while because they keep the flowers keep coming up the stem yes so you have this sort of this color burst for quite a long period look at that yeah look at them absolutely gorgeous yes this actual Garden was created by my father-in-law Robin okay so um and it's a in typical newbie fashion we had a leak from the moat of water around the shop which he'd put in and somehow the water came down to here and it was always boggy and then a very big tree fell down and so there was a huge clearing and he said let's have a water garden so he then designed this rilla water with the little bridge and yes Stones oh my goodness so he just well that's very clever Thinking Out of the Box exactly he was a brilliant Gardener yeah wonderful absolutely wonderful and in the Autumn we've got some wonderful trees here they eat their Macy's trees are spring flowering and then one float in color so so yeah so again coming to the Garden you it's you can see it's changed throughout the seasons which is just wonderful you know we are having a conversation but I can imagine somebody just walking through in silence hearing the bird song hearing the water exactly and of course peaceful and peaceful yeah [Music] [Music] so where are we entering into now so this is the rock garden which was opened in 1914 by Richard's great grandfather team 14. just as the gardeners all went off to wall this is a Lebanon pergola oh boy and so lovely yeah there are 22 beds with rocks brought from The Dales nearby and this was designed by Ellen Wilmot and who was a famous garden at the time right and it's um we're halfway through restoring it so on the right you can see beds that we've done yes yes and on the left ones that we're preparing and we will we'll plant those in the Autumn right okay this is wonderful and what was the inspiration for having a rock garden was there well at the time um the people were starting to travel and of course they the the British particularly love the Alps and Alpine scenery and I think it was a sort of Edwardian times the first package holidays and they were setting off and they started skiing and they went walking in the summer and they fell in love with all of these sort of Alpine plants right and then they came back and they wanted their own Rock Garden at home and so there were a lot of rock guns were built in that Edward here and this is one of the biggest fascinating foreign you said that you were sort of restoring it if you like yes I mean since um 1914 when of course the gardeners at the minute they opened it in August seal went off to war right and Mason didn't return and so the garden effort we think from that date started to slide already and then it gradually sort of became a woodland Gardener rather Shady Woodland garden with a lot of the existing little Pines like that would have been into rock garden Pine is now a champion tree yes it's one of the biggest in the country and then also a lot of trees had sewn themselves in here use and yes well have you and so we've cleared the trees a lot of them and now replanted with yes alpines with Alpine's wonderful Himalayan poppies so this is another sort of Pockets Within These glorious Gardens and they are just Sensational but it's wonderful just to be able to contrast the difference from where we just were the Water Garden to here there's a very very different feel here and again one of the most popular areas of the garden especially with children who love all the paths yes yes and it's replanting has given us an opportunity for new plants that we haven't had before yeah that's very exciting and it's all very exciting it's so wonderful Lucinda just what you've been able to continue to do and continue to create and evolve so these Aces obviously 100 years old things extraordinary well held extraordinary absolutely wonderful the Gardens at newbie are Sensational and I hope to return very very soon every time you visit a garden you see something new and it's just the same here at mapperton the character and atmosphere of the gardens change with the seasons foreign [Music] [Music] thank you so much for joining me today and I look forward to seeing you back here very soon for another historic house and Gardens visit bye everybody [Music]

Channel: American Viscountess

Views: 42,286

Keywords: julie montagu mapperton house, julie montagu american aristocrat, mapperton house, aristocracy documentary, meghan markle, prince harry, american aristocrat, American viscountess, julie montagu, mapperton, viscountess, viscount, Luke montagu, prince and princess of wales, the royal family, all things royal, royalty, real royalty, bridgerton, the crown, royally obsessed, Italian house renovation, restoration, King Charles III

Id: 49yw4zNOAI4

Length: 32min 34sec (1954 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023