The Priory gardens
From monastic ruin to 18th century parkland
By Daphne Knott
When the Carmelite friars were in residence during the 14th and 15th centuries, they doubtless cultivated the Priory gardens to provide themselves with fruit and vegetables; they might even have had a dovecote and fish pond. However, a survey of the Priory undertaken in 1546 declared that ‘all the buildings were sore decayed and very ruinous both in timber and tile for lack of reparations’ and ‘as for the gardens lying within the precinct of the said house of Friars, they are but as yards and void places of ground’. (This document is now held at The National Archives.) Successive members of the Radcliffe family landscaped the park and gardens, developed a kitchen garden and built hothouses for exotic fruits.
A bushel of mushroom spawn
Ralph Radcliffe, who inherited the estate in 1727, proceeded to use the profits from the Levant business to beautify the Priory estate. He created a park on the South side of the estate and walled it in. He also bought rare and unusual flowers to develop what must have been an extensive garden and started to develop a kitchen garden.
The bill from Michael Cuff at Nine Elms, London (shown here) lists the vegetable seeds that Ralph bought: carrots, onions, radishes, peas, lettuces and yellow savoy. He also bought 200 artichoke plants ‘as good as any in England’.
Another bill from this period shows how Ralph was developing other areas of the park and garden. Henry Hodgson’s bill lists the purchase of garden pots, holly trees, ivy, weeping willows, laurels, honeysuckle , heather, scarlet china roses and Ayrshire roses. For the kitchen garden, he supplied peaches, apricots and a bushel of mushroom spawn.
One ‘rose of munday’
However, the man who really developed the gardens was John Radcliffe, who also built the new wing. He had a small amount of landscape work carried out, but mostly concentrated on filling the park with trees and developing the flower and kitchen gardens.
A bill from Thomas Emmerton in 1763 shows that more trees were purchased for the park: scotch firs, Weymouth pines, larches, weeping willows, lilacs and mountain ash. For the flower garden, John bought honeysuckles and a variety of roses, including one specimen ‘rose of munday’ (rosa mundi).
The kitchen garden was not neglected, in fact in fine 18th century style, John had succession houses and hot houses constructed. In these, he was able to grow all manner of exotic fruits and vegetables, including pineapples. The bill for pineapple plants included a man to plant them!
More information
You can find out more about the gardens in the following books, available in HALS library:
Hitchin Priory Park. The history of a landscape park and garden. Bridget Howlett
Hertfordshire Gardens Trust Research Group: Hitchin Priory. Bridget Howlett
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