Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland

When Sir Charles Monck (1779–1867) built Belsay Hall in 1810–17, he created a new kitchen garden alongside the estate’s formal gardens. Sir Charles had an enquiring mind, especially in matters of modern technology, and this is particularly notable in the kitchen garden. He introduced a heated wall and a range of hothouses for growing exotic fruit, and also included specialist horticultural buildings such as a mushroom house and fig house. 

In 1833 Sir Charles wrote to the Horticultural Society (later to become the Royal Horticultural Society) expounding on the advantages and disadvantages of the use of a heated wall in the cultivation of figs. He explained how he ‘last autumn took down the back wall and rebuilt it with a flue’, with the aim of allowing his gardener ‘the most perfect command of temperature’.

In 1829 the produce from the kitchen garden was being entered into horticultural competitions, which were a popular way of displaying expertise and innovation. One prize that Belsay took home from a local horticultural society was a bronze medal awarded for ‘six stalks of blanched rhubarb’.

Many of the kitchen garden buildings were demolished in the late 19th century, although the structure of the walled garden and heated wall survive. Today, the kitchen garden is no longer used to produce fruit and vegetables, although the view of the heated wall across the paddock is still an impressive sight.

Home of Charles Darwin – Down House, Kent

When Charles Darwin (1809–82) and his family moved to Down House, the kitchen garden was already in place. While writing On the Origin of Species in the 1850s, he took over a corner of it for his ‘experimental beds’, using them to investigate his theory of variation and natural selection. In the early 1860s Darwin erected a hothouse alongside the existing greenhouse in the kitchen garden, which he used as a laboratory for his experiments. Several of Darwin’s influential publications emerged from these, relating to the growth patterns and reproductive behaviour of plants.

Many of the vegetables grown in the kitchen garden today are Victorian varieties recorded by Darwin in his notebooks, while in the greenhouses you can see the same plants that Darwin cultivated for his research projects. Perhaps his greatest fascination was with insectivorous plants, especially Drosera rotundifolia – at the time his wife Emma mused that ‘he is treating Drosera just like a living creature and I suppose he hopes to end in proving it to be an animal’.

Walmer Castle and Gardens, Kent

The area of land that now contains the kitchen garden at Walmer Castle in Kent has probably been a productive space for over 300 years, growing fruit, vegetables and flowers for the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, whose official residence has been there since 1708. One of the glasshouses was constructed in 1898 and included a vinery, tomato house and small fernery, while a second glasshouse was added between 1936 and 1941. Particularly striking within the glasshouse today is the majestic bird of paradise flower (Strelitzia reginae). 

Unusual varieties of fruit and vegetables are displayed in the garden in eye-catching patterns that change depending on the season. Beautifully trained fruit trees, mostly comprising traditional Kentish varieties, surround the planting beds, and an area of orchard contains three apple trees donated by the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers – one of which was planted by the Queen Mother. 

The produce from the garden is used in the castle tea room, creating a fresh and seasonal menu. As part of our current project to open up new areas of Walmer Castle’s gardens with support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a new café has been created, providing a space to enjoy the kitchen garden whatever the season.