Wallington - an 'inprobable' Northumbrian garden

At Wallington the visitor will discover a 'comfortable' place with an unusual secret Walled Garden and delightful woodland walks.

The National Trust property at Wallington, in Northumberland, is described in their guide book as a property of 'radical surprises'. Radical because Wallington was the home of the unconvential Trevelyans, one of which was much influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, while the last owner, Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, was a well respected Labour politician who became education minister.

The house is full of interesting associations with writers and scientists, Pre-Raphaelite painters, sculptors, actors and actresses and politicians. There are also associations with Thomas Babington Macaulay, many of whose books survive at Wallington, and a rather surprising Central Hall which one finds decorated as an Italian Renaissance palazzo.

As to the improbable, the estate was originally founded on bare moorland with few trees. When in 1728 Sir Walter Calverley Blackett inherited Wallington he spent the next 30 years of his life establishing his estate - a process of which a young Lancelot 'Capability' Brown was no doubt aware, as he was born in 1716 at Kirkharle, about two miles from Wallington.

Wallington's succession of gardeners over the centuries, have managed to create a 'comfortable' garden with both landscape and horticultural interest, which for today's visitor is a pure delight.

The estate has woods either side of the house, ponds, a labyrinth of paths and a most wonderful 'secret' Walled Garden. I say wonderful because at Wallington you experience a very different concept of a walled garden. No rows of cabbages or carrots here, this garden, which again unusually is on two levels, contains a series of magical rooms, leading the unsuspecting into ever changing vistas.

The ornamental gardens at Wallington are away from the actual mansion - indeed you have to cross a small roadway to enter the East Woods. While the Yew tree is a recurring motif at Wallington you will in fact find all manner of trees here, from Douglas Firs to larch, maple and elder of which Wallington has the National Collection. Here you also come across the China Pond, which has a pump-house, built in 1900 to serve the house with water in case of fire.

John Ellis has been head gardener at Wallington since 1990. It isn't long before you fall under his enthusiastic spell and start seeing the garden through a gardener’s eyes. He explains that the garden is away from the house because the house has to sit in an English landscape.

He leads us through the East Wood and suddenly you are confronted by a door - the door to the secret garden! This is not the original Walled Garden - the wall to the original one can still be seen in the woods - but the site of a well-sheltered dell which was originally the kitchen garden. It was Sir George, who inherited the estate in 1886, who developed the Walled Garden, importing terracotta urns and wrought-iron gates from Florence and Menaggio. The Conservatory was his inspiration, very typical of the Edwardian Age, and soon to celebrate its centenary.

As we enter a group of schoolchildren are excitedly exploring the many paths which now confront us - to go straight on and look at the glasshouses or bear right and come down into the upper part of the garden to look at the Mary Pool. The choice is yours but whichever way you go there is a tingle of excitement at the prospect of so much to see.

After the Trust took over in 1958 the gardens had the benefit of coming under the eye of the renowned plantsman Graham Stuart Thomas who was the first Gardens Adviser to the N.T. The garden had remained very much an 18th century creation until the mid-20th century when Sir Charles Trevelyan and his wife Mary began to alter the use of the Walled Garden from productive gardening to ornamental. Graham Stuart Thomas continued very much in that spirit.

For John it is fitting that Thomas had an association with Wallington: "I grew up in awe of people like Thomas. For better or worse it wasn't people on television which turned heads, it was people like Thomas and subsequently John Sales, who succeeded Graham. I think Graham's work is historically important and also John Sales who generally looked for the spirit of a place and keeping it."

The highest point of the Walled Garden is dominated by the Mary Pool. Mary, Lady Trevelyan created the pool in 1938 - this is a circular pool fed by a spout falling into a trough which eventually turns itself into a little stream to wander down through the rest of the garden.

It is hard to date this garden, to many it will seem timeless, which in several ways is part of its charm. For me it is a 1930s garden as that is the sense I get as I walk around. It is a personal thing but as John will testify there is nothing grand about the gardening here - the high terrace walls are dotted with ivy-clad toadflax and hart’s tongue fern, the lower terrace walls support grass paths. He doesn't label the garden in any period, it could well be from the 50s or 60s or even 70s. It is a matter of 'if it fits in' with the garden then that is sufficient.

The magnificent Conservatory was built as a winter garden. There are also two other glasshouses which serve as propagation facilities. The Conservatory is full of wonderful plants - Bananas, weeping figs, fuchsias, schizanthus and salpiglossis and an array of ever changing pot plants.

Proceeding down into the garden you experience the magnificient Blue and Yellow Borders, inspired by Graham Thomas's planting - at the front blue catmint Nepeta x faassenii and yellow Euphorbia polychroma - behind the blocks of blue such as Iris and yellow Doronicum carpetanum.

Below the orchard you find two new gardens begun in 1995. The upper is the cutting garden with deep borders planted with delphiniums, poppies, lupins, Echinacea purpurea 'White Swan' and Trollius. Then you find a small hedged enclosure which is The Winter Garden with shrubs and perennials for winter interest.

John is keen to improve interpretation of the garden for visitors and welcomes the recent appointment of an education officer. Children are the future gardeners and stimulating and sustaining their continuing interest is no easy matter. His own interest in gardening stems back to his childhood so he knew from an early age that he wanted to be a gardener. After a visit to Hidcote, his first introduction to the work of the National Trust, he became aware that the garden is an art form in itself and that changed his life.

John is anxious that the garden does not develop a 'museum' like quality, a them and us mentality, which can preclude children and indeed adults from fully enjoying a space.

I just loved the Walled Garden, for me it was an enjoyable revelation, and I fully agreed when John pointed out that he felt it was a "garden you can walk into in your slippers" - yes there is a vibrant, positive and very comfortable feel about it.

Wallington also has an excellent new facility to help us understand composting and they hope eventually to make all their own compost for use in the garden thus enabling greater sustainability.

There are some gardens where instantly you feel that you want to return - Wallington had that effect on me. Many thanks to John for our tour, and for enabling us to gain a valuable insight into this delightful 'improbable' garden.

Wallington is situated in Cambo, near Morpeth. Log onto www.nationaltrust.org.uk for details of opening times. For information on events throughout the year contact 01670 773939.