Bringing the Kitchen Garden to life at Kingston Lacy

Bringing the Kitchen Garden to life

The Kitchen Garden at Kingston Lacy reached peak production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It showcased the latest in garden technology, with heated glasshouses where the family grew fruits, vegetables and herbs alongside exotic flowers.

By the 1960s the Kitchen Garden had fallen into decline. When the National Trust acquired Kingston Lacy in 1982, it was completely overgrown. Some of the original features, such as the ornamental show houses, had been lost and others were beyond repair.

The work we’ve done so far

We’ve been working hard to bring Walter Bankes’ dream Victorian Kitchen Garden back to life, restoring the flower garden to its original design and providing a sense of how the remaining buildings would have been used.

Historic path networks have been reinstated, thatched summerhouses recreated and borders replanted to create a colourful and vibrant space.

Restoring the Vinery

The vinery, part of a U-shaped range of glasshouses originally constructed in 1879, had fallen into disrepair and been taken down. We rebuilt it with a new timber frame, using fixtures and fittings from the original glasshouse.

It now houses some of the historic vines alongside citrus fruit and fan-trained peaches.

The Melon House

Melons were just one of the exotic fruits grown at Kingston Lacy. In 2022 the gardeners grew melons in the melon house for the first time in half a century. They used methods unchanged since the Victorian era to grow an old heritage variety of melon, Blenheim Orange, which was a favourite of Victorian gardeners.

The apple arch

In the growing seasons of 1908-09 the gardeners planted 71 varieties of apple tree, 52 varieties of pear and 19 varieties of plum. In 2022 a new orchard was planted around a 100m long arch that will be covered with roses as well as espaliered fruit trees, using historic varieties.

Play area

The Kitchen Garden was much loved by the Bankes children, who visited to beg an apple or pear from the head gardener. Now, there's a new play area for children, and a kiosk serving hot and cold drinks and light snacks.

Restoration of the gates

The ornate iron gates were made by the same West Midlands ironworks firm that manufactured anchors for the Titanic. The gates are being carefully restored using traditional craftsmanship, and will be repainted the same grey-green colour originally chosen by Henrietta Bankes in 1912.