Henry Trevor never intended to create a secret garden. When the prosperous Victorian-era businessman shaped The Plantation Garden out of a scooped-out quarry, he saw it as a place of peace and beauty that he wanted to share with others.
Trevor – the well-to-do owner of an upholstery and cabinetry business – took over the lease of three acres of land just outside the flint-and-mortar walls of Norwich, a city in eastern England, in 1856. In medieval times, this land had been used as a flint mine; just before Trevor’s time, it was a chalk quarry.
He carted in loads of soil to support his plantings, hired a gardener who lived in a cottage on the site, and employed under-gardeners to build and maintain his grand design.
Beginning in the first world war, Trevor’s adjacent residence became a nursing home and later was turned into a boarding house for midwives. During World War II, part of the garden was handed over to the Dig for Victory campaign to boost self-sufficiency by growing nutritious vegetables instead of flowers or lawns.
While many country gardens attached to rural mansions remain, most town gardens, like Trevor’s, disappeared in the 20th century as land was developed. Garden parcels became parking lots, strip malls, and apartment complexes. The Plantation Garden escaped this fate only by being a bit out of the way.
Picking through the brambles and sycamores with an infant slung to her chest, the new mother found something quite extraordinary – the skeleton of extensive landscaping. While most of Trevor’s plantings had matured or died, the remains of his plan were still apparent: shattered glasshouses, a moldering fountain, and undulating walls marked the property.
Lesley Cunneen, a volunteer who gives tours there, feels that, in a way, the neglect of the garden was also its saving, because gardens are naturally ephemeral. When people take over a garden, they want to make their mark on it. If during that period of neglect it had been taken over, someone might have made considerable changes.
Horse chestnuts, beeches, and yews planted by the head gardener, George Woodhouse, who worked for Trevor for over 30 years and led Trevor’s funeral procession, still muffle the breezes into the hollow. Volunteers even rebuilt the gothic fountain.