Saturday, October 26, 2013

Long Barn


In their lifetime Vita Sack-Ville West and Harold Nicolson designed and constructed three gardens. The first was at Cospoli, Constantinople, the second Long Barn, Sevenoaks Weald, and the third, Sissinghurst. The garden at Cospoli was the first attempt Vita made at gardening, and it was here that she discovered her love of plants. Her first foray into gardening was short lived; Harold and Vita bought the property in Cospoli in November 1923, while Harold was working as Third Secretary at the British Embassy. Unfortunately they had to leave their garden behind in the summer of 1914 when war broke out and Harold was recalled to London. Memories of Cospoli still linger on today at Sissinghurst with two items Vita and Harold brought back with them, the Greek plaque on the wall to the entrance of the white garden, and the marble bowl resting on three lions in the herb garden. There was one connecting feature with all three gardens, in each case they were utterly neglected and in the case of Sissinghurst almost non-existent.

In 1915 while renting a property in London since their return from overseas, Vita and Harold started looking for a country house. In March of that year they bought Long Barn, situated on the edge of a rural village named Weald, Kent. Long Barn, which they bought for £2,500 was within walking distance of Vita’s ancestral home, Knole. Vita always loved Long barn and rather understatedly said: ‘it will do very well indeed’. If the garden at Cospoli was where Vita first cut her gardening teeth then undoubtedly Long Barn was where she served her gardening apprenticeship. Her garden notebooks, written in the early Long Barn years show an almost complete lack of basic horticultural knowledge, but both Vita and Harold learnt quickly from their mistakes and very soon Vita built up an impressive knowledge and understanding of plants and gardening.
View from the main lawn. The original cottage is seen face on while the reconstructed barn to enlarge the house can be seen on end.
Long Barn was in a dreadful state when they bought it; the cottage was in extremely poor condition and was fast approaching dereliction. The garden was on a steep slope, full of rubble, weeds and general rubbish. At the bottom was a field and in this a ruined barn which was taken down, material from it subsequently used to make the new wing, doubling the size of the house. The garden soon started to take shape; after the rubbish was cleared a terrace was built with retaining walls to lessen the slope around the house, and too provide the top platform; steps led to a lawn. The garden followed to a degree, the philosophy of the Arts & Crafts movement with some formality in the layout along with garden compartments or rooms, planting being used to soften any hard lines. The Arts and Crafts movement, which purists believe ended with the death of Morris in1896, or a more commonly held thought 1914, with the Great War, also advocated that the garden be integral to the house, displaying a natural unity. Vita’s planting at Long Barn took this to the extreme; the walls of the house were covered with many climbing plants such as Roses, honeysuckle and Clematis. Plants grew from every crack and crevice in the paving, right up to the house, and on the terraces; scent and colour reigned supreme.  Harold was the garden designer and displayed a natural talent, the layout of Long Barn totally down to his skill but Vita provided the planting design in the Arts and Crafts style.
 Both Harold and Vita desired a terraced garden. Harold planned this out and Vita added the planting

The design of Long Barn was influenced by William Robinson who Vita knew and respected. The idea of elements of formality in a garden but softened by planting being key to Robinsonian philosophy, this clearly seen at Gravetye Manor, his home. Vita also visited Munstead Wood and met Gertrude Jekyll in 1917; she went along with Edwin Lutyens and her mother. But the full influence of Jekyll, Robinson and of course Lawrence Johnston’s garden at Hidcote was not felt until Vita and Harold bought Sissinghurst. Long Barn was really the nursery for future designs and ideas. Vita and Harold were good friends with Lutyens another influence in their garden; in 1925 he designed the Dutch garden while staying at Long Barn. Apart from the raised beds nothing remains of Lutyens work on this section of the garden. 


 
The Dutch Garden today

Vita knew the type of plants that she would use at Long Barn; these were later carried through to Sissinghurst. The garden was packed full of flowering plants, Vita enjoyed roses, and climbers, and the garden was planted using many of them. Interestingly they made the first attempts at one colour designs and planted up a yellow and white border, later of course this idea was taken to Sissinghurst. Harold loved nut trees; there was a nuttery in the garden along with a small apple garden. Vita planted a line of yews which can still be seen today while Harold planted an avenue of poplars. One plant that both loved was the iris, their collection grew and grew.  

In a letter to Harold, Vita describes how the garden was looking, by this time they had been at Long Barn around nine years: ‘Your new poplar walk is alive. The wood is a blaze of primulas, anemones, tulips and irises. The turf is perfect…..The roses are beautifully pruned; the lilac is smothered in blossom. Your honeysuckle by the big room door also’.
The planting covered the house. Vita's first use of inter-planting, extending interest and flowering time.

If ever a garden can be classed as influential then that garden is Long Barn. The obvious part that it played with the subsequent development of Sissinghurst cannot be understated; it was the trial ground for ideas and developments that went on to shape people’s ideas and perceptions of the classic English garden. The idea of one colour gardens first conceived by Jekyll was experimented with at Long barn and from that probably the most famous garden, the white garden at Sissinghurst evolved. The garden at Long Barn is looked after today in a way Vita would approve of and remains true to her ethos. Even more so than Sissinghurst but that has more to do with Long Barn remaining a private family home and not having up to 200,000 visitors through its gates each year.
Long Barn opens for charity events but is not open to the public. For information contact Stephen on www.gardenhistoryexpert.co.uk