Marle Place Feature
Article from Index Magazine
Deep in the heart of the Kentish Weald, near the village of Brenchley, lies an attractive seventeenth-century house, probably built for an ironmaster or a prosperous Jacobean lawyer. However the charm of Marle Place lies not just in the building, but in the gardens surrounding it.
The owners, Gerald and Lindel Williams, who bought the property in 1965, have created most of the garden now seen today. Theirs is a complementary partnership - Gerald plans many of the overall schemes, while Lindel brings her artistic expertise to the details. Initially the garden was a private hobby for the couple, who opened the garden once or twice a year for the National Gardens Scheme, but its increasing popularity has resulted in the gardens being opened from April to October.
The grounds are large enough to allow a variety of garden features to flow into each other without seeming rigidly segmented. Around the house are the more formal areas; Herbaceous borders filled with poppies, hostas, rudbeckias and penstemons edge a long lawn towards a yew archway. Yew hedges surround the croquet lawn and the grass tennis court. Spring bulbs mass under two magnificent Atlantic cedars, and a series of terraces drop via a fuchsia border and then a wildflower bank through pleached limes to an Italian garden, complete with formal pond. Here the natural element of the garden starts to creep in as tumbling plants such as lavender and helichrysum, chosen for their scent soften the stone. The eye is then drawn by the strong colour of a gently curving double copper beech hedge - irresistibly inviting all ages to walk between the tall sides.
There are always choices in this garden; whether to divert to the woodland paths which cross a natural stream and lead into Gerald's 10-acre wood, or pass by an enormous vine-clad, cast iron gazebo towards the Chinese-inspired bamboo collection reached across a red wooden bridge over a linear bog garden filled with primula, gunnera and zantedeschia .
In the wood itself, over 25 varieties of British deciduous trees have been planted - not directly to replace the many trees lost in the 1987 storm, but rather in a grand memory of them. Marle Place Gardens evolves rather than remaining static, so returning visitors will find new yet sympathetic ideas gradually introduced over the years. The latest is the inclusion of many oriental salads and beans in the vegetable garden, and a new knot garden where box and myrtle plants have just been planted. Gerald has links with nearby Bedgebury Pinetum and is in the first stages of planning and planting his own rather smaller arboretum!
Trees feature strongly throughout the gardens; some of the specimen varieties are a legacy from previous owners like the ancient horse chestnut at least two centuries old. Others such as a fine Gingko biloba 'pendula' bright yellow in Autumn, an Acer brilliantissimum a splash of apricot in Spring and Acer diabolicum demonstrating its apt naming by producing seeds shaped like devils' horns are just a few of over 124 species planted by the Williams.
One concession to modern accoutrements is the state-of-the-art orchid house, home to Gerald's particular passion. Electronically controlled heating and moisture, nurture these exotic, often startling and exceptionally attractive flowers - many hybrid varieties flourish, amongst them catlya, dendrobium and oncydium .
Marle Place is different to many gardens open to the public. This is not just a plantsman's delight as, placed throughout the grounds, are works of art. Lindel is herself an established artist and has invited like-minded friends to contribute sculptures and art works, as well as displaying specially bought pieces, including a full-size replica of a Chinese Terracotta Army warrior. Because many of the works are inspired by nature, they blend in - a row of plant pots, sown with grass, painted with faces and set on posts become 'Tribe' and raise a smile. A set of Gaudi-inspired mosaic steps, created painstakingly by Lindel, asks to be touched as teapot lids and china ornaments have been cleverly incorporated into the design.
The Williams' daughter, Lucy, is a talented woodworker and her garden furniture raises the humble bench to new heights with original, often whimsical carvings, and bright harmonious colours. Lucy's furniture has gained a reputation in its own right and provides her with that most enviable of things - a hobby profitable enough to be a career.
Lucy's woodworking barn is situated within the grounds as is Lindel's studio and the art gallery. Visitors are welcome to view work in progress as well as completed pieces. For those truly inspired to reach for paintbrushes, Lindel runs art courses in the garden itself, enabling artists to take home their own vision of Marle Place. A tearoom offers welcome refreshment and lucky visitors may occasionally be able to buy surplus plants.
Gerald and Lindel grow most of their own plants purely for the garden, from hand-gathered seeds and cuttings. With one fulltime and two part-time gardeners assisting them to work miracles from the unyielding heavy clay soil, their seven-day-a-week pastime is truly a labour of love.