110. Myddleton House Gardens, 2 February 2024
And what better time to go and see them than on 2 February,
on the Feast of Candlemas, as another name for snowdrops is Candlemas
Bells.
So Martin and I escaped from our desks and went to
Myddelton House, near Enfield, renowned for its snowdrops in the gardens
created by horticulturist E A Bowles.
Now the headquarters of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, Myddelton
House was completed in 1818 and named in honour of Sir Hugh Myddelton as the
New River ran through the grounds.
Work on the River Lee Navigation had begun in 1425,
enabling grain from East Anglia to be transported to London, essential for the
brewing industry, as beer was the beverage of choice before clean drinking
water was available. In 1609 Hugh
Myddelton had the idea of constructing a canal parallel to the River Lee to
bring clean water to the City of London.
This new river initially cut through the grounds of Myddelton House
Gardens, built on the site of Elsyng Palace, one of Henry VIII’s palaces, which
housed a popular bowling green.
The New River Company (later the Metropolitan Water Board)
employed Walksmen to patrol the river’s 19 sections. They had their own keys to enable them to
enter and leave the section flowing through the Myddelton Gardens. Their duties included cutting and pulling out
the continually growing water weeds, scything the grass banks, dredging mud,
repairing leaks, removing branches and animals that had fallen in, as well as
the occasional human body. They also saw
off vandals, trespassers and illegal fishermen, as well as preventing the theft
of water. One local brewery was found to
have pipes running through the river bank and into the New River. Walksmen were armed with cudgels, in much the
same way as later policemen.
In 1859 a further New Cut was developed, meaning the river
flowing through Myddelton Gardens was bypassed.
Eventually, in 1967, this section was filled in, with spoil from
building the Victoria Line.
The original owner of the house was Henry Carrington Bowles. His ancestors, the Garnaults, were wealthy Huguenot refugees. They fled France in 1684 and invested their money in the New River Company. In 1724 Michael Garnault bought a Tudor Mansion called Bowling Green House, located in what is now the Myddelton House gardens. The last of the Garnaults, Anne, was married to Henry Carrington Bowles who demolished Bowling Green House and built what is now Myddelton House, passing it down to his great grandson E A Bowles, one of the greatest gardeners of the 20th century. Bowles maintained the house as it had been in his parents’ time, with no gas, electricity or telephone, and kept a Walksman’s cudgel by his bedside in case of intruders. Despite the house now being in public ownership, the family connection with the place has continued, with Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles OBE being the President of the E A Bowles of Myddelton House Society.
Bowles was a self-taught horticulturalist who developed a
remarkable garden, facilitated research on medicinal properties of plants which
is still carried out in the gardens, and was a local philanthropist and
educationalist. He hybridised many new
forms of plants, and was nicknamed “the Crocus King”. Certainly crocus and snowdrops were prolific
in the gardens.
Bowles was not a fan of the local water, commenting “One of
my troubles is the well-known hardness of the New River water. Derived mainly
from chalk wells, it is so hard that one feels it would be scarcely a miracle
to walk on it.”
Wandering round the grounds and learning of the history, we
felt a connection with both Myddelton and Bowles, and enjoyed the beauty of
flowers, particularly snowdrops growing wild, in the early February sun.
Entry is free, although there is a small charge for
parking. A café provides refreshments,
including light lunches. The gardens are
easily accessible, just off J25 of the M25.
It was a refreshing and rejuvenating visit.
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