Visit to Tatton Park, House and Gardens

1st October 2004
It was a brisk Autumn day as I set out to meet fellow Minerva members for a private ‘out of hours’ tour of Tatton Park Mansion.  Driving into the estate I was lucky enough to have wonderful views of the renowned deer grazing in the park.  It was rutting season, which means that the deer and stag had been separated.  In principle at this time, you can get as close as you like to the stag without them batting an eyelash, I’m not sure I was feeling that brave! 
The Minerva Events Coordinator, Joanna, who had joined us for the day from Trust Office in London, met us outside the Mansion.  There were ten in the group which proved to be just comfortable for the tour.  Given Tatton’s location, of course Belvedere and Birkenhead were represented, but it was a delight to see members who had attended Brighton and Hove, Bath and Sydenham High School as well.  Our guide was extremely interesting and knowledgeable.  Although the house had been altered and extended several times, and to the expert each room was a different style, to me it seemed to hang together very well. 
One of the more extraordinary features of Tatton that was pointed out to us was that in the early 1800’s it had a lift but no piped water to the rooms!  The collection of paintings was extremely noteworthy, and it was the story of the paintings bought from an young unknown Italian artist in Venice, Cannelletto, which were a great surprise!  After the guided tour, one could have gone around again lingering over the exhibits, which were many and varied; I was particularly taken by the library of about 12,000 titles, one of the largest in the National Trust collection.
The visit was enlivened by the local schoolchildren dressed as Victorian maids and servant boys who were scrubbing floors, making beds, baking scones and curtsied as we went past! 
The tour of the walled gardens after lunch was even more interesting than I had expected.  The gardeners have been doing a wonderful job over the past four years restoring them, and all their hard work seems, finally, to be falling into place.  The restoration is an ongoing project and although much work has been done, the ‘pineapple house’ is still a ruin, awaiting vital fundraising.  One of the many anecdotes that we were told was that it was a very important duty of the Head Gardener to present a pineapple to the head of the household and his family for Christmas day – if not his job was on the line! 
All the plants grown are those known to have existed before 1911, to try and keep them in historical context, and be true to the garden they are trying to create.  I learnt much about the way the garden was created, for instance, I didn’t know that they put fireplaces inside the walls of the walled garden to heat them up and keep the blossom free from frost.  This was of course evident when the chimney stacks were pointed out!  I also didn’t know that the slope of the ground was designed to allow the frost to escape the garden.  The gardener literally had to pull the plug and the frost would flow through the plug hole and out of the garden! The garden’s production was run with military precision and organised so as to provide a succession of fruit and vegetables for the house throughout the seasons. 
It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and a great opportunity to meet up with other Minerva Members. Several of us will meet again on the Thoresby trip next month.

Celia Bloor

Bath 1956-1964