Gardens
Bank Hall is surrounded by 18 acres (7.3 ha) of gardens, parkland and an arboretum created by George Anthony Legh Keck. Bank Hall Gardens were neglected from 1980–1995 though some plants survived. Snowdrop carpets which cover much of the gardens in February were uncovered in 2001 when a small area was cleared. In 2007 the UK's Snowdrop Society visited the gardens which have attracted thousands of visitors each year. There are several varieties of daffodils, bluebells and primroses.
The oldest tree, a 550 year old yew, predates the hall, and the tallest, a wellingtonia, towers over the woodland. There are numerous coast redwoods and specimens of dawn redwood, Lebanon cedar, atlas cedar, swamp cypress, lime and magnolia.
A conservatory was built for Elizabeth Legh Keck in the 1830s. The walled garden, constructed in 1835, has a greenhouse and potting sheds on its north wall and a heated outdoor wall. The HTNW aims to restore it into a heritage garden as part of a three-phase project. A cricket field and tennis lawns were situated beyond a ha-ha and accessed via a yew tunnel.
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Famous quotes containing the word gardens:
“If I could put my woods in song,
And tell what’s there enjoyed,
All men would to my gardens throng,
And leave the cities void.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Within the memory of many of my townsmen the road near which my house stands resounded with the laugh and gossip of inhabitants, and the woods which border it were notched and dotted here and there with their little gardens and dwellings, though it was then much more shut in by the forest than now.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Have We not made the earth as a cradle
and the mountains as pegs?
And We created you in pairs,
and We appointed your sleep for a rest;
and We appointed night for a garment,
and We appointed day for a livelihood.
And We have built above you seven strong ones,
and We appointed a blazing lamp
and have sent down out of the rain-clouds water cascading
that We may bring forth thereby grain and plants,
and gardens luxuriant.”
—Qur’an, “The Tiding” 78:6-16, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)