Spier's School - The Gardens and Woodlands

The Gardens and Woodlands

The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society list Spier's as an important designed landscape.

The Earl of Eglinton's head gardener at Eglinton Castle laid out the 16.53 acres (66,900 m2) of policies (from the Latin word politus meaning embellished) and gardens. He used a variety of trees and shrubs, especially holly varieties, eventually producing a very fine setting for the school; much of the plantings remain to this day (2008). There were between 50 and 100 varieties of trees within the grounds of Spier's and they used to be labelled with their botanical names. The 1888 order for trees from Samson Nurseries survives and lists the trees ordered for the arboretum as 300 Sycamores; 300 Scotch Elm; 400 Beech; 1000 Scotch Fir (sic); 200 Austrian Pine; 200 Black Spruce; 200 Black Spruce; 50 English Elm; 200 Norway Maple; 175 Limes; 50 English Oak; 50 Turkey Oak; 75 Horse Chestnut; 50 Hornbeam; 200 Weeping Birch; 100 Rhododendron; 100 Rowans; and also Ash and Willows for the hedge.

The walled garden area, internally divided and later used for extra classroom space, was originally an orchard and Kitchen Garden; the entrance off the Terrace Walk at the old Tennis Lawns was used by the female pupils only. The path is described as a 'wheelbarrow road' and the plans for a 'Girls Garden' leading into the Girls' Court survive. The site near the Broadstone Arch with three sides formed from a yew hedge was the World War II Garden of Remembrance and now contains a labyrinth.

An order for the Kitchen Garden lists five espalier pear, six apple, one plum and two cherry varieties for the five foot high walls and twelve standard fruit trees for planting internally. In addition the Kitchen Garden conatined gooseberries, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, redcurrants and raspberries.

A 'Coronation Garden' was established here in 1953. The site was close to the tennis lawns which lay next to the school on the Geilsland Road side.

This 1953 Coronation Garden was created with the central feature of the newly discovered 'Living Fossil' tree, the Dawn Redwood. This tree is very slow growing; it was surrounded by a key shaped edged path network with other ornamental plantings. It was damaged at the top during a money raising drive to fell trees for firewood for sale.55°44.713′N 4°37.505′W / 55.745217°N 4.625083°W / 55.745217; -4.625083 (Coronation garden)

The altitude of the site is between 95 m and 100 m.

The area of woodland near the back entrance to Geilsland School is dominated by a ground layer of ivy and was known as the 'Ivy Palace' to the pupils of Spier's.

The ornamental plantings include the Laurel-leaf Holly (Ilex aquifolia laurifolia), Highclere Holly, (Ilex aquifolia Hodginsii), Horse Chestnut, Cedar of Lebanon, Yew, the large leaved Persian Ivy, (Hedera colchica), Cherry Laurel, Lime, Holly, Scot's Fir, Dawn Redwood, Ash, Monkey Puzzle, Great Leopard's-Bane (Dornicum pardalianches), Turkey Oak, Portuguese Laurel and Rhododendron ponticum.

A fine boundary wall surrounds the 16-acre (65,000 m2) site, punctuated by gates which led onto the track which ran on the field's side or onto Barrmill and Geilsland Roads respectively. This wall was extensively repaired and rebuilt by a volunteer, Derek Graham, 2010-11.

The Spier's Trust also owns 48.26 acres (195,300 m2) of grazing land adjacent to the school grounds, including the High Field of 7.25 hectares lying within the school grounds.

The locals know the Powgree as the Geilsland Burn and boys used to play a game of jumping across it from the Broadstone Bridge area down to Marshalland Bridge. The girls used to play in a small area nearby called the 'Fairy Glen.' Robert Aitken on his map of 1827 gives the name as Polgree Burn.

A small cottage near Broadstone Bridge stood near to an old mill and was called 'Crooked Dam' as marked on the 1850s OS map.