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Restoring Our Woodland

Mr. Brown's Trees

This landscape was once low-lying scrubland. There were few trees to break the horizon. Capability Brown planted ‘clumps’ of trees to create a more interesting horizon. The locations of these clumps and the types of tree used were carefully planned. Notes from Brown to William criticise him for not following instructions closely enough!

Conserving Historic Woodlands

We began restoring the parkland in 1999, replanting one of Brown’s original tree clumps. 23 more have been planted since! Today, we still work to improve the health of our trees and to increase the number of species here. Slowly, Brown's vision is being revived.

Woodland Diversity

Capability Brown introduced a system of tree clumps to break up the landscape, creating a more interesting horizon.

This tree planting was painstakingly planned - but notes Brown sent to William criticise him for not following instructions closely enough! Brown was unhappy about the positioning of some of the planting, but also about the types of tree William was growing.

Today, the location and species of tree is just as much a concern. Planting lots of species is essential to provide habitats for as many animals as possible, as well as introducing variety in the landscape.

Today, we plant historic species such as common lime, ash, horse chestnut, sweet chestnut and oak. There are over 700 oak trees in the park! Where new clumps are planted, Scot's pines and larch are used as 'nursery' plants.

Hedgerows across the estate house hawthorn, blackthorn, elder, English elm, field maple, holly and apple.

In this section

English Landscape

Medieval Burton Constable

Georgian Landscape Architecture

The Whale Belt

Restoring Our Woodland