Georgian walled garden restored to former glory

A restored 18th Century walled garden is to be re-opened to the public this summer after a regeneration project which has taken nearly 20 years.

The Grade I listed Cusworth Hall, near Doncaster, was built between 1740 and 1744, with the garden originally designed for growing food for the house's inhabitants.

The garden has now been planted with fruit trees and flowers, while a bowling pavilion on the site has also been restored.

David Shore, parks development and conservation manager, said the project had "involved thousands of hours clearing the area - it was neglected, overgrown, full of council nursery stock trees that had been abandoned".

Mr Shore, who said he had worked on the garden alongside his team since 2007, explained: "It took about two or three years to totally clear that area and thousands of hours of work for both my team and park volunteers.

"The orchard was planted with 50 apple trees, eight pears, some plums and cherries.

"Twelve of the apple varieties are traditional Yorkshire varieties and they're all bearing lovely fruit now."

The fruit from the orchards would be available for families to pick on special days and plans were under way to introduce beehives that would create honey, he said.

Last year, the park's flower gardens were restored, including gravel paths, box hedging, and colourful herbaceous plants and roses.

Mr Shore said: "The planting is in its infancy, but there are already things flowering in there. There's lots to see."

The work has been funded by the National Lottery, the government and the council, as well as money raised by Friends of Cusworth Hall Park and the Cusworth Hall Garden Trust.

The walled garden will be open to the public for 16 open days over the summer, in a programme which started earlier this month and runs until 26 October.

Mr Shore said: "We used to open once, twice perhaps, every year, not even that sometimes.

"The flower garden generated more interest, so we opened eight times last year and this year we will open 16 times.

"Going forward, hopefully that'll just keep increasing until we can open every week. That's the grand plan."

The original Cusworth Hall was an Elizabethan manor in the village of Cusworth that dated back to the 14th Century.

In the 1740s, William Wrightson built the Cusworth Hall that exists today, creating the walled garden in the location of the original manor house.

The building and surrounding land was purchased by Doncaster Rural District Council in 1961 and underwent extensive restoration between 2002 and 2005.

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North