Twenty-six large trees have been delivered to Prior Park Landscape Garden in Bath, marking the start of the final phase of the dams restoration project.
Planting new trees at Prior Park Landscape Garden in Bath | Photo © National Trust
During the autumn, the gardening team and volunteers will plant some 4,000 trees, plants and shrubs to recreate the shrubberies that frame the lakes.
In November 2019, the National Trust began work to restore the historic dams that sit below the iconic Palladian Bridge and enable water to flow between the three lakes.
The middle dam had been leaking in a number of places for many years, and this was exacerbated by burrowing invasive American signal crayfish.
The lower dam was also in need of improvements to cope with extreme weather due to climate change.
Since the summer, when the construction work was completed, and the middle lake refilled with water, visitors have been able to enjoy the reflections of the Palladian Bridge and the sound of water flowing throughout the garden once again.
As the garden takes on the colours of the autumn, visitors will also be able to see the team undertaking the planting in the garden and watch as the new borders take shape.
Kate Lock, Senior Gardener on the dams project at Prior Park Landscape Garden, said: “This marks a significant moment in the dams project, to see the months of sourcing and planning coming to life and it’s wonderful to finally get our spades in the ground.
“The vision for the garden is to restore it to how it would have been in the 18th century, so care has been taken from the plants we sourced to the way in which we’ll be planting them.”
The 26 trees are a mix of tulip, beech, walnut, black locust, hawthorn, cherry, yew and field maple, and are a mixture of large semi-mature trees and smaller standard trees which will add instant shape and cover to the garden.
Over the next two months the remaining shrubs, ferns and bulbs, which were grown specifically for the project, will be delivered and planted to finish the shrubberies.
Alice Norland, Head Gardener at Prior Park, said: “The plants will breathe life into the landscape. The dams project has been ongoing for four years now and the planting starts the last phase of the project.
“After so many years, it’s very exciting to see the fruit of all the hard work.”
As Prior Park Landscape Garden is restored to how it would have once looked like in Ralph Allen’s time, care has been taken to ensure everything reflects the 18th century.
Tom Boden, National Trust General Manager at Prior Park, said: “The gardening team are excited to get underway with the final phase of this project.
“We’ve received such a positive response from visitors to the restoration of the dams and they’ll now have the chance to watch the final stage of the garden project take shape.”
The dams restoration project was funded with over £2.5 million left as a legacy bequest to the National Trust by J. L. McF. Webster for conservation work in Somerset, a number of gifts from Andrew Fletcher and other individuals and charitable trusts, community fundraising events led by Prior Park, a grant of £543,000 from DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) through the Culture Recovery Fund, administered by Historic England and through money granted by the National Trust’s central conservation fund.
In total, the project cost £4.69 million.
