W. A. Nesfield
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William Andrews Nesfield (1793 - 1881) was an English garden designer. His gardens include a "monster work" at Witley Court, the South Lake at Castle Howard, and the Pagoda Vista at Kew Gardens.
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[edit] Witley Court
The Witley Court fountain, which cost the equivalent of more than £1 million when it was created in 1853, is the triumphant centrepiece of elegant gardens designed by the great 19th century garden designer W.A.Nesfield, who described them as his “monster work”. It has 120 separate jets hidden amongst giant shells, sea nymphs, dolphins and a monstrous serpent. The main jet reaches up to 90 feet. Bing Crosby was keen to acquire the fountain for his Hollywood home but the monumental 20 ton block sculpture with 54 metre wide pool, which compares to the smaller Trevi Fountain in Rome and fountains at Versailles, remained in England.
The gardens and fountain were designed to reflect the immense wealth of the 1st Earl of Dudley and the grandeur of his vast Italianate mansion, which was often visited by royalty and aristocracy. Nesfield's dramatic south parterre was set against the wide spaces of the surrounding parkland and the distant wooded wild landscape.
[edit] Castle Howard
Castle Howard's South Lake was refashioned by W. A. Nesfield at the same time as he installed the Prince of Wales Fountain in the 1850s. Ten years later between the South Lake and New River Bridge, the area was formalised with the construction of the Cascade, Temple Hole Basin and the Waterfall. These features remained but fell into disrepair after the 9th Countess changed with W. A. Nesfield's planting which surrounded the South Lake.
[edit] Oxon Hoath
Oxon Hoath was originally built more than 600 years ago by Sir John Culpeper, a Knight of King Henry V, as a royal park for the Kingdom's oxen and deer. Over the centuries the Oxon Hoath Estate has been the ancestral family home to eleven Knights of the Realm, many of whom enhanced both the house and the grounds in a fascinating variety of classical architectural styles.
The most recent enhancement was in 1846 when Sir William Geary commissioned the renowned French gothic revivalist architect Anthony Salvin to build the mansard dome, and the chateau tower. Sir William, son of Admiral Sir Francis Geary who was Nelson's mentor, also engaged W. A. Nesfield to create the formal gardens in the style of Capability Brown. The Oxon Hoath gardens are the only surviving unaltered parterre gardens in England today.
[edit] Kew Gardens
Three great vistas are the landscape designer William Nesfield's indelible signature on today's Kew Gardens. In a 'goose foot' pattern radiating from the Palm House, Pagoda Vista was a handsome grassed walk some 850 m (2,800 ft) long; Syon Vista was a wide gravel-laid walk stretching 1,200 m (3,937 ft) towards the Thames; while the third, short, vista fanned from the northwest corner of the Palm House and focused on a single 18th Century cedar of Lebanon towards Kew Palace.
Pagoda Vista is lined with paired broadleaved trees with, flanking them and to their exterior, paired plantings of evergreens. Nesfield's idea of being able to both see and walk to the Pagoda along the centre line of Kew Gardens was, in fact, an inspired return to the turn of the century landscape.
[edit] References
- Ridgway, Christopher: William Andrews Nesfield, between Uvedal Price and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. - In: Journal of garden history, Vol. 13, 1993, pp 69-89.
- Ridgway, Christopher [Ed.]: William Andrews Nesfield, Victorian landscape architect. Papers from the bicentenary conference, The King's Manor, York 1994. [York] 1996.
- Tooley, M[ichael] J.: William Andrews Nesfield 1794-1881. Bicentenary exhibition, Durham University Library, 6. Aug. - 23. Sep. 1994. Witton-le-Wear 1994.
