Hidden 200 year-old Swiss Garden reveals its rare Regency treasures

A little-known Swiss Garden created in the heart of Bedfordshire in the early 1800s has been saved from decay thanks to a £2.8m Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant, which has funded vital restoration to its crumbling fairytale-style landscape and buildings.

Looking as though it has stepped off the pages of a European children's storybook, its quirky buildings, bridges and ornamental structures, act as focal points on a magical journey along woodland paths, through grassy glades and past tumbling water. Its makeover has transported the nine-acre garden back to its Regency appearance, when its creator, Lord Robert Henley Ongley dropped this 'alpine' landscape into its unlikely Bedfordshire setting close to Biggleswade.

Previously hidden behind the hangars of The Shuttleworth Collection aviation museum, the Swiss Garden re-opened on 31 July after its extensive makeover.

The garden's 13 listed buildings and structures - including six listed at Grade II* - have undergone careful conservation using traditional materials and techniques where possible. Its two-storey centrepiece, the Swiss Cottage, has been re-thatched using water reed from Norfolk, its finials re-gilded with 23 carat gold leaf and missing or broken rustic decoration replaced using slices of Monterey Pine cones and hazel and willow twigs. Almost 4,300 panes of glass in the Grotto and Fernery have been replaced with hand-cut handmade cylinder glass and rosette detailing replaced on the Pond Cascade Bridge.

Over 25,600 shrubs and 8,400 bulbs have been planted in 53 beds and 340 metres of path laid using 300 tones of gravel.

With the original layout of the Swiss Garden so intact, it is the best surviving Regency garden in the country - and a unique example of the 'Swiss Picturesque' style. Located close to Lord Ongley's mansion within the park that was a fraction of his 2000-plus acre Old Warden Estate, it took eight years to create and was completed in the 1820s.

It is not known if he created it after visiting Switzerland as part of a 'Grand Tour', or if he was influenced by the fashion for rustic, Swiss-style architecture popularised by the Prince Regent.

With his fortunes waning, Lord Ongley sold the estate to industrialist Joseph Shuttleworth in 1872, who set about 'improving' the garden, which was by then in decline. He re-worked some of its features, introduced new plants and created a formal terrace and broadwalk to host elaborate garden parties and pageants. These Victorian features have also been restored, including some of the artificial Pulhamite rockwork he introduced, although he retained the 'essence' of the original Regency garden, including its layout and buildings.

His grandson Richard Shuttleworth inherited the Old Warden Estate on his 23rd birthday but was killed in a flying accident in 1940 at the age of 31. Four years later his mother Dorothy Shuttleworth founded the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust as a permanent memorial to him.

After the Second World War, the garden gradually fell into a perilous state of disrepair. In 1976 a partnership was formed between the Shuttleworth Trust and Bedfordshire County Council, who took over the lease and undertook some repair and restoration work, although the Shuttleworth Trust is responsible for the garden's day-to-day management. The garden and its buildings, along with the surrounding registered landscape of Old Warden Park, were placed on the English Heritage Heritage At Risk Register. The restoration works now mean that the Trust can request English Heritage to take the garden off the register.

'Thanks to the HLF grant, we have been able to reverse the fortunes of this remarkably rare garden and with the help of local volunteers and apprentices, we aim to keep it looking pristine again. With its magical charm and lovely natural setting we expect it to become as much of a draw as the aircraft museum in the future and to be enjoyed by many thousands more than ever before as these two sides of the Shuttleworth story combine to make a great day out for both aviation and garden enthusiasts,' said Una Watts, general manager.

There is a new more prominent entrance to the Swiss Garden located beside the main visitor reception. A sculpture trail has also been added through the woodland, created by chain-saw sculptor Patrick Brown, inspired by ideas suggested by children from seven local schools based on the garden and its history.

The sculptures reflect the history of the Garden and the owners who have shaped it.

Patrick told us about his style: 

"My work is often figurative and inspired by wildlife, but the Swiss Garden commission was a great opportunity to expand my repertoire and create more abstract pieces. Working alongside the children to design the sculptures was a really enjoyable process, and their ebullient imaginations generated all sorts of ideas!

"When interpreting these, I aimed to remain true to the children's drawings while incorporating my own artistic style. I love the contrast of smooth curves with sharp, crisp lines, and the play of light as the sun catches different facets throughout the day.

"The woodland setting of the sculptures adds variations of light and shade that give the carvings different moods throughout the day, and especially between the seasons."

You can find out more about Patrick and his work at www.patrick-brown.co.uk

For more information on The Shuttleworth Collection and Swiss Garden call 01767 627927 or visit www.shuttleworth.org.