Still down in Bedfordshire, dog sitting for Ben, and the visit to the Swiss Gardens was my second day out shooting with Helen. There will be a few parts to this report as the Garden is huge, staggeringly beautiful, and I took a lot of photo’s of it. 🙂
The History Bit
Back in the 1820’s, holidaying in the Swiss Alps was a bit of a thing, and inspired a fascination for all things Swiss. A rather well-to-do young man who happened to be the 3rd Baron of Old Warden, Lord Ongley, whose family had owned the estate since the 1960’s, was thus motivated to create the Swiss Alps in his back yard bog. Bedfordshire is flat as a pancake, so this involved a fair amount of excavations to make ponds etc, and the building up of embankments from the excavated soil, to make high points. He had the nearby river dammed to make a few ponds and a lake. As you walk around there are all sorts of follies, little buildings, beautiful shrubs and trees, none of which look very Swiss, some even look oriental, but at the those days it didn’t matter. One young visitor, Cecilia Ridley, writing to her Aunt Fanny from nearby Ampthill in September 1839, described it as “the most extraordinary garden in the world made out of a bog; full of little old summer houses on little round hills, china vases, busts, coloured lamps – in short quite a fairyland but more of a Chinese fairy than a European one”.
In 1850, Lord Ongley departed, and 20 years later Industrialist Joseph Shuttleworth bought the estate, by which time the garden had fallen into disrepair. Shuttleworth resurrected and added to it, but then along came WW2, and again the garden suffered, and by the 1970’s it was in dire need of resuscitation. Over the next 30 years bit by bit the garden has been restored and allowed to settle in and opened once more in 2014 after an 18-month restoration process funded to the tune of £2.8 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
So lets begin…
there were many invitations to rest a while,
in a loveseat perhaps
or have a tea party
or sit with dogs
or the dearly departed
or chat with a peacock
or hide away
you might want to sit and watch the ducks float by
or rather sit under a shady tree
or be watched over by an eagle
but enough with the resting, there are flowers and creatures, bridges and follies to look at, so stay tooned for the next part of the tour.
A great array of benches indeed. You had some nice Bedfordshire weather too.
All lovely shots.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Cheers Pete, yes we were happy with the weather considering how miserable it had been for our day out at Jordan’s Mill.
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What a wonderful place, Fraggle!
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It really is, if you get the chance to go there take it in a heartbeat.
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Near the Shuttleworth Collection?
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Yes, the hangars are on the other side.
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Oh, OK….I do want to go there again, must be a shade over 15 years since I was there….
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Evidently no lack of benches in the Swiss garden… Looks like a lovely place to just relax – and take photos.
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Thanks Otto, it is a fab place for photography.
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I’d have to stay for a while and sit in many places, or so it appears!
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Yes, I’ve left a few out! 🙂
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I got an especially tranquil and serene vibe from these shots.
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Good, it’s how it felt to me too! 🙂 Cheers V~man x
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I would love to visit there.
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Not sure whereabouts you are, but if it’s within travelling distance it is such a restorative place.
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I reckon it would be a fine getaway and sightseeing journey.
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Bedfordshire is very scenic, like American’s think of England from the movies. 🙂
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I can definitely see that. It has that period drama aura to it.
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And they have a collection of old airplanes at Shuttleworth too, spitfires and stuff.
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Ooh, how intriguing. I must say, you really travel and photographic some marvellous places.
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I think it’s important to see as much of the world as you can afford or have time for, even if it’s in your own county, or country. Well it is for me anyway 🙂
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Oh I totally agree, Fraggle. Life is short as they say.
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Indeed V~man, and getting shorter every day!
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It looks so peaceful… so deliciously quiet. Thanks for sharing an idyllic moment. I see your comment with the word “restorative” — that is a perfect description. Hugs.
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Thank you, I had a lovely time there, glad you like the pictures.
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Beautiful area, and so green compared to the high desert southwest, USA.
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Thats the pay off for having so much rain! 🙂 I’d love to photograph a desert though!
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Yes. You would really love the desert. There is so many different types of landscapes to photograph.
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I loved my time in USA, need a re-visit at some point, but convincing my hubby to go to a desert might be a dead end!
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We’re fairly civilized out here. We have lots of craft beer, art, music, theater, even world class opera besides the great outdoors. I believe your hubby could have high times in the high desert.
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So long as there’s scotch whisky there’s always a chance! 🙂
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Oh yes! We even have ice if he likes in on the rocks. He can even have it with green chile to add local flavor to the Scotch.
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ice de rigour, green Chile, not so much 😀
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I wasn’t acquainted with Tim at the time, but I lived in the same area. Albuquerque is, as he says “high desert”. The elevation is a mile high (even though it is not in the mountains), hence “high” desert. That lets them get all four seasons of temperature changes, even though it is still desert. With a bit of rain and snow run-off from the mountains, there is a bit of greenery. But nothing like your lovely visit in this post.
I apologize for butting in, especially if you were familiar already with the area. I just miss it a lot. 🙂
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Butt away, Albuquerque is the fabbest name, I’ve been singing it for years to a song by Prefab Sprout called The King of Rock & Roll, the refrain of which is “Hot dog, hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque”, but I’ve never been there so don’t know a thing about it. Have just followed Tim though so will no doubt know more soon!
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[…] Part 1 Part 2 […]
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You can never have enough benches – great for sitting down and inspecting your photos and cleaning your lens(es) 🙂 Nice shots.
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🙂 Cheers Steve
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[…] Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. […]
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[…] Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. […]
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[…] Fragglerockin: WiPW Alumni and annoyingly talented creative person, Fragglerockin has numerous blogs you can peruse (though I’m linking to her main). Example Post: Swiss Gardens […]
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The seats alone tell a story without words. Enjoyable post!
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Thanks!
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What amazing history and such a beautiful environment! I love that peacock! They are such beautiful creatures besides this damn peacock at a class field trip when I was young. That damn peacock chased me down trying to get me. Scared the shit out of me. I’ve always been so fascinated by peacocks and tgeir so beautiful besides that peacock he was an asshole😡 atleast he had his looks going for him! Sigh.
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I think most peacocks are assholes, unless you have a packet of cheesy biscuits with you, then they’re just fighting mean!
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I thought it was just me! Lol!🤣
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