The Castle Howard Arboretum Trust (CHAT) is an independent charitable trust formed in June 1997 by joint agreement between Castle Howard and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
| Current Trustees:- | Professor Sir Ronald
Cooke DSc AcSS (Chairman) T R Hornsby CBE, MA, FRSA, The Hon Nicholas Howard, The Hon Simon Howard, Mrs. Philip Ingham, Lady Lennox-Boyd, Sir Richard Storey Bt CBE DL, Dr Nigel Taylor. The Trust Secretary is Duncan Peake, the Agent at Castle Howard. |
| Curator:- | The collections are curated on a visiting basis by John Simmons, OBE VMH, previous curator at Kew. The Kew Liaison Officer is Tony Kirkham, an Assistant Curator at Kew. |
| Present staff:- | The
full time members of staff are Neil Batty, Leading Collections arborist and Ken
Cherry, Grounds Arborist. The part time members of staff are Maurag Carmichael, Administrator and Joyce Kingman, Plant Records Officer. We also have a team of around 20 dedicated volunteers, who help maintain the grounds and also man the ticket office. |
The new arboretum at Castle
Howard represents one of the most exciting new developments in horticulture and
botany for the new millennium.
When planting began in 1975, the late Lord Howard and James Russell, VMH,
shared a vision to create one of the most comprehensive collections of hardy
woody plants in Europe.
Lending credence to the maxim that we plant trees not for ourselves but for
future generations, they embarked on an ambitious project that they knew they
would never see come to fruition.
Over twenty-five years later, their plant collection has inestimable value for
environmental conservation, scientific research, education and, not least, for
public enjoyment. The arboretum opened to the public for the first time as part
of the celebrations of Castle Howard's tercentenary year in 1999.
About the plant collections.
Because of the botanical
importance of the extensive collections of woody plants held in both the
arboretum and in the woodland garden in Ray Wood, a joint charitable trust has
been formed between Castle Howard and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to
safeguard the future of the collections.
These remarkable collections, comprising some 6,500 different taxa
(identifiably different types of plant) were planted from 1968, when the
valuable historic collection formed at the Sunningdale Nursery in Surrey was
transported to Ray Wood. This 40-acre area of woodland had been clear-felled
and reforested with hardwoods in 1948, but was first surveyed in 1563 and much
of the extant ground flora is characteristic of secondary ancient woodland.
In the first decades of the eighteenth century, it was a highly praised and
very early example of a woodland garden, predating the English taste for the
Picturesque by almost a generation. In 1710, it was described by Thomas Player
as “a most natural wood, cut through with winding paths and decorated with
summer houses, cascades and statuary......”
"...a fountain with a charming rock in the middle, on the top was a swan
seated in a nest of rushes, the water gushing out from every part, ...in a
green plat was Diana holding a buck by the horns..."
An almost obligatory stop
on the "Northern Tour" of English gardens, there was no doubt that
Ray Wood's natural style influenced many of the great landscape
"improvers" of the eighteenth century.
Ray Wood today boasts a wonderful collection of rhododendrons, some 500 species
and 300 important hybrids, along with many other rare shrubs and trees, among
them other members of the family Ericaceae, such as Vaccinium and Gaultheria, and considerable collections of genera such as Sorbus, Magnolia, Rosa and Acer.
Set out around the framework of serpentine pathways that is almost the only
remnant of the earlier woodland garden, the open glades are protected by a high
canopy of broad-leaved and coniferous trees, with under plantings of bamboo and
hardy shrubs providing lower level shelter from harsh winter winds. The acidic
soil is rich in humus, well drained and moisture retentive, providing perfect
conditions for a huge diversity of acid-loving plants, including a wealth of
native grasses, mosses, rushes and ferns.
The extraordinary planting design is by James Russell, VMH, (1920-1996), who
formed and gave the Sunningdale Collection to Castle Howard and who also came
to live here and curate the collections. Many of the plants are historic
importance, like the Rhododendron thomsonii, which was raised at
Sunningdale by, as it was then, the Standish & Noble Nursery, from seed of
its original introduction by Joseph Hooker (later Sir Joseph and Director of
Kew) along with other rhododendrons from West Nepal and Sikkim. Many of the
plants held are the direct, genetically identical descendants propagated
vegetatively over generations from the original introductions. Plants gathered
by many of the other great plant collectors, for example, Wilson, Farrer,
Purdom, Rock and Kingdom-Ward, are also represented here.
The success of Ray Wood encouraged Lord Howard (1920-1984) to further develop
his vision of a comprehensive arboretum and, from 1975, it was again Jim
Russell's talented plantsmanship and inspired design capabilities that was
brought to bear on the creation of the present arboretum.
While Ray Wood is notable for Jim's creation of an enclosed, cool and sheltered
microclimate on an acidic soil, the new arboretum is more open and exposed. It
covers 127 acres, running east to west along a gentle valley between sharply
drained sand hills. The valley bottom soil, in contrast, is heavy and very wet
at times and, in parts, there are natural bogs, pools and a lake, evidence of
the remarkable habitat diversity that characterises the Howardian Hills.
Jim Russell's acquisition policy always emphasising the importance and natural
variability of wild-source seed, concentrated on acquiring new plants that were
becoming available from the great resurgence in plant collecting expeditions.
Jim undertook exchanges with many other arboreta and, in 1985, was a member of
the joint RBG, Kew-Chinese Academy of Sciences expedition to Guizhou. In this
hitherto closed province of western China, with John Simmons and Hans Fliegner
from Kew, collections were made on the remote Fanjing Shan Mountain, resulting
in many new plants for the arboretum and Ray Wood.
In the arboretum, a native
flora of species-rich grassland, dotted with orchids, king cups and bog bean,
nestles beneath exotic trees gathered from around the temperate world,
providing a landscape that is unique in both style and substance.
The opening of the collections in 1999, Castle Howard's tercentenary year,
marked the Howard family's outstanding three hundred year commitment to
horticultural excellence. Though many of the plantings are, as yet, immature,
the range of plants and their development is impressive, not least for the
climate that pertains here in Yorkshire. Our new arboretum is a developing gem
that promises to become a jewel in Castle Howard's and Kew's crown and we
invite you to enjoy that most rare of opportunities to visit and observe the
progress of an infant arboretum as it blossoms to maturity in the new
millennium.
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