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Next stage of works to re-create Kenilworth Castle’s Elizabethan garden start

On 1 October the re-creation of the lost Elizabeth garden at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire will enter one of the most important and exciting phases of the project.  Over the next three months the garden layout will be formally landscaped and sculptured whilst the placement of the main architectural features will be set out.  By the end of the year, the structure and visual appearance of the garden will have begun to emerge and take shape. The construction of the aviary, arbours and obelisks will commence at the beginning of the new year, leaving the planting to take place in the springtime before the garden will be opened to the public in the summer of 2008.
 
Over the next three months work will include:

• Establishing the contractor’s compound;
• Creating the contractor’s access in and out of the garden site;
• Setting out the positions of the main architectural features of the garden, including the aviary, arbours and obelisks;
• Laying the base for the marble fountain which had been the centre piece of the Elizabethan garden; 
• Forming the terrace, and
• Setting out, excavating and laying the base layers for the pathways.

John Watkins, Head of Gardens and Landscape at English Heritage, said:  “We are delighted that we have reached the stage at which the plans for the garden are finally beginning to be visually realised.  This is an ambitious but fascinating project that will once again place the garden at the heart of the castle site and be a true spectacle for visitors and local residents to enjoy for generations to come.”

In 2004 archaeological evidence discovered beneath the then 1970s garden suggested that an accurate reconstruction of the original Elizabethan layout created by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester for the visit of Queen Elizabeth l in 1575, was possible.  Thorough archaeological surveys also revealed the 1970s garden design was flawed and inaccurate and was in fact penetrating and disturbing the archaeological foundations.  The comprehensive excavation and intensive research that followed allowed English Heritage experts to develop an even better understanding of the original design and the arrangement of the architectural features – the fountain, arbours, obelisks and aviary – that Dudley employed to impress the Queen.

NOTE TO EDITORS

Kenilworth Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The castle and the site of the Great Mere and Pleasaunce are Grade II* on the Register of Historic Gardens and Landscapes. The castle has been in the guardianship of English Heritage and its predecessors since 1938. The freeholder is Kenilworth Town Council. The Local Planning Authority is Warwick District Council.

Images are available on the Press Association’s Picselect site on www.papicselect.com in the English Heritage folder under Kenilworth Castle.

For further press information please contact Helen Bowman at English Heritage Corporate Communications on 020 7973 3294 or at helen.bowman@english-heritage.org.uk