Read the text and name the stages in the history of the English garden

History of the English garden

Outstanding horticultural works of previous generations have always made way for the style of the next so finding unaltered examples of historical gardens in England is nearly impossible. But this is what makes gardens so wonderful and varied.

So where did it all begin? Did our earliest ancestors have gardens? We know very little about the gardens of Anglo-Saxon England. There are however, basic tools such as axes and sickles dating back to the Neolithic age (2,500 - 1,500 ВС) -around the time Stonehenge was built.

The earliest cultivated English gardens that we know of were planted by the Roman conquerors of Britain in the 1st century AD. During the Roman Occupation, the Roman army introduced new flora and fauna to British shores and although England's cooler climate definitely required a flexible approach, the Romans created gardens and introduced plants that are still cultivated in English soil today. The best example is probably Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex.

Latin makes up many of gardening terms, for example topiarus means topiary. Indeed, it is highly probable that the Romans introduced topiary to England.

The monastic gardening tradition arrived on English soil with the Norman conquest of 1066.

Monasteries had both kitchen gardens and herb gardens to provide the practicalities of food and medicine. The monastery cloister provided an open green space surrounded by covered walks, generally with a well, or fountain at the center.

The next stage of the English garden came after the Reformation. Many landowners enclosed common land to create parks for keeping deer or cattle. This ‘natural’ landscape gave way to formal gardens near the house, still sheltered from the outside world by hedges or walls.

The Tudors followed the Italian influence in creating gardens which mirrored the alignment of the house, creating the harmony of line and proportion that had been missing in the Medieval period.

The Victorian period also saw a profusion of public gardens and green spaces aimed at bringing culture to the masses. Some of the finest Victorian gardens are public parks, like People’s Park Halifax.

Gardening has always been a matter of personal taste. Yet, throughout Britain there are gardens great and small, formal and informal, private and public, that illustrate the British passion for creating green, growing spaces of their own. All are different, and all like their owners and creators, have a distinct personality.

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