Bridge End Gardens on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Bridge End Gardens were built part on fields and previous garden on the edge of Saffron Walden and covers an area of . The area was set out as gardens from around 1828 by Atkinson Francis Gibson and his wife Elizabeth. From 1838, his son Francis Gibson – who, as a 
In 1987, the garden was listed with English Heritage. In the same year, the maze was replanted and the kitchen garden cleared. Between 2002 and 2006 the garden was restored back to the 1870 plan.
The kitchen garden reopened between 2009 and 2011, and in 2015 introduced a visitors centre with toilets, designed to look like a converted toolshed. Most non-native plant additions would have been in the UK by the time of Francis Gibson's death in 1858.
Bridge End Gardens on waymarking.com
{{Authority control 1902 establishments in England Saffron Walden Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Essex Mazes in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Uttlesford
Bridge End Gardens is a group of linked ornamental gardens in
. They are located off Castle Street, close to the Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...
, Essex, England. The gardens are listed Grade II* on the Register of Parks and Gardens #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England
{{R from move ...
{{R from move ...Fry Art Gallery
The Fry Art Gallery is an art gallery in Saffron Walden, Essex. Recognised as an Accredited Museum by Arts Council England, it displays work by artists of national significance who lived or worked in North West Essex during the twentieth centu ...
. Features include a maze
A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...
.
History and restoration
Bridge End Gardens were built part on fields and previous garden on the edge of Saffron Walden and covers an area of . The area was set out as gardens from around 1828 by Atkinson Francis Gibson and his wife Elizabeth. From 1838, his son Francis Gibson – who, as a Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
, was interested in horticulture and had also completed a garden design for his sister – began creating a new garden with the help of a local nurseryman William Chater (breeder of Chater Hollyhocks
''Alcea'' is a genus of over 80 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, commonly known as the hollyhocks. They are native to Asia and Europe. The single species of hollyhock from the Americas, the streambank wild hollyhock, ...
).Buchan, U. (January 2019). Garden of friends. ''RHS: The Garden'', ''144''(1), 30–34. Gibson considered the Dutch garden
Dutch garden refers firstly to gardens in the Netherlands, but also, mainly in the English-speaking countries, to various types of gardens traditionally considered to be in a Dutch style, a presumption that has been much disputed by garden historia ...
to be of utmost importance, and as such should be visible to visitors as they enter. The hedge maze (based upon the layout of the maze at Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...
) was planted around 1870, and restored in 1984 with 11,000 yew seedlings, by which stage the garden was under the management of a local agent and was used as a venue for shows by the Saffron Walden horticultural society.
The site opened to the public in 1902 and the borough council took over responsibility for its management from 1918, designating it as a 'public pleasure ground'.
In 1987, the garden was listed with English Heritage. In the same year, the maze was replanted and the kitchen garden cleared. Between 2002 and 2006 the garden was restored back to the 1870 plan.
The kitchen garden reopened between 2009 and 2011, and in 2015 introduced a visitors centre with toilets, designed to look like a converted toolshed. Most non-native plant additions would have been in the UK by the time of Francis Gibson's death in 1858.
Maze festival
Bridge End Gardens has participated in the Maze Festival, which marks the town of Saffron Walden's three mazes. There is an historic turf labyrinth maze on the common and another in the town's Jubilee Gardens. It also holds 'The 3 Maze Challenge', an event founded by William Stanley. The first maze festival took place in 2011.References
External links
Bridge End Gardens on waymarking.com
{{Authority control 1902 establishments in England Saffron Walden Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Essex Mazes in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Uttlesford