Please note that Birnam is a private garden and not open to the public.

SUMMARY OF HISTORIC INTEREST
A 1960s garden designed by Anthony du Gard Pasley (1929-2009). The main
features of the garden, and some of the planting from the original plans, still exist.
Du Gard Pasley visited the garden frequently and added features to the garden
during the 1990s. Recently, other features have been put in to this well cared for
garden showing how a garden can evolve to enhance an original design. It is a
private garden and not open to the public.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
Prior to 1912, the Birnam site was arable land (tithe map, OS maps). In 1912, the
East Kent Light Railway was opened, initially to support the development of the
East Kent Coalfield, then later, in 1928, the line provided some passenger
services. Woodnesborough Halt, where the steam trains stopped to be filled with
water, was located on the Birnam site (OS map 1929-1952; Kent Historic
Environment Record TR25 NE 68).

The line was closed in 1951 and soon afterwards, Mr Douglas Miller and Mr
Robert Stanford -Tuck DSO, DFC (1916-1987), a renowned fighter pilot in WW2,
purchased an area of the former railway land to start a mushroom farm. Mr and
Mrs Miller bought a rectangular plot of land to the south-west of the farm so they
could be near the business, and on this had a Colt bungalow built. They
approached the landscape architect Anthony du Gard Pasley for his advice on
the planning and planting of the garden.

Anthony du Gard Pasley was a skilled landscape designer who created private
gardens in Britain, Switzerland and Southern France. In south-east England, he
helped design and plant Pashley Manor, Parsonage Farm and Old Place Farm.
After completing his National Service, he became a paying pupil of Brenda
Colvin CBE (1897-1981), founder of the Institute of landscape Architects, and
then worked in the office that she shared with Sylvia Crowe DBE (1901-1997).
During the 1950s he became the first associate of Sylvia Crowe whose practice
worked mainly on the design of new towns, power stations and roads, and in
1958 he became a member of the Institute of Landscape Architects. In the
1960s, du Gard Pasley set up his own practice in Tunbridge Wells. He wrote two
books Summer Flowers (1977) and The English Garden School (1987). In 2013,
a book based on his lectures at the English Gardening School was published
called Garden and Landscape.

Pasley’s style, which he describes in The English Garden School, was to make
garden rooms to compliment the house and evoke a feeling of surprise and
space. He did this, affording shelter for the exposed site, at the 0.4ha rectangular
garden at Birnam. In his book, he discusses the idea of a ‘borrowed view’ and
the use of circular beds to evoke the feeling of space and to disguise the
rectangular shape of the garden. Pasley’s ongoing interest in the garden can be
seen to the south of the house where he designed a paved parterre, possibly
during the late 1960s.

In 1993 Pasley redesigned the kitchen garden to the north of the bungalow,
separating the area into two with a yew hedge. A new parterre was laid in the
area to the east behind the yew hedge, by Keith Westcar on behalf of Saunders
House Landscapes, in October 1993. During 2014, the strip of land to the north
of the garden abutting the mushroom farm was grassed over and roses and
lavender planted against the mushroom farm wall towards the east side of the
site.

Mr Miller died in 2000 and his widow, Jean, continued to run the farm until it
was no longer a viable business due to cheaper imports of mushrooms from
Eastern Europe.
The property remains in private ownership.

SITE DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Birnam is situated on the west side of Hammill Road approximately 2km east of
the village of Woodnesborough. The garden occupies a rectangular plot, 100m x
38m, and surrounds the bungalow. Hammill Road forms the east boundary of the
site, with, to the south and south-west, arable fields. To the north, the garden is
bounded by the disused mushroom farm. The west and north-west sides of the
garden are shielded by beech hedging while to the south-west there is a screen
of trees. The landform is flat and without the protection of the beech hedges the
garden would be exposed to prevailing winds. The soil is heavy clay.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The main entrance to the house and garden is situated on the east side of the
site on Hammill Road. There is also an entrance on the north-east boundary of
the garden to the former mushroom farm.

PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES
The bungalow is a timber-framed construction described as a “Colt”. William
Colt founded the factory making houses based on pre-fabricated panels, in
Bethersden, Kent in 1919 and the company continues in business. The houses
are made of wood and are meant to be well insulated, warm in winter and cool in
summer.

GARDENS
From the entrance on Hammill Road leads a wide drive with a raised flower bed
on the north side and parking spaces for cars. The bungalow stands directly in
front of the entrance. To the south of the is a paved parterre, laid out by du
Gard Pasley, probably in the later 1960s. On the parterre are six large concrete
planters surrounded by low box hedging in which lavender is planted. An
obelisk stands in the western corner, as suggested by Pasley, and the statue of
a dog has been added by the owner. The parterre is surrounded by a yew
hedge behind which, on the southern boundary of the site, is the spring garden.
Some of the original trees bordering this garden have been felled due to overcrowding.
The main body of the garden is to the west of the bungalow and can be viewed
from the conservatory. The garden beds retain the curving shapes shown on
Pasley’s original design (1964-65)which covers the eastern half of this area.
The beech hedges that were planted in the 1960s have grown up such as to
divide the garden into a series of rooms and thus to preclude an overall view of
the garden. In the west corner of the garden lies the secret garden with its
‘borrowed view’ of the fields outside the boundary of the garden, as discussed
in Pasley’s writings.

Pasley’s garden scheme of the mid 1960s included detailed planting plans.
Some of the planting from the 1960s survives including three oriental hawthorns
standing to the west of the bungalow on the far lawn. Some of the roses have
also survived from this time, growing in the bed next to the hawthorns, such as
the variety ‘buff beauty’. Many of the original shrubs can still be seen.
To the north of the bungalow lies the kitchen garden which retains the layout as
redesigned by Pasley in 1993. The circular pond is placed such that it is visible
from the kitchen window, the yew hedge behind it separating the area into two.
The parterre to the north of the hedge was landscaped by Keith Westcar on
behalf of Saunders House Landscapes, in October 1993. The area is laid with a
brick path that surrounds a triangular bed. Behind this is a raised bed and there
is a statue of a man facing the entrance to this part of the garden. Recently
(early 2010’s), the gap between the garden and the disused mushroom farm has
been grassed over and four different varieties of lavender and roses planted
against the farm wall." (1)

<1> Kent Gardens Trust, 2017, The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens: for Dover: Birnam (Unpublished document). SKE51722.