William Andrews Nesfield

William Andrews Nesfield (1793 - 1881) was born in Lumley Park, County Durham. In 1808, after the death of William's mother, the family moved the few miles to Brancepeth where his father became rector of St Brandon's Church. His step-mother was Marianne Mills of Willington Hall, whose nephew was the noted architect Anthony Salvin. William's younger sister in fact married Salvin.

Nesfield was educated at Durham School, then located on Palace Green, before entering the army. He fought under Wellington in Spain and at Waterloo and also served for two years in Canada. He retired in 1816 and took up a career as a painter of watercolours, particularly of waterfalls, earning the praise of John Ruskin in Modern Painters.

While still exhibiting at the Old Water Colour Society, Nesfield began work as a professional landscape architect, with the encouragement of Salvin. From 1840 until his death he was responsible, either singly or with his sons Arthur Markham and William Eden for no fewer than 259 commissions in the British Isles. His military training enabled him to design the water features which were so effective in many of his gardens.

Witley Court

The Witley Court fountain, which cost the equivalent of more than £1 million when it was created in 1853, is the triumphant centrepiece of elegant gardens designed by Nesfield, who described them as his “monster work”. It has 120 separate jets hidden amongst giant shells, sea nymphs, dolphins and a monstrous serpent. The main jet reaches up to 90 feet. Bing Crosby was keen to acquire the fountain for his Hollywood home but the monumental 20 ton block sculpture with 54 metre wide pool, which compares to the smaller Trevi Fountain in Rome and fountains at Versailles, remained in England.

The gardens and fountain were designed to reflect the immense wealth of the 1st Earl of Dudley and the grandeur of his vast Italianate mansion, which was often visited by royalty and aristocracy. Nesfield's dramatic south parterre was set against the wide spaces of the surrounding parkland and the distant wooded wild landscape.

Castle Howard

Castle Howard's South Lake was refashioned by Nesfield at the same time as he installed the Prince of Wales Fountain in the 1850s. Ten years later between the South Lake and New River Bridge, the area was formalised with the construction of the Cascade, Temple Hole Basin and the Waterfall. These features remained but fell into disrepair after the 9th Countess changed Nesfield's planting which surrounded the South Lake.

Oxon Hoath

Oxon Hoath was originally built more than 600 years ago by Sir John Culpeper, a Knight of King Henry V, as a royal park for the Kingdom's oxen and deer. Over the centuries the Oxon Hoath Estate has been the ancestral family home to eleven Knights of the Realm, many of whom enhanced both the house and the grounds in a fascinating variety of classical architectural styles.

The most recent enhancement was in 1846 when Sir William Geary commissioned the renowned French gothic revivalist architect Anthony Salvin to build the mansard dome, and the chateau tower. Sir William, son of Admiral Sir Francis Geary who was Nelson's mentor, also engaged W. A. Nesfield to create the formal gardens in the style of Capability Brown. The Oxon Hoath gardens are the only surviving unaltered parterre gardens in England today.

Kew Gardens

Three great vistas are Nesfield's indelible signature on today's Kew Gardens. In a 'goose foot' pattern radiating from the Palm House, Pagoda Vista was a handsome grassed walk some 850 m (2,800 ft) long; Syon Vista was a wide gravel-laid walk stretching 1,200 m (3,937 ft) towards the Thames; while the third, short, vista fanned from the northwest corner of the Palm House and focused on a single 18th Century cedar of Lebanon towards Kew Palace.

Pagoda Vista is lined with paired broadleaved trees with, flanking them and to their exterior, paired plantings of evergreens. Nesfield's idea of being able to both see and walk to the Pagoda along the centre line of Kew Gardens was, in fact, an inspired return to the turn of the century landscape.

Treberfydd

This Victorian mansion was built by John Loughborough Pearson for the Raikes family in 1852. The Treberfydd grounds contain the only remaining example of a Nesfield garden still tended by descendents of the patron for whom he created it. While the detailed planting of the Nesfield parterre has now been grassed over, Treberfydd contains one of the gardener's signature vistas, called The Long Walk. It can be found by standing at the gate to the kitchen gardens and looking back through a landscaped woodland to the manicured lawns of the estate.

Kinmel Hall

This Victorian mansion is the third house to be built on the site in North Wales. Designed by Nesfield's son, William Eden Nesfield, it was completed in the 1870s, and W. A. Nesfield is responsible for the adjoined 18 acres of walled gardens.

References

* Ridgway, Christopher: "William Andrews Nesfield, between Uvedal Price and Isambard Kingdom Brunel." - In: Journal of garden history, Vol. 13, 1993, pp 69-89.

* Ridgway, Christopher [Ed.] : "William Andrews Nesfield, Victorian landscape architect." Papers from the bicentenary conference, The King's Manor, York 1994. [York] 1996.

* Tooley, M [ichael] J.: "William Andrews Nesfield 1794-1881." Bicentenary exhibition, Durham University Library, 6. Aug. - 23. Sep. 1994. Witton-le-Wear 1994.

* David Raikes, owner of Treberfydd, 2007.

* http://www.kinmel-hall.co.uk/property.shtml Retrieved 30th November 2007