Horticultural Heritage

Sir Lancelot 'Capability' Brown worked at Peper Harow in 1762-3.  He designed the estate to be surrounded by a forest belt separating parkland from agricultural land, with main views across open middle ground towards distant hills and forests, creating  a sense of the infinite.

He made good use of the tiny River Wey located at the bottom of a sloping lawn by damming and altering its course to create an important feature when viewed from the house.  The contours of the lawn were contrived with a great deal of effort on the part of many labourers who shifted enormous mounds of earth with simple wheelbarrows.

Oak, ash, beech and yew were favoured for individual plantings close to the house and Brown placed cedars and pines on prominent knolls and in important positions to emphasise the contours of the park.

Sir Lancelot 'Capability' Brown

   Capability Brown's landscaped deer park at Peper Harow 1762-3

Two surviving Cedars of Lebanon in the pleasure grounds west of the house were planted around 1738, pre-dating the construction of the present house by 30 years.  The girth of the largest is in excess of 26 feet. 

On a prominent knoll by the river a 90 feet high Cedar of Lebanon, 24 feet in girth, is 230 years old and therefore almost certainly planted by Capability Brown, as is a huge Common Oak occupying a prominent position in front of the house, next to a 19^th Century Cedar of Lebanon. 

At the fork of the drive, a Spanish Chestnut over 200 years old is also possibly an original planting.  Small clumps of yew close to the house date from the mid-18^th Century.

Close to the Carriage House and draping its foliage into the courtyard, stands a fine example of an Oriental Plane, likely to have been planted about 1840 at the request of the 5^th Viscount Midleton, George Alan Brodrick.

On the rear lawn stands a Blue Atlas Cedar of 13 feet in girth, about 120 years old and likely to have been planted by William Brodrick, 8^th Viscount Midleton who was blind for much of his life.