Surrey has a wealth of designed landscapes associated with its country houses and large estates. The landscape we see today is a product of design over several centuries and often incorporates more that one type. The basic types can be characterised under the following headings:
Medieval Deer Parks
These were already in existence in Norman times. They were used for hunting and were a mixture of trees and grassland with pollarding and coppicing of trees as key features in the landscape. Farnham Park is a good example of this.
Formal Parks
In the 17th Century more ornamental planting and building developed, approaches became grander and buildings and walls more architectural. Avenues of trees became very popular and as it moved through the 18th Century water features and woodland planting became more formalised.
Landscape Parks
In the mid 18th Century many formal parks were transformed into the English Landscape style by Lancelot “Capability” Brown. He was the leading landscape designer of his time and is known to have worked at Gatton Park in Surrey as well as Blenheim Palace, Hampton Court and Kew. These landscapes have a more naturalistic feel with trees in clumps, carefully composed views and naturalistic water features. In the late 18th Century Humphrey Repton moved to a more picturesque style scaling down some of the views and with architecture becoming more elaborate and gardens near the house more formal.
Victorian Parkland
In this era a wider variety of trees were used and often gathered in arboreta. Exotic species became popular and improvements to glasshouses and heating systems renewed interest in kitchen gardens. This was also the time when iron estate railings gave parkland a distinctive look.
Visit
Why not visit Gatton Park for yourself, alternatively Norbury Park or Polesden Lacey are well worth a visit.