WWW.THEFIELD.CO.UK 139
Founded in 1673, Chelsea Physic Garden is one of
the oldest botanic gardens in the UK
I
n Brideshead Revisited,
Sebastian Flyte enjoins
Charles Ryder to come
with him to the Oxford
University Botanic Gar-
dens “to see the ivy”- saying he doesn’t know where he’d be
without the country’s oldest horticultural
resource. While few of us would be plunged
into such an existential crisis without regular
access to a botanic garden, it’s tremendously
easy to be beguiled by them – and with good
reason: it would seem that they’re actively
good for us, as well as being at the cutting
edge of scientific research.
There are roughly 60 botanical gardens in
Britain today. Oxford is the oldest, opening
in 1621, closely followed by the enchanting
four-acre Chelsea Physic Garden in 1673.
Many, though by no means all, are in urban
settings, offering visitors a moment of calm
in a green oasis. They vary hugely in terms
of shape and size and design, but although
each is different in many ways most have
a common purpose. These are beautiful
places: “One feels uplifted about the world
around them,” explains Richard Barley,
director of horticulture, learning and opera-
tions at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew,
a 362-acre site that welcomed just shy of
two million visitors last year. They have an
almost ineffable, magical appeal.
Dan Clayton Jones, the former president
of the local branch of the Welsh Historic
Gardens Trust, was responsible for the
establishment of Cowbridge Physic Garden.
He enthuses about these “enclosed spaces,
set aside from the outside world” and “the
huge appeal of having a walled garden, in
particular: you walk through a door into a
different world, one which contains the idea
of a secret garden”. Cowbridge is relatively
new, having been established in 2004 and
opened in 2008 by the Duchess of Corn-
wall. It had a specific brief: there would be
no plants that weren’t already here in 1800 –
the heyday of physic gardens. It had 150,000
visitors last year, a reflection of how much
the local community appreciates it.
This may seem a purely recreational
activity for many visitors. And that’s just fine,
according to the directors and managers of
the gardens. For while we’re strolling round,
admiring the odd Platycerium bifurcatum or
Magnolia grandiflora, we’re actually embrac-
ing the zeitgeist for taking care of our mental
health – the psychological and sociological
benefits of time spent in botanical gardens
are seemingly endless. Simon Hiscock,
director of the Oxford Botanic Garden,