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Bath House Its History
This garden of 1.36 acres was part of the design by 21
year old architect Thomas Ellis Owen (1804-1862) for
“Anglesey ville” in 1826.
He was commissioned by Robert Cruickshank, a notable
Gosport entrepreneur (1785-1853) who wanted to create a
fashionable new watering place like Brighton.
It was an ambitious project; successful at first, but
not enough for all the buildings in his plan to be
achieved. This Ornamental Garden was laid out for a line
double Crescent but only the first half was built. Its
raised Terrace Walk commanded view’s of the Isle of
Wight and kept out the cattle that grazed between the
Garden and the sea, At its centre was a small
Neoclassical building: a curved Reading Room with Bath
Houses on each side, where warm and cold sea water baths
could be taken, often medically prescribed in those
days.
Among other notables, Jane Austen’s younger brother,
Captain Charles Austen of the Royal Navy, lived nearby
in the early 1830’s. In clement weather he would
certainly have strolled in the Garden with his visiting
sister Cassandra.
Small children could play safely here; and the elderly
and frail who were not up to the rigours of the seashore
could benefit from salty breezes in Terrace Walk, with
warmth and shelter nearby and splendid Solent views.
Now it is a public Community Garden enjoyed by everyone,
particularly those in wheelchairs and the elderly, small
children, and the visually handicapped - the latter
especially appreciate the scents of old fashioned Roses,
pinks and other flowers.
The water, supplied by the Pump House still to be seen
in St. Marks Rd. was drawn from Haslar Creek. Residents
of Crescent Rd rented keys for their use of the Garden,
which paid the gardener, Henry Cooper, who lived under
the Reading Room. (Census, 1841 and 1851). The fixed
rent of 30 shillings was not enough to meet the rise in
labour costs after WW I: in WW II’ the iron railings
were taken as scrap metal, to make munitions.
By 1949, the Garden had become a wilderness, and
Cruickshank’s great grand - daughter Pauline handed over
its control to the Borough Council, as an open space for
the enjoyment of the people of Gosport. (News. 22/6/49)
The Reading Room and Bath houses were demolished in
1950.
Crescent Gardens
Restoration
In 1989, the
Borough Council, working with the Hampshire Garden
Trust, and with funding from English Heritage and
Hampshire County Council through the Re-Generation of
Older Areas Programme, began to reclaim the Garden. The
Anthemion-headed railings were re-made. Paths were
restored and gravelled, together with the site of the
vanished Reading Room and Bath houses, the latter
identified by a local architect, Peter Hollins.
In 1991 Friends of Crescent Garden as formed by Wendy
Osborne, a local painter, who devised a central planting
based on a plan for a villa garden in the Picturesque
style by JC Loudon, in the Suburban Gardener and Villa
Companion, 1838.
Fostered and supported by the Borough Council, the
Friends grew in number, much encouraged by the Hampshire
Garden Trust and the Garden History Society. It was
decided the Garden’s Regency character should be
restored: no plants should be used that were not in this
country by 1850.
Hazel LeRougetel, an authority on Roses, advised on
these: other plants were carefully researched. Informal
curving beds flowed round the shape of the Reading Room,
making grassy bays arid inlets. Two Mediterranean
Cypresses, and climbing Roses on Reptonian iron
supports, were reminders of the vertical columns that
once echoed the pillars of the Crescent. Seats, of an
early 19th C. design and colour, recalled the social
relaxation of the Reading Room.
The Friends began planting in December 1992. They have
since contributed the smaller seats and extended the
restoration along Terrace Walk, Here was evidence of the
original largely evergreen flowery shrubberies. Only the
strongest species survived, but they showed the
influence of garden writers of the Regency period, whose
work has been studied with care during the restoration.
(W S Gilpin, H Phillips, C McIntosh and J C Loudun.)
The Garden’s Period Character
The Friends work hard to preserve the historic character
of this evocative small Regency Garden, partly because
it reflects that of the Crescent opposite, but also
because examples of Regency Gardens are comparatively
rare - and this pre-Victorian style has a natural
informality that has wide appeal to people today.
The Garden is designed to be strolled through and
enjoyed at a leisurely pace. The layout of the paths,
the placing of the benches, is as it was in the earliest
maps of the site. Plants have been carefully researched
to ensure that everything you see - trees, flowers,
shrubs and old Roses, could have been growing here by
1850. A series of Little Scenes unfold as you walk along
Terrace Walk, framed in the evergreens that form the
backbone of the ornamental shrubbery planting.
Honeysuckle and Jasmine, climbing Roses and Wisteria,
give scent and colour in their season. At the Eastern
end, a winding path leads into a small secret woodland
garden where bluebells and Foxgloves, Violets and
Primroses herald the Spring. Almost undisturbed in
Summer, wildlife has a peaceful haven here - there is a
colony of stag-beetles and sometimes Pipistrelle Bats.
At the Garden’s heart, where Patrons once read the news
of the day, and perhaps gingerly lowered themselves into
cold sea water Baths, a small Dolphin Fountain sparkles
into a pool of Portland stone. Its pattering music
enhances the scent of the old Roses - and maybe lulls
the spirits of the couple, Henry and Mary, who once
lived under the Reading Room, and tended the Garden in
the 1830s....
Crescent Gardens
Maintenance
The Garden is of
special interest in this respect, as it is the result of
a most unusual and ongoing co-operation between many
people. It is this co-operation that has made its
authentic Period character possible, and made it
especially enjoyable for so many visitors. The essential
partnership is between Gosport Borough Council and the
Friends of the Garden, who share the labour and the
funding as a continuing team effort.
Also invoiced are many Gosport children, the ‘Garden
Guardians”, who help to take care of it, for everyone.
It is interesting to think about the early days of
“Anglesey ville”, when Jane Austen’s sailor brother
Charles strolled with their sister Cassandra and his
young family down Terrace Walk. The picture shows them
as they might have looked: the figure in the foreground
is Robert Cruickshank. He is looking at the newly
planted Garden, and perhaps hoping to see the other half
of the Crescent, still only a dream, soon built
It is even more satisfying to read in the Hampshire
Telegraph, October 1829, of Captain Austen’s speech at a
Dinner at the Anglesey Arms Hotel in honour of Robert
Cruickshank: “It is no small gratification to me, to
leave those who are dear to me in a neighbourhood where
so much good and generous feeling exists.”
The goodwill and helpfulness shown by all concerned in
the resurrection of this small but significant Regency
Garden show it still exists, today.
Crescent Garden:
Regency Character
A natural look is the aim; this is not a rigorously
formal Garden, like the later regimented Victorian Parks
where a leaf out of place was a blot on an impeccable
landscape where an imposed order was imperative for any
garden of quality. The Regency flavour was more
exuberantly informal. Hard edges and immaculate geometry
came later. Leafy scenes, drifts of one colour into
another, flowing curves and trailing climbers that
imitated glades in New Forest landscapes were the
gardeners' delight before the young Queen Victoria came
to the throne, and Prince Albert made such a virtue of
order. A Regency garden flowed into the surrounding
countryside seeming part of nature itself: the Victorian
parterre garden was unnaturally regimented to impress,
contrived in the teeth of Nature.
It is important, when working in Crescent Garden, to
bear this in mind, because it influences the way many of
the tasks are carried out. A knife-like edge to the
shrubbery beds is not as good as one which is gently
blurred by slightly overhanging leaves; the grass should
run in under shrubs rather than the shrubs being cut
back and contained inside a clearly defined bed. Pruning
and shaping should aim at a natural effect, and so
should the way plants are placed and supported.
Whether a volunteer is tending one section, giving
occasional general help, or lending a hand with a
specific project, it's important for them to see the
Garden as a whole, as a place to be, that offers
tranquillity and pleasure to those who stroll through
it. It is designed for strollers: as they walk along
Terrace Walk, small scenes unfold through strategic gaps
in the planting frame items of interest: an iron flower
basket full of Roses, Tulips or Geraniums in season, a
small bench with something scented growing near it: the
sparkle and sound of water in the central part.
Historically, the centre was the site of a
since-demolished Reading Room and two Bath houses, where
salt water baths were taken, often on medical advice. As
well as being an ornamental Garden for the double
Crescent originally planned, it was a place where
convalescents, the elderly and the very young could take
exercise and the sea air sheltered from rigours they
would face on the seashore itself. The Reading Room gave
the whole a social dimension, now echoed in the larger
benches on its site, given by HCC when the Friends were
first founded. It is satisfying to consider how the
intention of the architect (Thomas Ellis Owen) has been
revived and the same sections of the community benefit
from his design today, though on a wider scale. Small
children can still play protected from the road by the
restored railings, and the frail have a sheltered Walk;
the disabled have access, and the visually handicapped
can enjoy wonderful scents, especially in early Summer.
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For
two years Friends of Crescent Garden worked
hard to achieve the Green Flag Award - and a
Green Heritage Award, as a historic garden.
The Judges said the Garden had lost the
views of the Solent it was designed to have,
and we couldn't put those back - and the
Reading Room had been pulled down in 1951 -
we couldn't put that back, either.
Just round the corner, Friends of S. Mark's
Cemetery had made a wonderful
transformation. Graves were not only
carefully repaired - an Angel had an arm
transplant - but were beautifully planted,
with wild-life encouraging flowers and
trees. Many famous names came to light, all
were carefully recorded, and many visitors
came to find their ancestors.
The two groups of
Friends realised that the Garden and the
Graveyard put together showed a whole
picture of an era in Gosport's history, and
so Gosport B. council made a joint
Application this year for that Heritage
Award.
So now, Gosport has one of only 21 Green
Heritage Award plaques in the country, and
we are all very proud of it. |
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