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The Park The dry-stone wall of Woodstock Park is said to have been the first park wall built in England. When the Marlboroughs took over in 1705, it was in a poor state of repair and was not rebuilt until after the first Duke's death; nor was it finished until 1729. All things considered it has lasted well, but still calls for constant maintenance, which is becoming more difficult as the number of skilled masons capable of doing the repairs is sadly decreasing. When the wall was originally rebuilt, the work was carried out by masons William Townsend of Oxford and Bartholomew Peisley junior, the son of the master mason who built the Grand Bridge – their estimate for the work was £1,196 per mile. 
The 9th Duke of Marlborough planted no fewer than 465,000 trees between 1893 and 1919 but more recently, Blenheim Park has been badly hit by freak storms, which brought down many of the trees planted in the times of the 1st and 4th Dukes; and also by Dutch elm disease which in spite of every precaution, destroyed the two main avenues on the north and east of the park. However, the present Duke has overseen twelve years of the first twenty-five years of the phased park restoration plan - this plan is cyclic and covers the next two the Northern Avenue with limes and the Eastern Avenue, renamed the Jubilee Avenue, with alternate lime and plane trees. The first of these lime trees was planted on 19th December 1976 by centuries. He has also had many thousands of parkland and commercial trees planted including the replanting of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The Formal Gardens The Formal Gardens of Blenheim Palace owe much to the 9th Duke of Marlborough who, in the 1920’s, with the help of the French landscape architect Achille Duchêne, redesigned the previously uninspirng gardens to provide the Palace with the formal majestic setting that visitors see today. From the magnificent Water Terraces, designed around the Bernini river-gods’ fountain, to the beautiful Italian Garden centering on the Mermaid Fountain designed by Waldo Story, the formal gardens of Blenheim provide a sumptuous setting, reminiscent of the grand chateaux of France and Italy. The Italian Garden The Italian Garden, with its sheltered position between the east wing and the south facing orangery, is a delight. Focusing on the Mermaid Fountain, set in the middle of patterned beds with dwarf box hedges, the garden is pleasing at all seasons and never more so than when the orange-trees are in bloom, the fountain is playing and the pink rose called Caroline Testout scents the south-east corner. 
The Water Terraces It took five years, from 1925 to 1930 for the Water Terraces to be built and involved an immense amount of thought and planning. Today, these terraces are reminiscent, on a smaller scale, of the Parterre d’Eau at Versailles. As well as the Bernini river-gods fountain on the second terrace, which as a scale model for the famous fountain in Rome's Piazza, the terraces have other unusual aspects, such as the lead sphinxes with the features of the 9th Duke's second Duchess and the caryatids carved in situ by Visseau, which support the first terrace, flanked by tiers of shells. The Arboretum The Arboretum is reached from the Sheep Walk, a southward drive that starts at the lower Water Terrace and winds on past the Temple of Diana, built for the 4th Duke by Sir William Chambers This unpretentious temple stands on a high point, commanding a view over the lake. It was here, during the summer of 1908, that Mr Winston Churchill, as he was then, proposed to Miss Clementine Hozier, who was to become Baroness Churchill, opened the restored temple on 11th April, the same year – she remembered ‘There was a bench here then …’ ‘…In 1975, the present Duke of Marlborough restored the temple, adding two plaques. Lady Churchill officially and as I sat there with Winston I watched a beetle slowly moving across the floor. "If that beetle reaches that crack," I said to myself, "and Winston hasn’t proposed, then he isn’t going to." But he did propose!’ Four Incense Cedars, each over 50 feet (15 metres) high, tower above yew and prunus. The Arboretum also contains other interesting and rare trees and shrubs, and is particularly attractive in spring, when the blossom is out and the grassy banks are covered in daffodils and bluebells. The Rose Garden The Rose Garden at Blenheim Palace is contained within a circular walk, arched over by slender hoops supporting climbing roses of a delicate pink. The central feature, a pool with a statue, is surrounded by symmetrical beds of roses in shades of red, pink and white in a delightful display of floral beauty. The Grand Cascade From the Rose Garden a walk takes the visitor past the Temple of Flora and on to the Grand Cascade. Designed by the famous ‘Capability’ Brown in the 1760s, the cascade lets the River Glyme fall from the lake to become a slow river that winds south westwards under Sir William Chamber’s New Bridge, where after a further fall in the area known as the Lince, it joins the Evenlode, a tributary of the Thames. 
England has higher falls than the Grand Cascade, but few more picturesque or, when the river is high, more lively. At the entrance to the Pleasure Gardens is a purpose built garden cafeteria. Adjacent is the Herb and Lavander Garden, with trellis walks, pergolas and separate beds of lavender and herbs. The Pleasure Gardens complex also contains the Marlborough Maze, Butterfly House and the Adventure Play Area. The Marlborough Maze The Marlborough Maze is the world’s second largest symbolic hedge maze, designed to reflect the history and architecture of the Palace. The maze covers an area of just over an acre (0.4 hectare) and has two high wooden bridges which provide perfect vantage points. Within the maze area is a model of a Woodstock street, putting greens, as well as a giant chess and draughts set. There is also a narrow gauge railway track linking the Palace to the Pleasure Gardens. A firm favourite with children and adults alike, the locomotive (Sir Winston Churchill) runs daily between the two stations - a truly fun way of reaching the Pleasure Gardens and it's FREE! The Butterfly House In the Butterfly House, exotic tropical butterflies can be seen in free flight. The special hatchery contains the pupae of many of the species, bred on site - so at Blenheim, it's possible to study the full life-cycle. More exotic butterflies can be seen, depending on the season. The Monarch from North America, the Owl butterflies of Central and South America and the Heliconius butterflies, also from Central and South America. In a special enclosure in the hatching-area can usually be seen a selection of insects, including stick insects, praying mantis, beetles and giant millipedes. The Lake and Grand Bridge When the 1st Duke of Marlborough and his architect, John Vanbrugh, surveyed Queen Anne's gift of Woodstock Park, an awkward valley carrying the Glyme stream and its tributaries left them wondering how to cross what was, essentially, a marsh! Vanbrugh saw this marsh as ornamental water crossed by the finest bridge in Europe. The Grand Bridge with arcaded superstructure and drumhead finials as planned by Vanbrugh was never completed and today, only an elevation plan survives. Everything about the bridge is extraordinary and much of it puzzling. Although it had thirty-three rooms,there is no evidence that it was ever lived in, though some of the rooms do have fireplaces and chimneys, and one large windowless chamber has been plastered and fitted with an elliptical arch as though for a theatre. Rosamund’s Well Rosamund's Well, once known as Everswell, is the oldest thing at Blenheim and by association the most romantic: the spring has never dried up and as legends die hard, many persist in proclaiming the magic properties of the water. Recent research has shown that in the 4th Duke's time, elaborate plans were made for enclosing the spring with a gothic bathing-house or for making it a memorial to Rosamund Clifford, Henry II's lover. The stream has seen Palaces rise and fall, a stream turned into a lake and it continues to trickle quietly as it has done before, as it does today and will tomorrow. The Triumphal Arch The Triumphal Arch, raised in Marlborough's honour by his widow in 1723, is now used as the chief entrance from Woodstock. Once deemed as too narrow for the height, the effect on the visitor who for the first time passes through it, to have the whole vast view suddenly burst on them, is tremendous. The Column of Victory Started five years after Marlborough's death, the Column of Victory was completed in 1730 at a cost of £3,000. The height of this Doric column, surmounted by eagles is 40 metres, including the lead statue of the Duke by the otherwise unknown craftsman, Robert Pit. 
Many designs and proposals were put forward for the monument and at one time an obelisk, standing halfway along the Great Avenue was planned but a column was decided upon and its current position at the entrance of the Great Avenue was finally chosen by the Duchess. |
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