Capel Manor Gardens
Photo: Acabashi / CC BY-SA 4.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden at Capel Manor Gardens is a specialist Japanese-style show garden within the horticultural college’s public garden estate in Enfield. Capel Manor describes it as a tranquil garden organised around the balance between in and yo, the Japanese equivalents of yin and yang, with different areas representing aspects of Japanese culture.
History
Capel Manor College has been a centre for horticultural education since 1968, and its Enfield campus includes a large public garden estate used for display, teaching and visitor engagement. The Japanese Garden belongs to this educational and demonstration-garden context rather than to a historic estate-garden layer. Capel Manor College states that the Japanese Garden was originally developed in 1989 and created in 1990. The Japanese Garden Society records the garden’s date of construction as 1991 and its date of restoration as 2015.
The garden has since been substantially developed and maintained by specialist gardener David Tweddle, who was given responsibility for redeveloping the garden and later trained in Japan with Ueyakato Landscape in Kyoto. Capel Manor’s 2021 profile explains that Tweddle used this training to evolve the garden into a more modern Japanese-style design and to train students and volunteers in Japanese garden maintenance techniques.
A later rejuvenation project, led by Howard and the Build a Japanese Garden team with Capel Manor students and volunteers, rebuilt parts of the stream and pond, the front entrance, gateway and stone paths linking the different garden areas.
Design features
The garden is divided into three main areas: a Zen-style garden, a stroll-style garden and a tea-style garden. The stroll garden includes water features and stopping points, while the tea-garden area incorporates an outer roji concept, marking the transition into a more contemplative garden space. Capel Manor also notes carefully pruned acers, junipers and spring-flowering Exochorda as key plant features.
Garden elements
Bridges
Buildings
Enclosures
Waters and islands
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant Japanese garden within Capel Manor Gardens, the public visitor gardens of Capel Manor College’s Enfield campus. It remains one of the estate’s named show gardens and is accessible during normal garden opening hours.