This blog post was written based on research during the ‘Interpreting Kiplin for 400’ project, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project with thanks to National Lottery players. This post is part of a collection of posts on various themes being published during December 2024.
As a country home, Kiplin Hall had to be self-sufficient. Growing your own food was an essential task to feed the family and their staff. Sections of the Kiplin estate were set aside for food production and a team of staff dedicated to developing and tending to these gardens. Thanks to their hard work, skill, and a bit of luck with the weather, food made its way from garden fork to dinner plate.
We don’t know much about the early years of food production when the Calvert family owned the estate between 1620 and 1722. They did not live at Kiplin for any extended periods of time, so it is unlikely that they developed the working gardens extensively.
Christopher Crowe made many changes to Kiplin and invested heavily in the estate.
It was when the Crowe family came to Kiplin in 1722 that the grounds and gardens were developed into a working estate to supply the Hall. Christopher Crowe the Elder (1682 – 1749) bought land surrounding the Hall, developing the parkland and increasing the growing power of the estate. At some point following his purchase of the hall, the walled garden was built. The walled garden provided a sheltered location to grow fruits and vegetables.
When Kiplin Hall passed to his son, Christopher Crowe the Younger (1716 – 1776), the estate continued to grow. He purchased property in nearby Bolton-on-Swale and Scorton1. Christopher Crowe the Younger was an agriculturalist, with several records surviving showing his interest. These includes a seed list from 1770, which may have been for produce planted in the Walled Garden at Kiplin Hall. The list includes purple broccoli, sweet marjoram, and prickly cucumber2.
Crowe’s agricultural prowess caught the eye of writer Arthur Young. In 1768, Young visited Christopher Crowe the Younger to discover more about his innovative farming methods. A record of the visit is found in Young’s book, A Six Months Tour through the North of England, published in 1770. The book specifically mentions success of the cabbages and turnips grown at Kiplin, commenting that cabbage growing is done “with great spirit and no less success.” 3 Vegetables like cabbages, turnips and potatoes were important food for feeding the family and staff at Kiplin, as well as some of the farm animals.
This interest in agriculture was potentially shared by Christopher Crowe the Younger’s brother, George Crowe (1719 – 1782). George Crowe inherited Kiplin Hall and the estate from his brother in 1776. In the collection of library books at Kiplin, there is A Treatise on the culture of the Pineapple and the Management of the Hot-House by William Speechly (published in 1779) and signed in the front cover “Geo. Crowe”. We do not know whether there was a hot-house (or glass house) at Kiplin Hall at this time. However, we do know that later residents did grow pineapples at Kiplin Hall.
While we have these snapshots of how food was being grown on the estate during the Crowes’ ownership (1722 – 1818), they do not provide much insight into the people who worked in the gardens every day. However, there is more information available about the gardeners from when the Carpenter family owned Kiplin Hall (1818 – 1904). Census records, account books and diaries tell us that three to six gardeners lived on-site during this time, and there would have been daily workers who came in from local villages too.4 This team was overseen by the Head Gardener, who had responsibility for all the gardens. Several of Kiplin’s head gardeners worked here for significant periods of time, working their way up the garden ranks. David Davies was a gardener at Kiplin for many years, appearing in records from 1845 until 1861.5 Nathan Fawell worked at Kiplin from at least 1881 and was so much part of the Kiplin community that in 1904 he was a pall bearer at Walter Carpenter’s funeral.
In the 1840s, David Davies had an annual wage of £40.6 Accounts from the 1860s show that garden staff’s wages were also supplemented by an allowance of potatoes. 7 It was not uncommon for wages to be supplemented with food or beverages like milk and small beer, especially for those staff members who did not live in the service wing where meals were provided.8
Volunteer Gardeners working in the walled garden today
The gardeners did most of their tasks by hand or using mechanical tools. Produce needed tending in the walled garden alongside keeping the pleasure gardens neat and tidy for the family to enjoy. Prior to the invention of the lawn mower in the 1830s, formal lawns were cut with a scythe, taking time and skill.9 Alongside maintaining the gardens, the fires for the glass houses needed fuelling. Coal needed to be shovelled into the boiler at all times of day and night to maintain the temperatures needed to grow tropical fruits in the glass houses.
Gardening was skilled job. Kiplin’s gardeners shared their knowledge, publishing articles in national magazines. Head Gardener J.B. Whiting wrote several articles to The Gardener’s Magazine between 1835 and 1840 on subjects such as pear trees and growing grapes at Kiplin.10 In 1841, William Elliot wrote to The Gardeners’ Chronicle about the variety of primroses at Kiplin.11 Kiplin’s gardeners were contributing to national conversations, using that high level of knowledge to develop Kiplin’s gardens to a high standard.
These high standards are also evidenced by prizes won at shows for their horticultural skills. A newspaper report from 1849 states that David Davies of Kiplin “sent two bunches of Black Homburgh Grapes, beautifully grown, but not up to the mark in point of colour, and somewhat injured by the conveyance. One of the bunches which weighed 4lbs was awarded a Banksian medal.” 12
(Published Dec 2024)
Find out more about the ‘Interpreting Kiplin 400’ Project during our Open Days on 13th, 14th and 15th December 2024. BOOK HERE
