Description:The Sutherland Papers contain an enormous wealth of documents relating to Trentham Gardens. Accounts, correspondence, maps, plans and advertisements provide a fascinating insight into this famous local beauty spot from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.
Garden Historian Sue Gregory has worked with Sutherland Papers Project staff to produce these pages which examine the content and context of some of the most intriguing documents relating to the history of Trentham Gardens.
Trentham Gardens in the 1630s
In 1630 Sir Richard Leveson built a new house on the site of the original Trentham Hall in North Staffordshire. As part of his renovations, Sir Richard commissioned a garden for the new mansion. Sue Gregory describes the garden as comprising of walled enclosures containing a pool, a fountain, an orchard and dovecotes.
Accounts for the building and garden labour involved in transforming Trentham in the 1630s tell us a great deal about the gardens at this time. For example, payments in June 1633 refer to the planting of an ‘Apeltree’.
Click on the images on the left to learn more about the history of Trentham Gardens.
Contextual Information featured on pages relating to Trentham Gardens has been provided by Sue Gregory who has been instrumental in the research and selection of documents for this section. Sue has been part of the management team of Staffordshire Gardens & Parks Trust since its creation in 1992 and has over fourteen years of experience researching Trentham Gardens in the Sutherland Papers.