Throwback Thursday: Transporting Trees For The Italian Garden

Throwback Thursday
July 25 2019 | History

 Throwback Thursday

This Throwback Thursday photograph dates to 1907 and shows a team of ten men and four horses transporting a Scots Pine from Ashdown Forest to Hever’s Italian Garden. The planting of the Italian Gardens and preparation of the surrounding pleasure grounds were carried out by Cheal’s of Crawley.

The construction of the Italian Gardens was an operation entailing tremendous movement of soil by great steam diggers and a network of railways to make up the new features and contours, also removal and installation with derricks, winches and rollers of many tons of rock to give a natural appearance, and selective planting of shrubs and trees. Some of the existing trees had to be raised from where they stood and lifted on to higher ground. Others were removed from Cowden Common or Ashdown Forest and hauled over to Hever.

See more Throwback Thursday images in our history section.