Introduction
Features of Boxworth Manor include a maze, a vegetable garden and lawns.
The gardens created in the late-19th century were based on those at the family home at Diddington, and Mr. Petfield, Head Gardener at Diddington, planned the work. By 1882, this was a small farmhouse garden and was enlarged eightfold and laid out by the head gardener.
In 1902 the elder Thornhill planted a copy of the maze at Hatfield House south of the Huntingdon Road near the spinney called ‘The Thicket’. By the end of 1914, the maze was overgrown and eventually it was grubbed out after the Second World War.
Today the garden has fine specimen trees and herbaceous borders but many trees and shrubs were removed because of overcrowding. Immediately to the south of the road opposite is a small vegetable garden on the site of an earlier workshop, with lawns enclosed by low brick walls and piers.
- History
The Manor House is predominantly of 18th-century date but incorporates an earlier, 17th-century building. It was taken over in 1882 by Captain Edmund Henry Thornhill (d.1936) and his son Edmund Bacon Thornhill who together, created the present flower and kitchen gardens.
- Features & Designations
Features
- Herbaceous Border
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- Shrub Feature
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- Lawn
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- Maze
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- Garden Wall
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- Manor House (featured building)
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- Key Information
Type
Garden
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Domestic / Residential
Survival
Extant
Civil Parish
Boxworth
- References
Contributors
Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust