CASE STUDY - VALENTINES PARK, ESSEX
UPM Tilhill scoops BALI Award for Valentines Park in Ilford
UPM Tilhill's Anglia office managed the soft landscaping of the 18th Century walled gardens and pleasure grounds at Valentines Park in Ilford, Essex, winning a BALI Award in the Soft Landscaping under 1hectare category in the process.
Valentines Park, situated between Gants Hill and Ilford in Essex, is the most attractive and historic open space in the London Borough of Redbridge. Dating back to the seventeenth century the 52-hectare park has been parkland since the end of the nineteenth century and reflects changing fashions in gardening style over the last 250 years.
UPM Tilhill was awarded the contract by the London Borough of Redbridge to soft landscape what English Heritage calls the 'heritage core' around Valentines Mansion, namely the Kitchen, Parterre and Rose walled Gardens and the pleasure grounds, comprising less than one hectare.
In each of the walled gardens, UPM Tilhill carried out vegetation clearance; the replacement of topsoil and eradication of pernicious weeds.
In the Rose Garden, this was followed by the precise planting of new roses, lavendulas, geraniums and clematis.
In the Kitchen Garden, beds were planted with well established perennial and herbaceous plants plus bluebell bulbs and annuals were planted as seeds.
In the Parterre Garden, trees were planted along with well established shrubs; perennials, ferns and grasses; plus tulip, lily-of-the-valley and snowdrop bulbs. In addition, existing viburnums were pruned to form vertical sided, flat topped cylinders and box hedges were both retained and carefully transplanted.
In the Pleasure Grounds adjacent to the walled gardens and surrounding Valentines Mansion, UPM Tilhill carried out vegetation clearance before grass seeding and turfing; along with the light cultivation of existing plant beds; a mix of heavy and light pruning works and tree surgery.