Essex Wildlife Trust

Unknown probably to many people outside of the immediate area is Warley Place which managed by Essex Wildlife Trust.

I am not sure if i ever knew of its existence apart from where the site is open for a very short few weeks in spring to the view the vast amount of Spring Bulb Spectacular from late Feb to early/mid April. This event would bring lots of families to the gardens and with the colours of display it is not surprised. The flowers are not picked but left to go through their flowering process.

Even then it was only when i returned to the UK for a year with work that i took the opportunity to visit the site on a few days at different times of the year.

What ever time of the year there is some interest from the cold winter mornings, autumn with the colours of the leaves changing to the golden oranges and the summer months where the shade of the trees afford some protection from the sun.

It is not a large site but there is so much to see when you amble through trees or if only you wish to sit on one of the benches and read a good book.

The history of the site goes back to 1875 when the Willmott family, comprising Frederick Willmott, his wife Ellen and his two daughters Ellen Ann and Rose, moved to Warley Place in 1875. The three women were all keen gardeners, but it was Ellen Ann who really transformed the grounds into one of the most celebrated gardens in the country. Her father died in 1892 and her mother in 1898, her sister Rose having married into the Berkeley family in 1891 and moving to Spetchley Park, near Worcester, in 1897.

As well as developing the gardens in general, in 1882 the daughter Ellen, at 24 years of age, started on her new alpine garden. It was a major undertaking, involving building a ravine with a stream running along it and a special cave for her filmy ferns. The ravine and the massive rocks exist to this day, but sadly there is no sign of the original plants.

In 1894 Ellen acquired the services of a gardener from Switzerland to oversee the alpine garden. Jacob Maurer proved to be brilliant at his job and a real gentleman, and stayed there until she died forty years later. The cottage in which he lived, with his wife and nine children, was South Lodge which still stands by the entrance to Warley Place.

The house was sold and permission sought to turn it into a luxury housing estate. This was not to be and the house was demolished in 1939, the garden reverting to a wilderness. It was leased from the grandson of the 1939 purchaser to the Essex Naturalists’ Trust (later Essex Wildlife Trust) in 1977 and has gradually been brought up to its present standard as a nature reserve, but still retaining as many as possible of the features of the original garden.*