Sezincote, a Mughal inspired house and gardens in the Cotswolds of England

Inside the Aviary at Sezincote

I just returned from my first trip to England.  What took me so long?.  As a designer and builder of gardens it is a kind of pilgrimage visiting gardens here.  People poured on the recommendations as to what to see, but I was going in late October so I had to find out what was open in the fall.  I've read plenty of books on English gardens, and seen a number of lectures by exemplary English gardeners.  So much of what we do as in our own gardens here in the United States has been influenced by the landscapes of these green islands.  

Outside the Tate Museum in London

As I get older I am starting to take seriously the fact that I will only be able to see so much more of the world in my lifespan and that I need to get on it if I'm going to fulfill my 1.000 places to see before I die.  I think I've spent 13 years of my life traveling abroad.  I know that the best way to live your dream is to get on it.  So I looked at Airbnb for apartments in London and found and booked a really great affordable place about a 15 minute walk from the Vauxhall Bridge on the Thames in South London.  I then contacted friends I had met in India 30 years ago, who live n Bloxham, near the town of Banbury north of Oxford.  They came to visit me in Oregon before they started a family, and I've met up with them in Tavira, Portugal and Paris over the years.  They had a week long break from work in late October so I could come stay with them at their home  So I booked a flight using miles on British Airways direct from Portland, making it a somewhat affordable adventure.  

The Tower Bridge is a busy place.

I may have walked 100 miles while I was in London.  I saw a lot of the famous sites but navigated my journeys so that I could walk through the many parks and squares in Central London.  I also took the train to Kew Gardens, which was wonderful. 

The beautiful Rock Garden at Kew

The marvelous Grass borders at Kew in full Autumn splendor. 

Inside the Waterlily House at Kew

My friends had visited most of the gardens in the region and Heather said she would be my driver for the week.  I sent her a list of places I wanted to see and we abridged it to be realistic.  This was a great luxury to have a chauffeur as the roads are often very narrow and they drive on the other side.  There are some informative websites on gardens all over Great Britian so I was able to research places I'd like to see and find out if they were open that late in the year.  One of the things that drew me to going in October was that there would be far fewer tourists.  The bonus was that it was that deciduous tress were in peak fall color.  The brilliant foliage was the star of this adventure.  This is a good example of one of the websites I used.  

https://www.greatbritishgardens.co.uk/england/category/gardens-to-visit-in-cotswolds.html

Japanese Maples at the Westonbirt National Arboretum near the town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire.

The landscape in this region is almost surreal in how quaint and picturesque it is.  Winding roads lined with stone walls and hedgerows and tunnels of old trees made for beautiful drives.  We visited several towns as well, .  

One of the wider roads in the Cotswolds

                                  Driving to Blenheim Palace with my friend Darryl in his MG.

 After my week in London I took the train from Marlybone Station to the town of Banbury where my friend Heather picked me up.  They live in the nearby village of Bloxham, in an old stone house that they have beautifully renovated.  A few years ago Heather took on a pebble mosaic project off the back of their new kitchen extension, with mostly successful results.  She ordered the pebbles from Maggie Howarth Studios, the leading design team implementing beautiful pebble mosaics in Great Britian.  Maggie and I never met in person but we did communicate, and she included several photos of my work in her definitive book, Complete Pebble Mosaic Handbook.  Sadly this immensely talented woman passed away last year.  The company is now run by her son.

Heather and her pebble mosaic panels.

During the week we visited 5 gardens and several nice towns.  The first was Hidcote, American Lawrence Johnson's famous garden, and Chastleton, which is a well preserved 400 years old estate.  Sezincote was next.  We drove to Westonbirt Arboretum for the great fall color display, and Blenheim Palace to see Capability Brown's prototype for the pastoral English garden that became a movement in English garden design.  I also spent a wonderful day exploring Oxford, and the oldest Botanic Garden in England which is located there.

A path in the walled Oxford Botanic Garden

The serendipity of Sezincote House was that it was the one on my list that had the most intrigue for me.  The intrigue was that it's design is a blend of Mughal Indian architecture and art and an English garden.  I traveled extensively in India over 6 winters several years in a row and believe it to be the most interesting country in the world.  It changed my life, and my own home and garden is clearly influenced by that.  

The architecture I saw in Rajasthan in India made a lasting impression on me.

Over 30 years ago I was on a bus from Jodhpur to Mt. Abu in Rajasthan when a couple, Heather and Darryl Brown sat behind me, and I heard her say, "What a bloody nightmare!"   We'd both survived challenging Camel Safari's out of the fabled city of Jaisalmer.  I turned to look and laughed.  Friends for life.  When  I was putting my garden list together she said that Sezincote was her favorite.  I walked out of the train station at Banbury and saw Heather standing by her car.  We just laughed for about 5 minutes.  She and her husband are skilled photographers who shoot school children's portraits and weddings for a living.

Darryl and Heather Brown in Mt. Abu, Rajasthan

I traveled extensively in Rajasthan and made three shipments of architectural stone carvings that I purchased in the city of Jodhpur to use in my garden projects in the US.  Many of the pieces were damaged in transit but I was able to piece them back together when I built this beautiful wall in my own garden.

Architectural salvage stone window frames I bought in Rajasthan built in to a wall in my garden.

We drove through the beautiful countryside on a damp day, stopping at a picturesque church and graveyard along the way.  The long drive has many fine specimens of mature oak trees.  Sezincote in a round a bout way means the Place of the Oaks.

Turning off the main road on to the property

The entrance to Sezincote Garden

It was a wet cold day when we went to Sezincote so the umbrella came in handy.  We parked by a rail fence where cattle grazed under huge Oaks and Linden Trees, which they call Limes in England.  Across the road is a ticket booth, where we paid 9 pounds entrance fee.  We only saw two other people while we were there, which was wonderful.  

Heather and her friend Jan by the road to Sezincote

Sezincote is a working farm located between the picturesque northern Cotswold towns of Moreton in Marsh and Stow on the Wold which we drove through coming and going to the gardens.  The farm is currently being converted to certified organic processes, raising a Limousin herd of cattle that are being bred with Angus cattle adapted to pasture grazing and winter grain feed.  

Cattle grazing behind a towering Oak, probably Quercus robur

A painting of Sezincote by Thomas Daniell.

The rolling landscape is pastoral and the gardens are predominantly of the English landscape style, which become more formal with a Mughal Indian influence closer to the house.  The Indian elements in the garden were designed by Thomas Daniell and the more pastoral landscapes by Humphrey Repton (1752-1818), a contemporary of Capability Brown.

The garden is entered by crossing an Indian style stone bridge designed by architect and artist Thomas Danielle, with bronze Nandi bull sculptures on the jali style railing.  Daniell spent 10 years traveling and documenting Mughal India with beautifully rendered aquatints and watercolors.  The design originally included only one Nandi Bull on each side of the bridge facing those approaching the bridge, but the owner's brother insisted on pairs of bulls facing each other.

Watercolor illustration for the design of the bridge at Sezincote, by Thomas Daniell.

A view from the bridge looking down in to the garden.

There is a beautiful view of the stream flowing from a pond with an island and column entwined with a serpent.  We will revisit this part of the garden later as we walked to the house first and then explored this area on the way back.

A small pool below the bridge with a faux bois tree trunk column entwined with a bronze serpent.

The land was originally purchased in 1795 by Samuel Pepys, who made his fortune working for the East India Company.  A dark, damp house on the property made the estate affordable, and it was in close proximity to good friends.  His ownership was short lived though as he passed away 3 years later, leaving the property to his brother Charles Cockerell.  Charles hired his brother Samuel to design the new house in the Mughal style of buildings in Rajasthan, my favorite region in India.  The Mughal dynasties, originally of Persian decent, entered India from neighboring Afghanistan and during their reign, commissioned magnificent works of architecture that blended Persian, Islamic, Rajasthani and Turkish influences.  Mughal emperors sent architects across the region to study what had been built before, creating an amalgam that represented the pinnacle of design.

Sezincote House

Samuel designed a house with Mughal details that incorporates windows surrounded in rectangular stone panels with sculpted domes over the wood framed windows, blending English architecture with interpretations of Mughal style.  Samuel had never been to India himself and relied on illustrations by the artist Thomas Daniell, who designed many of the Indian features in the gardens.  The center of the roof features a verdigris copper onion dome, with stone chhatris punctuating the corners.  The stone was quarried locally and may have been stained to give the golden Cotswold sandstone a white appearance more traditional to marble clad Mughal structures.  Construction of the house was completed in 1813.

The railings, painted turquoise are in the style of Jalis, which in India are carved stone screens.

From what I have read, this is the only Mughal style residential building in the United Kingdom.  There is a classic Indian made Hindustan Ambassador car with an ornately decorated interior parked in front, along with a Tuk Tuk.

Hindustan Ambassador Car

The embroidered interior of the car, perhaps decorated for a wedding.

There was a nice seasonal display of pumpkins arranged by the front entrance of the house.

A kiosk called the Tent Room, matching the Aviary at the end of the Orangery balances the architecture of the houses wings.

Pumpkins and a turquoise jali screen with a Cambridge style teak bench.

The interior of the house unfortunately does not continue the Mughal theme of decor, but is a typical English manor in the Neoclassical style.  It isn't open in the fall so I took this photo looking through the front door windows.

The interior of the house is Neoclassical, without Mughal decor elements.

There are wings on both sides of the main house, the most interesting being the Orangery.  It is a stunning long structure built in to the hillside with a curved shape.  The facade is a series of Peacock tail inspired windows with a long narrow interior draped in vines.  Potted citrus would have been housed here during the winter months, providing Vitamin C rich fruit for the household.  

The curving Orangery with it's Peacock tail doors.

At the end of the Orangery is an elegant Aviary structure for keeping birds.  I would be spending most of my indoor time in this lovely light filled structure if I lived here.  One of the caretakers was having his lunch there when we went inside.  There is an identicle structure to the Aviary at the end of the opposite wing to provide visual balance and harmony.

The Aviary and Orangery.

The interior of the Orangery, illuminated at night with Moroccan style lanterns.

A carved folding screen and arch framing a niche in the Orangery.

A sculpted ornament depicting the Hindu God Shiva sitting on an elephant in the Aviary.

Vines cover the walls of the Orangery, with Autumn blooming bulbs planted in the narrow bed at the base

A door in the Aviary.

Lovely steps flanked by Marble Brahmin bulls leading from the Orangery to the Mughal Garden.

The Orangery would have also made a wonderful space to host parties.  A low terrace following the curve of the structure steps down to a lawn and Mughal inspired garden with yews punctuating the formal paths leading to a fountain and a long narrow pool centered on this side of the house.

Charles Cockerell passed away in 1837, and the property lapsed in to a period of decline under the management of his heirs due to a depression in the agriculture industry.  Bankruptcy forced the family to sell the estate, which took 5 years due to the eclectic design of the house.  An industrialist from Lancaster named James Dugdale purchased Sezincote, and his son Arthur occupied the house with his family from 1884 to 1943.  Over that time the house fell in to considerable disrepair and after his death it again went up for sale with the possibility of demolition.  

Sezincote and the Mughal Garden in the 1930's, before the long narrow pool and yews were added.

Fortunately the property was purchased by a wealthy banker by the name of Sir Cyril Kleinwort and his wife Lady Elizabeth.  The house underwent a full restoration, which included uncovering the dome and revealing the warm color of the stone.  

The Mughal Garden with the addition of the long axial pool.

The Persian garden has two intersecting paths that make the form of a classic Chahar Bagh, a four quartered paradise garden.  A octagonal fountain anchors the intersection of the paths.  The evenly spaced yews are a columnar detail found in gardens like that of the Taj Mahal.  This area was modified after Lady Kleinwort traveled to India, coming home inspired by what she saw.

Clipped Yews punctuate the paths leading to the central fountain.

A long narrow pool, sort of a wide rill, runs down the center of the path connecting the fountain to the house, framed by cut stone panels.  

The Mughal Garden viewed from the hill.

Two lifelike bronze Elephants face each other at the end of the central axis.  Chicken wire panels have been placed over the long pools to protect them.  Perhaps people were falling in?

We climbed the steps and hill for a beautiful view of the landscape and some spectacular specimen trees, including the largest Persian Ironwood (Parrotia persica) I have ever seen, which was in full Autumnal splendor.

A massive specimen of Parrotia persica

Cryptomeria japonica, the Japanese Temple Pine.

 

Pastoral views in the English landscape style.

The sloped lawns are dotted with huge trees and some classical ornaments, like a nicely planted urn set on a plyth.  

Heucheras planted in the Dionysus Urn.

An architectural grotto folly is built in to the slope with a Rajasthani maze sculpture inside similar to one I saw at the palace of the Maharaja of Alwar in India.

A grotto.

A carved stone maze set in a grotto.

A water maze I photographed many years ago at the Palace of the Maharaja of Alwar in Rajasthan.

The path leads through a gate and up steep steps to a more contemporary Tennis Court with a handsome pavilion to retreat to if it rains.  This was built in 1961 by the owners at that time, Sir Cyril and Betty Kleinwort.  Lady Kleinwort hired the esteemed garden designer Graham Stewart Thomas to consult on improvements.

The tennis court is terraced in to the hillside.

The Tennis Pavilion sits elegantly above the less elegant Tennis Court

Tennis rackets inside the Pavilion.  One seems to have been smooshed during a memorable match.

I tend to be lured through gates and around bends, even when you're not supposed to.  Sezincote is a working farm and there are some handsome buildings where care takers live, with workshops and garages and barns.  The fall colors were so brilliant and nobody was around.  

A gate leading to further discoveries.

Mercury

Up the drive were some handsome buildings with some beautiful gardens tucked away in courtyards.  

Entrance to the Head Gardener's Quarters.

The Head Gardener's Quarters.

Alas we were discovered by a groundskeeper (possibly the Head Gardener) who said the area we were in is off limits to the public because in that area we are not covered by insurance.  Interesting.  So we made our way back to the house, enjoying some wonderful views along the way. 

Rosa rugosa in fall color with lots of hips, complimenting the golden Cotswold stone.

The Old Dairy

A long border wall separates the Old Dairy and an orchard from the gardens leading back to the house.

I was grateful to have been able to see this part of the garden.  

The driveway leading to the farm buildings.

A hornbeam hedge clipped in a scalloped shape frames the copper dome on the house.

Parrotia persica and Cryptomeria japonica

Walking back towards the house, there are wonderful views of the pastoral landscape that may have been designed by Humphrey Repton.  Repton came in to garden design later in life after failing at professions suited to his father's ambitions.  He is considered the last of the great landscape designers of the 18th Century.  Known for his watercolors and overlays he used to present his ideas, demonstrated before and after views.  He worked on about 400 commissions in his lifetime, but left the construction of his designs to his clients, so many were never conceived.  He authored 3 books on garden design and has had a lasting influence on English estate gardens to this day.

A classic Ha Ha ditch and wall keeps grazing animals out of the gardens while creating a seem less view over the pastoral landscape.

In a French documentary I watched about Sezincote, the current heir and head of the estate, Edward Peake said that he would eventually like the fences to be removed and replaced by Ha Ha's so that the landscape would look continuous.  His wife Camilla is actively involved in developing the gardens as well.  Its a pleasure to be able to share the experience of their estate with them.

Being an old garden, there are many magnificent specimens of trees.

A classic English landscape, with Cedar of Lebanon, Limes, Oaks, and brilliant red Maples.

A road winds its way down in to the valley.

Heading back to the house.

We headed back to the house because we had passed over but not explored what is probably the most important part of the garden, the stream that runs under the bridge.  

A sundial anchors the path leading to the Aviary.

Passing the house we walked along the North Lawn, past the Tent Room, another folly with Peacock tail windows that has tent like draperies inside mimicking a Mughal Indian tent.

The North Lawn

The Tent Room, draped in orange red grape leaves.

The bridge that we crossed coming in is hidden by the railings.  Underneath is a wonderful Hindu style set of stone columns that the stream flows under.  Climbing down an intimate set of steps, the architecture of this lovely space is revealed.  

The Indian Bridge and a bronze serpent wrapped around a petrified wood tree trunk.

Seen from below it has the look of a temple, with the pair of Nandi bulls facing each other on the railing.  The stream that flows under the bridge emerges from a spring by a circular pool with a fountain at the center.  The fountain is modeled after a Shiva lingam, an abstract form that represents the infinite cosmic energy of Lord Shiva and the melding of the masculine and feminine, with a phallic pillar standing on a yoni base.  Below the pool is a part of the garden called the Thornery.  Lady Kleinwort and Graham Stewart filled this area with a wonderful selection of exotic plants.  

A view of the pool and bridge from behind the Surya Temple, designed by Thomas Daniell.

There is a grotto built in to the hillside above, and a small stepped stone temple with a statue of the Hindu Sun God Surya.  Sezincote was oriented to face the rising sun and the Temple to Surya has this same orientation.  

Illustration by Thomas Daniell, Temple, Fountain and Cave, Sezincote, 1819

The fountain has a dome the shape of an ancient Shiva Lingam 

The Hindu God of the Sun, Surya, facing East

The spring fed pool from the steps of the Surya Temple

Rustic stone niches set in a curved terrace the surround the wide steps leading to the pool.  Giant clam shells were probably added in the 1960's when the garden was modified and restored.  Lady Kleinwort added a variety of exotic plants to enhance the Thornery once it was cleared of overgrowth.  There are Trachycarpus palms and fragrant Eleagnus, and 

Giant Clam Shells set in the niches in the wall above the pool.

Walking back to the bridge, you can pass underneath on rectangular stepping stones surrounded by flowing water.  A bench sits in the center, a magical place to contemplate of sights and sounds surrounding you, while the main access road passes overhead.

Heather in repose beneath the bridge on a stone bench accessed by rectangular stepping stones surrounded by water.

The stream flows through a stone lined set of steps surrounded by lush plantings.

The water meanders down to another pond verdant with plants that like moist conditions, like Tibetan Primroses, Skunk Cabbage, Rogersia,  Hostas, Astilbe, and Darmera.

There was still plenty of foliage at the end of October.  

The flowers on this Rogersia turn a wonderful red in the fall.

The next pond has a wooden bridge and is surrounded by a collection of plants with unusual forms, such as a Pyramidal Nootka Cypress, and a Weeping European Beech.  Minerals in the water give it an interesting shade of aqua.  

The Island Pool

Jan and Heather on the wooden bridge.

Many of the plants, including Hardy Bananas and Japanese Fatsia create a tropical feel.

Fatsia japonica in bloom

Sorbus sargentiana with it's lovely pink fruit 

The golden fall foliage of a weeping hornbeam and a brilliant red Japanese Maple.

The stream eventually flows in to the River Evenlode which meanders at the bottom of the valley.  It's all so picturesque, a classic English landscape bejeweled with Mughal architecture.  What a wonderful day it was to explore this verdant array of sloping lawns and trees in peak Autumn glory.  The light was saturated making the colors even more radiant. 

The Elephants and I, Sezincote. 

If I have my way I'll be back in England to fill a little bit more of my bucket list.  So much to see and do. 

Thanks for reading, Jeffrey 

Another view of that magnificent Parrotia.