'We may not be able to visit some of Northamptonshire's beautiful historic gardens...but we appreciate their history'

Northamptonshire has some of the most beautiful historic gardens in the kingdom, but probably this summer we will have to forgo visiting them as they are all closed until further notice.

However, at least we can appreciate some of the greatest garden designers who worked on them.

The first star name, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, was no stranger to Northamptonshire and became head gardener to the Duke of Grafton.

He lived at Euston Hall in Suffolk and at Wakefield Lodge near Towcester where, in 1750, Brown laid out the park.

He also worked at Astrop and Aynhoe (private houses, as is Wakefield) and his signature lake, bridge, graceful trees, temples and other ‘folly’ buildings can still be seen at Castle Ashby.

Humphry Repton (1752-1818) was the first to be called a landscape gardener. If you watch for ‘open days’, you can see his work at Courteenhall and Laxton Hall, both private.

However, the public right of way called Midshires Way from Harlestone Post Office to Lower Harlestone enables you to see what is left of Repton’s landscaping for Harlestone Hall, which was criminally demolished in 1940.

Cottesbrooke is a gem! The whole estate has had contributions from a succession of our greatest designers: Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, Sylvia Crowe, and the great Edwardian designer, Robert Wier Schultz. The gardens at Cottesbrooke are everything you expect from an English country house garden, and more.

Nearby Holdenby’s gardens have the feeling of history echoing many kings and queens, including King Charles I, after whom a lovely Walk is named.

The Elizabethan Garden was recreated in 1980 by the famous 20th century designer Rosemary Verey.

She carefully researched and planted it with only varieties suitable to the reign of the first Elizabeth.

I cannot leave Kelmarsh Hall out.

Here Nancy Lancaster, the American stylist and creator of ‘shabby chic’, designed a wonderland where, as well as her own plans, the work of Norah Lindsay and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe can also be seen.

You are led from ‘room’ to ‘room’ under yew arches, into sunken gardens, along walks and borders and into rose gardens. There are surprises around every corner.

Sir Reginald Blomfield is another of the architect/garden designers who, though working on a grand scale, loved the idea of looking back to the simpler ideas of past centuries.

This is clear from his work here in Northamptonshire where he worked on the gardens at Sulgrave Manor, Polebrook Hall and Apethorpe Palace.

Sir Edwin Lutyens was quite simply a genius. He worked closely with another legend, Gertrude Jekyll, but sadly the two examples of their work in Northamptonshire are hidden behind notices saying ‘private’.

Lutyens did a lot of work at Ashby St Ledgers, near Daventry. You can, naughtily, stand in the churchyard and peer over the wall of the Manor House and see his gardens (but don’t tell them I told you to).

There you will see a sunken canal, stone bridges and vast borders. He and Gertrude also laid out gardens at East Haddon Hall in 1897, but hardly anything remains now and the house is in private ownership.