Brodsworth Hall: Ancient archives help bring hidden gardens at Yorkshire country house back to life

But for Dan Hale, his work at one of Yorkshire’s premier locations involves far more than simply tending to plants.

He searched ancient archives for his latest work at Brodsworth Hall, five miles from Doncaster.

The project to breathe new life into a previously hidden part of the gardens at English Heritage’s Brodsworth Hall has been completed.

Paths, walls and railings have been refreshed and a Mediterranean planting scheme in a Victorian style have rejuvenated this part of the award-winning Doncaster gardens.

Using maps from the 1880s the team discovered a missing path as well as steps which led to the top of the summer house mound.

These have been reinstated and original retaining walls rebuilt.

Just as the original family would sit and take in the vistas, visitors can do the same by climbing the stairs and enjoying views over the fern dell and target garden.

Mr Hale, Head Gardener at Brodsworth Hall, was delighted at the scheme.

He said: “We are so pleased with this fantastic restoration which now creates another key focal point in our award-winning gardens.

"Our volunteers played a huge part in getting this project done, helping with the drystone walls, painting the rails and planting.

"It’s another beautiful aspect of our already wonderful gardens to look at.”

Brodsworth Hall is often hailed as one of the most complete surviving examples of a Victorian country house in England. It is virtually unchanged since the 1860s. It was designed in the Italianate style by the obscure London architect, Philip Wilkinson, then 26 years old. He was commissioned by Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson, who inherited the estate in 1859, but the original estate was constructed in 1791 for merchant and slave owner Peter Thellusson.

It is a Grade I listed building. Peter Thellusson had come from Geneva and settled in England, becoming a director of the Bank of England.

The last resident of the house was Sylvia Grant-Dalton, wife of Captain Grant-Dalton, who fought a losing battle for 57 years against leaking roofs on the mansion and land subsidence from nearby coal mining. After her death in 1988, her daughter, Pamela Williams, gave the Hall and gardens to English Heritage in 1990.

Brodsworth Hall was requisitioned by the Army in 1940 following the outbreak of war.

It went on to house the Royal Artillery and a support corps of the Royal Signals before becoming the headquarters for General Alexander and the Northern Command.

Brodsworth Hall and Gardens is open seven days a week. English Heritage cares for over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places - from world famous prehistoric sites to grand medieval castles, from Roman forts on the edges of empire to cold war bunkers.