Tag Archive for: Castle

Wales’s Morlais Castle and Parkstone in Poole collect BIGGA Awards

Wales’s Morlais Castle and Parkstone in Poole collect BIGGA Awards: The British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) has revealed the winners of the BIGGA Awards 2025 at a star-studded event on the opening evening of the BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition (BTME).

During the BIGGA Celebration with Kress, hosted by Sky Sports presenter Sarah Stirk, BIGGA revealed the winners of the annual BIGGA Awards, with a previously unheralded venue in South Wales among the big winners.

Wales’s Morlais Castle and Parkstone in Poole collect BIGGA Awards

Wales’s Morlais Castle and Parkstone in Poole collect BIGGA Awards

Merthyr Tydfil venue Morlais Castle Golf Club was revealed as the winner of the Championship Greenkeeping Performance of the Year Award with Bernhard and Company. The judges selected the three-strong greenkeeping team as winners ahead of the other, more established, finalists from Woburn Golf Club and Burnham & Berrow Golf Club, due to their commitment to including the local community in the hosting of the event.

Morlais Castle was nominated following the successful hosting of the Welsh Team Championship and Head Greenkeeper Stewart Freeman collected the award alongside his wife, Tessa, who also helped with greenkeeping tasks during the championship.

Also picking up an award on the night was the greenkeeping team from Parkstone Golf Club, who was revealed as the winner of the Greenkeeping Project of the Year Award with Price Turfcare. It marks a second awards success for Grant Peters and his team, having previously won a BIGGA Award in 2020.

Parkstone’s greenkeepers overcame multiple setbacks to create an exciting opening tee shot and practice area at the Top 100 course, located on the south coast. They were chosen as winners ahead of outstanding entries from Cowdray Golf Club and Long Ashton Golf Club, with the judges praising the communication and innovation of all three nominees.

The final award of the evening was presented to Stephen Bernhard, founder of Bernhard and Company. Throughout Stephen’s distinguished career he has advocated for greenkeeper training and education, culminating in the launch of the Bernhard Academy in 2019. Through Stephen’s generosity, more than 200 BIGGA members have participated in the BIGGA Delegation to the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show and countless other greenkeepers owe their success to his support and investment in the turf management industry.

Jim Croxton, BIGGA CEO, said: “Congratulations to our outstanding BIGGA Awards winners. Their achievements extend far beyond the past year – for more than half a century in Stephen Bernhard’s case – and I’m delighted that we’re able to honour them in this way.

“To hear stories of how Stewart Freeman and everyone at Morlais Castle enlisted the local community to build a lasting legacy, or the ongoing success at Parkstone where Grant Peters continues to cement his reputation as one of our industry’s shining lights, it’s been a wonderful evening.

“My congratulations go to everyone who took part and I’d like to extend my thanks to our sponsors, Kress, Bernhard and Company and Price Turfcare, for their support of this year’s BIGGA Celebration.”

The BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition (BTME) continues until Thursday 23 January at the Harrogate Convention Centre in North Yorkshire.

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Hanley Castle property flood relief

Hanley Castle property flood relief: Worcestershire Homeowner Allan Bradford’s cottage is in the picturesque village of Hanley Castle, situated between the towns of Malvern and Upton upon Severn and near the River Severn.

The garden of his property was subject to flooding after heavy rain, with standing water remaining for as long as two or three weeks. The cause was not the river flooding as you might expect, but the grounds being situated at the end of a slope with a substrate of heavy clay soil. Grassed areas either side and close to the gates and the drive were the worst affected areas. Allan did have a pit dug and gravelled on one side and that copes to a degree, but he says it was an expensive solution. Drains outside the property were also cleared but to no avail.

Hanley Castle property flood relief

Hanley Castle property flood relief

“Then I saw the work done by Terrain Aeration on the Clarkson’s Farm programme,” says Allan, “so I decided to get a quote from them. I am in the building trade and friends who are developers couldn’t be more skeptical, saying what the clay needed was tanks installing. That would have been three times the cost of Terrain Aeration. We went ahead with them.”

The Terrain Aeration Terralift system uses a JCB road hammer and probe to bore down a metre in depth. A release of compressed air fractures the compacted soil, creating fissures. The process is repeated in intervals on a grid so the fissures are interlinked. Dried seaweed is injected as the probe withdraws and this swells with the rain to keep the fractured areas open and allow drainage.

“We had the work done,” says Allan, “and then there was no rain. We went on holiday and during this time my father stayed in the house to be woken one night by horrendous rain storms. He called me and because we have cameras on the property covering the area, we were able to watch from Thailand on our phones as the flood developed.”

Following the storms, the deluge had filled everywhere, with a nearby stream and ditches flooded and yet, in the area at the bottom of the slope injected by Terrain Aeration’s Terralift, the water had all but gone. “The two lads who came from Terrain Aeration were great,” says Allan, “and I am so pleased with the work and result I would recommend them to anyone.”

Terrain Aeration www.terrainaeration.co.uk  01449 673783

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Inveraray Castle wins Historic Houses Garden award

Inveraray Castle wins Historic Houses Garden award: This prestigious national award, presented annually since 1984, is designed to recognise the importance of some of the country’s most spectacular gardens with outstanding horticultural and public appeal. The award is voted for by members of the public who judge the gardens based on a variety of factors that contribute to their enjoyment. The announcement was made at the Historic Houses National AGM in London on Tuesday 12 November 2024.

Inveraray Castle is an eighteenth century turreted castle, seat of the Clan Campbell and home to the Dukes of Argyll. The gardens at Inveraray are home to the Duke and Duchess who have spent joyous times with family and friends over the years. They enjoy the changing of the seasons and the ability to present and share the gardens with their 85,000 guests who come to visit the castle every year.

Inveraray Castle wins Historic Houses Garden award

Inveraray Castle wins Historic Houses Garden award

The gardens have reflected the times, and each Duke has taken a keen interest in ensuring that the legacy evolves throughout the years with many different species of plantation and horticulture. The garden covers sixteen acres, of which around two acres are formal lawns and flowerbeds, the remainder being park and woodland. Extending to 180 hectares, they form one of the most important designed landscapes in Scotland.

The climate in Argyll, with its yearly average rainfall of 230cms, is ideally suited to rhododendrons and azaleas, which flower in the gardens from April to June. Conifers also grow well in the acidic soil of a high rainfall area, as can be seen by the fine specimens such as cedrus deodars, sequoiadendron wellingtonia, cryptomeria japonica, and taxus baccata. The borders on each side of the central path are known as the ‘Flag-Borders’, the paths having been laid out in the shape of Scotland’s National flag, the St. Andrew’s Cross. These borders, outstanding in the spring with beautiful Prunus ‘Ukon’ and Prunus subhirtella, are underplanted with an interesting mixture of rhododendrons, eucrypyias, various shrubs and herbaceous plants, giving interest all year round.

Ben Cowell, Director General of Historic Houses, said: “Inveraray Castle is a must-see destination for so many tourists to Scotland. We are thrilled that members and supporters have chosen to make it the 2024 Garden of the Year, and hope it encourages many more visitors to seek it out in 2025. They won’t be disappointed – the beautiful gardens are the perfect setting for Inveraray’s distinctive towers and turrets.”

Orlando Rock, Chairman, Christie’s UK, said: “I am thrilled to congratulate Inveraray Castle on being awarded the Historic Houses Garden of the Year Award. The stunning gardens, spanning 16 acres of formal lawns, flowerbeds, parkland, and woodland, are a true reflection of the timeless beauty of Inverary and the dedication of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll and their amazing gardening team. For generations, the Campbells have shaped the evolving legacy of this remarkable landscape, offering a serene and ever-changing sanctuary where family, friends, and nature come together in perfect harmony. This well-deserved recognition celebrates not only the beauty of Inverary and its gardens, but the enduring passion and vision that has shaped them over the years.”

Helen Gallagher Buchana, Visitor Experiences Manager at Inveraray Castle, said: “We are delighted that the gardens team have received this prestigious award. They work with great passion, loyalty, and dedication in all elements, creating the beautiful colours, tranquil environment, and space for our visitors to enjoy relaxation.”

Belcombe Court, in Bradford-on-Avon, is the Judges’ Choice this year. When owner Paul Weiland purchased the estate back in 1992, the gardens were in a state of disrepair. Over the next 30 years, Paul restored the gardens to its former glory with many contemporary additions that impressed judges.

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Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens: Scott MacCallum discovers that a successful garden is a key component to a successful Estate.

Kelso’s Floors Castle, in the beautifully unspoilt Scottish Borders, is a place where no two days are ever the same. If it’s a three day event on the equestrian diary; outdoor Shakespeare theatre in the summer; commercial farming; among the finest fishing and shooting to be found anywhere… or even a Michael Bublé concert, there is always something going on at Roxburghe Estate, to give it its correct title.

Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens

The grounds are stunning, stretching across a whopping 50,000 acres and including the Tweed and Teviot rivers. They also boast Floors, Scotland’s largest inhabited castle.

Also, if you listen carefully you might just hear a familiar cry and notice a rustling of the trees in the woods. The reason?

The castle featured in the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes!

It takes a lot to run such an Estate, but key to much that goes on are the spectacular gardens which provide not just a tranquil sanctuary for those lucky enough to walk among them, but fresh produce for the Duke and the Castle’s residents and guests but for sale in the Castle shop too.

For example, there is a white board in the mess room identifying all the Estate shooting parties so that he can ensure there are flowers, looking their best, in each of the guest bedrooms.

The man tasked with making sure everything is looking as good as it is edible is Head Gardener Simon McManus.

Simon runs the gardens with a team of four who look after the vegetable gardens and the show gardens including the five acre Millenium Garden, which has around two miles of edging all of
which is now cut by strimmers, a task which takes two days given favourable weather and carried out once a week. The walled old garden is another four acres, and also contains a number of glass houses.

The Millenium Garden features two miles of edging, and is cut by strimmer.

“It used to be cut by hand shears and would take five or six of us all day. With a strimmer you can do it all edging in a day, weather permitting and it’s done once a week, but that’s going some.

“The groundsman does it and he’s got a routine. So he’ll start here and hopefully get back to here within the week, and then start all over again. It doesn’t take much to knock them off – an afternoon of rain or a machine breakdown.”

Simon has been at Floors for over 20 years and Head Gardener for the last two. His fellow gardeners have arrived at the Castle, and in the horticultural industry, following careers in anything ranging from grave digging to owning a recruitment business.

“We work well as a team, which is good. On the big jobs, we just get stuck in. Like today we’re picking apples and we’re all on it,” said Mark, adding that this was something new.

“Previously, the apples just went to waste as we didn’t get any revenue for them, Now, as a new venture, a company is going to produce cider for us and we need to collect all the apples we can to provide the juice,” he explained.

Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens

It’s not just the weather that can get in the way of the smooth running of the gardens.

“Breakdowns are a real nuisance. You’ve got a job on and then the machine doesn’t start. Last week, the Kubota machine had two punctures. One step forward and one step sideways!”

They do embrace modern technology and had introduced a robot mower to the team.

“We have a Husqvarna robot mower. It does a very good job because it’s cutting it constantly, it’s not like it gets to grow two inches and then cut back. We also got a new piece of kit last year, called the Foam Stream which uses heat to destroy weeds.”

How does the work fall on an annual basis?

“September is probably the quietest month of the year – everything’s done! Over the next few months we’ll be cutting back herbaceous borders and take them right back.

Then we’ll be on with the pruning, rose pruning, apple pruning, the plums. And that’ll keep us busy. Peaches, that’s quite labour-intensive because they’re all tied in a traditional method which looks great but takes time. It’s always been done like that and it’s nice to keep it going. When you get it done just perfectly, it does look good.

“And that’ll take us right up to Christmas and beyond,” said Simon, who also conducts pruning workshops in the garden.

The Castle gardens are very popular with the many visitors who are attracted to Floors and while many are pleased and interested to see the quality of the work carried out, others can be more critical.

“Sometimes they say that we should have had X or Y harvested by that time in the year. But if we did that they’d have nothing to look at! Also with just four gardeners there is a limit to what we can do and sometimes there have to be compromises made.”

The new year starts with seed sowing.

“We’ll start with leeks and onions,and the like and that will run through sort of into May, April, March and April when we carry our propagation and more seed sowing, bedding plants, veg plants, plants for the castle,” explained Simon, who nets the herbaceous borders.

Simon’s team are experienced in years but have arrived in the world of horticulture via previous lives. For example Kate McClorey, Assistant Head Gardener and current Scottish Garden Designer of the Year worked in the world or recruitment, while Mark Baldwin was a grave digger.

Claire Nicho also had various jobs before finally arriving at the Castle.

Prior to taking over as Head Gardener, Simon used to be in sole charge of the glasshouses.

“That was my thing. All I did was the glasshouses. Now managing the garden and the glasshouses is hard going, particularly when you’re hands-on.”

His ambition when he took over his new role was to make his mark.

“I wanted to raise the standard up to the sort of next level. And the feedback we’ve had this year from the visitors is all very positive. Many saying that this is probably one of the nicest gardens that they’ve seen.“

But he is aware that without bigger budgets, a dream to all but the very few, there are compromises that have to be made.

“If I had more staff, I’d have the lawns weed free and cut with a cylinder mower so we’d get beautiful stripes.”

It’s fair to say that in the last two years Simon has earned his own stripes and is delighted to be working as such a special place as Floors Castle.

“It’s a good place to work and it’s certainly not a drudge getting out of bed in the morning to come here.”

Simon and his team are a key cog in the whole Roxburghe Estate operation and the dedication and hard work shown by them show ensure that the Estate and the iconic Floors Castle will remain as one of the country’s foremost tourist destinations.

Join Perennial for a firewalk at Hever Castle

Join Perennial for a firewalk at Hever Castle: Perennial – the charity who supports those who work in horticulture – is excited to invite you and your team to participate in a thrilling firewalk fundraiser on 18 October 2024. Set against the stunning backdrop of Hever Castle, this unforgettable experience will challenge your team’s courage and strengthen your commitment to supporting the horticultural community.

The event starts at 3:00pm, allowing participants to experience the serene beauty of Hever Castle’s grounds before facing the flames.

Join Perennial for a firewalk at Hever Castle

Join Perennial for a firewalk at Hever Castle

With expert firewalk instructors on hand to provide comprehensive training, you can be confident that your team will be fully prepared to walk across hot coals and blaze a trail for a good cause.

By registering for £25 per person, with a fundraising target of £150, your business will directly contribute to Perennial’s essential services, which include health and financial wellbeing and training and development programmes for individuals in the horticultural industry.

For over 185 years, Perennial has been a reliable safety net for horticulturists in need. They understand the pressures of the job and are here to help when it matters most. Now, more than ever, it’s vital for both organisations and individuals in our sector to support Perennial. By doing so, we can ensure that our industry brothers and sisters are taken care of, no matter what challenges they face.

Neil Miller, Head Gardener at Hever Castle shares his enthusiasm “As a long-time supporter of the fantastic charity Perennial, I literally can’t wait to get my boots off and walk across hot coals for them at Hever Castle on the 18 October! We think it will be a really wonderful (and unforgettable) experience and would love as many of our horticultural friends as possible to join us on the day and raise lots of funds for a charity very close to my heart.”

“We are delighted to host our second firewalk at such a prestigious and historic location,” says Eleanor Steele, Community Fundraiser at Perennial “The Firewalk is not just about the thrill of the challenge; it’s about coming together as a community to support those who nurture the landscapes and gardens we all cherish. We encourage everyone to join us for an unforgettable evening that promises to inspire and make a real difference.”

Nathan Day, from Plan & Plant, who took part in Perennial’s 2023 firewalk shared his experience “Being able to challenge ourselves and prove that we can tackle anything was great, but to connect with like-minded peers was a lovely reminder that we are part of a wider endearing community. If you have the time or enthusiasm to help others, we highly recommend signing up for their next challenge!”

For more information and to register your business for this unforgettable experience, visit perennial.org.uk/firewalk. Let’s walk together for a brighter future in horticulture.

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