What's happening at Great Linford Manor Park?

20 January 2020

What's happening at Great Linford Manor Park?

We’re excited to announce that we have been granted planning permission to begin renovating Great Linford Manor Park!

Regular visitors to the park might know that it was once the private gardens of the manor house, which is still there and remains privately owned. Many of the historic features of the garden remain present in the park, such as the Wilderness, Water Gardens and Hine Spring. However, over time these features have become degraded and overgrown making some of them unrecognisable.

Thanks to National Lottery players we have been awarded £3.1m of funding to ‘Restore, Reveal and Revive’ Great Linford Manor Park to make it more exciting and accessible to all. We will be restoring the landscape to its 18^th century design using information from expert landscape historians and historic maps. Step 1 of the renovation works will commence in February 2020 as we begin removing some trees around the park. Many of the trees are self-seeded and particularly around the ponds they prevent valuable light from reaching the water and shed their leaves into the ponds causing them to silt up. Lots of the trees may look old, but in fact most are only 40-50 years old! The photograph below was taken in 1906, which is the closest we can get to the 18^th century landscape we’re restoring the park to. Next to it is an image taken in late 2019 showing how the scene has changed. If we are to be true to the 18^th century design, it is necessary to remove the trees.

In the second pair of images you can see how trees have grown in front of the pavilions, even just in the last 50 years.

We are removing trees at the start of February to give birds a chance to find new roosts ready for the spring. Some of the trees we remove will be reused as timber or turned into woodchip to surface paths across The Parks Trust estate, and some will even be removed with a tree spade and rehomed at other parks. Stay tuned for footage of the tree spade in action!

Whilst we carry out this important work, some areas of Great Linford Manor Park will be closed. However, diversions will always be provided. Please check our website for information before you travel through or visit the park. Find out more about what we’re doing on the project webpage and on site.

Find out more about the Friends of Great Linford Manor Park