Duchess of Cornwall opens the Bowles Story
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall opened the fully restored Kitchen Garden and Visitor Centre which form The Bowles Story at Myddelton House, Enfield.
The Duchess toured the rebuilt Potting Shed and Peach House in the Kitchen Garden Complex, putting on her gardening gloves to put up a couple of box cuttings and plant a peach tree before inspecting the new Visitor Centre. She was then presented with a special two-pronged gardening fork, designed by Edward Augustus Bowles, the man responsible for the beautiful grounds in which Myddelton House sits.
Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, the great-great nephew of EA Bowles and President of the EA Bowles Society, has played a key role in the project and said: “The restoration work is a real tribute to my great-great uncle, particularly the new Visitor Centre and Tea Room which contain a fascinating exhibition detailing his life and works. He would be amused to discover that his name is still revered and his works much admired.”
The project was awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £487,500 in 2009 and visitor numbers to the garden are expected to increase significantly thanks to the completion of the HLF restoration project.
Wesley Kerr, Chair of the London Committee, Heritage Lottery Fund, said: “When The Bowles Story at Myddelton House came to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s London Committee in September 2008, we saw the possibility to bring back something really special and were thrilled to support it with an award of £487,500. This is a perfect complement to the investment we have already made in restoring London’s parks and green spaces. ‘Gussie’ Bowles would be proud to welcome us to his remarkably restored and improved gardens, a landscape of horticultural poetry, now free to visit.”
The Bolt & Heeks team was delighted to have the opportunity of meeting the duchess and may even have blushed when told what a good job they’d done!
