Hylands House

Hylands House over recent years has become synonymous with the V music festival and has even hosted the European scout jamboree in 2005 as a child I remember the house exploring the gardens. At the time the house was boarded up and in a terrible state of repair. During these visits I would be informed by my parents that the gardens had been designed by Humphry Repton. At the time this had little meaning to me but now as a garden designer I was curious and looked forward to visiting the restored house and gardens.

Over recent years the house and to some extent the gardens have been restored with extensive work being carried out to the house. Cornelius Kortright employed Repton to produce proposals and it is understood he produced a leather bound ‘red book’ with maps and sketches showing ideas for the estate. Sadly the red book of Hylands is lost and only a 1814 Tithe map remains which shows the estate. Based upon the tithe map it is assumed many of Repton’s ideas were executed by Kortright.

Visiting the site following the restoration work was interesting and I was very impressed with the work that had been carried out to the interior and exterior appearance of the house. The house now feels as though it is the grand house it was intended to be, rather than the decaying hulk that I remembered. Sadly I was left disappointed with the landscaping, it just failed to deliver the same impact. Hylands works very well in providing a house for functions and a large open space for walking. There are pleasant views back towards the house and some interesting landscape features that remain from past periods of the houses history, though many have been altered and their value diluted as a result. Features that you would expect to be seen from the house such as the serpentine lake are not clearly visible. The impression left from this is that it is either too small a lake or that it is not in the correct location. To have such an important middle distance feature hidden from view from the house would surely not have been considered by Humphry Repton.

As if to emphasis the lack of care taken to the external areas manholes some over 450 mm high erupt from the grass like man made mole-hills as you approach from the house to the serpentine lake. It is such a shame and shows little management of the project. As if to reinforce this there is a modern garden added to the western pleasure garden area, which celebrates the European Scout Jamboree. Great idea but if you intend to restore the Humphry Repton garden or add so much weight to his involvement with the site why add such a feature in such a close proximity to the House. Just another one of the mixed messages that adds to the confusion that is Hyland House/Park.

Have any other members been to Hylands House in Essex and what were your views.

Mark Pumphrey