Story: Blenheim Palace Formal Gardens
Episode: 12
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
Air Date: 31 May 2025

Created over centuries by esteemed garden designers, the Blenheim Palace Formal Gardens reflect a journey through the styles of the ages. They are a must experience part of your Viking extension tour to Oxford and Highclere.

• The gardens cover over two thousand acres and they host tree collections from across the globe.
• The designs were an evolution over hundreds of years but involved some of the greatest garden designers in British history - people like Henry Wise and Achille Duchene who established the formal gardens immediately around the Palace.
• Henry Wise laid out Kensington Gardens and the Parterre gardens at the Chelsea Hospital; he was also the royal gardener for both Queen Anne and King George the 1st. Securing this remarkable talent to design the gardens brought great prestige to them.
• Another legendary garden designer, Capability Brown, was commissioned by the 4th Duke in 1764. He transformed the waterways from a canal into a serpentine lake and he also naturalized the woodlands surrounding the formal gardens.
• The water parterre created by Achille Duchene is another amazing feature: constructed on a level substrate, it consists of plant beds laid out in symmetrical patterns and separated by pathways that interconnect.
• There are many gardens within the garden you must look for, like the duke’s private Italian one, featuring many plants not commonly found in the cooler climates of the UK.