Painshill Park

 

During our summer staycation at the end of July we tried somewhere new - Painshill Park in Cobham, Surrey. Have any of you ever been? I thought Cobham was just a service station off the M25 motorway but it turns out there are places to visit there as well! 

Painshill is a slightly odd place that looks like it should be with the National Trust with a huge old manor somewhere serving tea and scones in a converted stable tea room but, actually, it is just a series of follies built around a massive water course. The follies themselves look like abandoned movie sets - sort of lifelike but actually not to scale or in the right material when you look at them up close. 

Of course, with all of the dry weather we were having, the lush areas of green grass were actually completely bone dry and brown and scratchy. On entry to the park the lady behind the ticket office directed us to the "sand pit" which was once a lovely meadow but was then just a big bowl of dry dust with some skeletal grass remains poking out of it. Possibly this is somewhere to return to once it has rained to get the full effect and vision of lush green!

It is a 18th century landscape garden which was built by the Hon. Charles Hamilton following his grand tours of Europe. Every part of the place is designed to look impressive and romantic and to create wonderful views to look at whilst walking, and probably to impress his friends who he would invite round for such walks. It's essentially a giant walk-through whimsical painting. 

Hamilton was eventually forced to sell Painshill due to financial troubles and the land fell into disrepair. Parts of the follies and bridges were taken away or demolished during WWI and it wasn't until the 1980s that a charity was formed to rescue Painshill and to try and restore it to its former glory. 

My favourite bit had to be the crystal grotto. There is surely no greater indulgence than building yourself a cave and covering the insides with different crystals and 'fossils', trying to make it as naturalistic looking as possible, whilst hiding the fact that the stalactites are actually wooden battens nailed to the brick ceiling and collaged in crystal!! 

It is breath-taking though, with lots of cave-like openings over the water and shafts of light coming through the ceiling to make the crystals gleam and shimmer. We even saw a mink darting around at the entrance of the grotto so he obviously enjoys it too. 

It was absolutely boiling hot and the water was so still it was glasslike with its reflective surface. It also had an odd greenish tinge to it due to an influx/infestation of blue/green algae, which many water bodies seem to be suffering with at the moment, so there were lots of warnings about touching the water or letting dogs near it because it's so toxic. The algae draws all of the oxygen out of the water so it is damaging to fish and the general ecosystem, and there were various pumps around the lake trying to bubble some oxygen back in.

It is a beautiful place to visit - a trek for us- and a nice circle of creation from when Hamilton built it for his friends to wander round, and to remind him of his tours of Italy, to present day where everyone goes for a wander there now.