1980s
Restoration begins

Date: 1980s
Source: photogaraph by volunteer Allan Sewell
Well done Henry Trevor! and well done the early volunteers who quickly set to work stabilising and restoring this structure which was immediately adopted as the icon for the PGPT.

Date Early 1980s
Source Photgraph by Allan Sewell, a volunteer
As a result of that meeting, the Plantation Garden Preservation Trust (PGPT) was formed. Details of the progress of the restoration are best followed in ‘Ex Fonte’ (from the fountain). The fountain was adopted as a symbol for the garden from the formation of the Trust.
The photograph gives a vivid impresssion of the overgrown state of the garden and the formidable task that lay ahead for the early volunteers.

Date: 1980
Source: photograph by volunteer
This photograph shows as clearly as the 1980 photographs of the fountain (e.g. PGPT302) what a task was taken on by the original volunteers in the garden. A comparison with PGPT320, of the same view, indicates how much work was done to remove the years of growth of ivy and reveal the structure underneath. It is certainly to the credit of the original builders that once the ivy was removed so much of their work was still standing.

Date: 1980
Source: Photograph by volunteer
For other pictures of the fountain in the early 1980s see PGPT085,181,201/2. This view has been taken looking West, so the Plantation house can be seen top left through the overgrown saplings.

Date: 1980
Source: photograph by Allan Sewell


Date: 1980
Source: photograph by volunteer, probably Allan Sewell
The rainwater collected in the bottom of the basin explains how generations of frogs had managed to breed there.

Date: 1980
Source: photograph by volunteer Allan Sewell
PGPT253 shows the restoration in progress.

Date: 1980
Source: photograph by volunteer
Examination of these panels and other details proved that this was the summer house in the background of the family photograph of 1886 (PGPT415)
In 2002 the PGPT obtained grants and appealed to members for the sum necessary to pay for a reproduction summer house, built by a specialist firm, to be constructed at the top of the Italian terrace (cf PGPT135).
For further discussion about the original position of the summerhouse and its restoration see Ex Fonte no.22, 2002 p.11 and no.23, 2003 p.9.

Date:1980s
Source:Sketch by PGPT volunteer in PGPT archive

Date:1984
Source: photograph by courtesy of Eastern Daily Press
In the background, the wall behind the figures has been partly repaired and a topping put in place along part of it. The plan and paths of the Palm House beds have been revealed and planted. The ‘medieval’ wall is still overgrown with ivy and the balustrading on top of it has not yet been repaired (see PGPT040-2). And of course the resurfacing of the paths is still a long way in the future.

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer


Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer (probably John Watson)




Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by John Watson, volunteer
There is some mystery about the history of this fountain. It was originally thought (Ex Fonte no.2 1981) that it had stood in the Palm house. However, in G.C.Green’s album of stories about his father, George Green (see PGPT058-063) there is a sketch, clearly recognisable as this fountain, labelled ‘Fountain added to the Plantation by Alderman Geo.Green’. What is more, in the photograph of the interior of the Carrow house conservatory (see PGPT066) the fountain there looks identical to this one. So did George Green buy it from the Colman family, or purchase an identical model?

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer
What significance do these initials have for Henry Trevor? H could be for Henry, M for his wife Mary, B, slightly oddly, for her middle name, Beakley. This is probably the interpretation that Henry Trevor wanted his visitors to understand, an interpretation which would have made him smile. For the plaque that we see here was not custom made for Henry Trevor. It must have been a ‘spare’ from another job of Gunton Bros (see PGPT325/6)

Date: 1980s
Source: photographs by volunteers

The story of these plaques is told in PGPT324-6.

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer
Since the moulded bricks and the chimney stacks of the Hall can be identified as Gunton products we can feel sure that this was their source. It was natural that Buckley, the architect (see PGPT325) should employ Gunton Bros because he had already worked on the restoration of Costessey hall in the 1820s, using Gunton bricks then (see PGPT311,315). Henry Trevor may well have bought a ‘spare’ from Guntons’ yard after Sir Henry’s death in 1862.

Date: 1981
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer
However, much work remains to be done – the west bank is tumbledown, like the rockworks on the bottom left, the lower path is rough and the middle path on the left has hardly been cleared. And why the cavities on the lawn?

Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date 035 early summer 1986, 036 1985
Source Photographs taken by volunteers in the PG archive


Date: 1980s
Source: photograph by courtesy of the Eastern Daily Press


Date: 1980s
Source: photograph in PGPT archive
Flints were used extensively in building the garden, both as uncut pebbles (see PGPT148) and cut or knapped. Some particularly large flints were used in the arched buttresses of the fountain (see PGPT089). Many of the medieval churches in Norwich were built from flints and many of those flints may have been obtained by tunnelling in the area around the Earlham Rd. These tunnels have been explored from the 19c (see…… ) .

Date 1985
Source Photograph taken by volunteer in PG archive

Date 1980s
Source Photograph taken by volunteer in PG archive

Date 1989
Source Photgraph taken by volunteer in PG archive
In this photograph the balustrade along the top of the retaining wall has not yet been restored.

Date 1989
Source Photograph taken by volunteer in PG archive



Date 1980s
Source Photograph by volunteer in PG archive

Fortunately the popularity of this idea was short lived.

Date: 1980s(?)
Source: photograph by volunteer

Date: March 3 1988
Source: photograph by volunteer Bruce Adam
Fortunately no one was hurt, but afterwards much work was done to fill in the tunnels. Full reports appeared in the local daily and evening papers of March 4 and 5.

Date: c1989
Source: photograph by volunteer