On 31st July 2008 the Mayor and The Friends of The Hampden Park gathered to officially open the Arboretum and History Garden. The garden is centrally located between the indoor bowls club and the café and forms an excellent educational resource.
Assisted by Trees and Woodland colleagues, Parks and Gardens staff have written an illustrated booklet that can be downloaded from this page.
The garden evolved from an initial idea to create an arboretum (collection of specimen trees) and has been largely funded by an East Sussex County Council Community Chest Global Grant obtained by the Friends .
The garden contains a representative range of trees that were either native or introduced to Britain since the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago. A long herbaceous border has also been created using smaller plants that have been introduced to Britain since about the Roman period onwards. This is known as a chronological bed as it is laid out in sequence according to the date of introduction.
A third element of the garden is a series of daffodil drifts although these are only visible in the springtime.
A teaching pack in the form of a CD ROM is available and can be obtained by contacting Parks and Gardens at Eastbourne Borough Council.
Historical tree specimens
The trees in the garden are laid out in themed groups rather than strict chronological order of their first occurrence in Britain.
Throughout human history trees have always been an essential source of material for buildings, farm implements such as ploughs and wheels for carts as well as a source of fuel and food. Trees continue to be an important commercial crop in the pharmaceutical industry, for food, materials and for garden ornament.
The Dunkeld Larch (Larix x eurolepis), shown here, first grew in Scotland in 1897 when the Japanese Larch and European Larch were artificially crossed. These two parent trees are naturally found widely separated in Japan and central Europe respectively. The hybrid offspring has characteristics of both parents but grows faster, is hardier and more disease resistant than either parent. The timber is strong and durable making it suitable for structural work.
Chronological border
The herbaceous border is planted with nearly fifty different species of plant from around the world. The plants are presented in the order in which they were introduced into Britain (ie. chronologically).
Chronological beds are not a new idea and this one was initially inspired by that at Cambridge University Botanical Garden. At various times there will be gaps in the planting that may be due to certain plants not being in season or perhaps due to disease or weather conditions.
Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata), shown here, is a native perennial of the North American Plains. It was introduced to Britain in 1812. The plant was 'discovered' in 1805 by the explorers Lewis and Clark when they were in Montana travelling west towards the Pacific Ocean. They were on an expedition to see whether Americans could travel overland from the east to west coasts of the United States by following two rivers, the east-flowing Missouri and west-flowing Columbia.
Historic daffodil varieties
A series of daffodil drifts have been planted beneath the trees around the perimeter of the garden. These form a colourful spring display.
Daffodil varieties were developed over many centuries. Most of their wild ancestors originate from mainland Europe and North Africa. The drifts are laid out chronologically with the oldest variety just on the left as you enter the garden from the road.
The Pheasant's Eye Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus), shown here, originates from France, Switzerland and Italy and was introduced to British gardens in around 1600.
