The Great Vine
In the palace gardens
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown directed the planting of the Great Vine from a cutting taken at Valentines Mansion in Essex.
In 1887 it was already 1.2 metres (4') around the base. It is now four metres (13') around the base and the longest rod is 36.5 metres (120').
The Vine is grown on the extension method where one plant fills a glasshouse, as Victorian gardeners thought this method would produce a larger crop...
Queen Victoria had grapes from the Great Vine sent to the Royal Household at Windsor or to Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight. The decision to allow them to be sold to visitors was made by Edward VII, who decided the Royal Household no longer needed them. Later they were sold in small wicker baskets at St. Dunstans, the home for soldiers blinded in the First World War.
In the Second World War German P-O-Ws were given the task of thinning out the bunches of grapes.
The Vine grows on the site of the first greenhouse at Hampton Court. There have been five or six glasshouses on the site throughout its history.
In the early 1900s a three-quarter span wooden glasshouse was built which was a new shape and quite different from what existed before, as this one incorporated a viewing area for the public.
In 1969 a new glasshouse was needed. By that time, the Vine had become so entwined in the existing structure the only way forward was to build a new aluminium glasshouse over the old wooden one. The dormant vine was protected by polythene sheeting and the old glass and its supporting wooden frame was removed, leaving the iron framework of the 20th-century structure and the Vine in place.
[Historic Royal Palaces]
Hampton Court Palace initially built from 1514.
Begun by Cardinal Wolsey, much of whose work survives particularly the ranges around the Base Court, the Clock Court and the Kitchen Court. King Henry VIII made extensive alterations between 1529-40, including the rebuilding of the Great Hall from 1532 the remodelling of the Chapel (1535-6) and building of Chapel Court. The extension of the kitchens and the addition of the projecting, turretted side wings to the west facade. Queen Elizabeth made some changes including the building of the privy kitchen but in 1689 William III began a major building campaign with Sir Christopher Wren as architect. This consists chiefly of the Fountain Court, to the south-east corner of the old palace, on site of Tudor Cloister Green Court, and the Colonnade in Clock Court. A little work was done under George II, including the remodelling of the Tudor range, between Clock and Fountain Court by William Kent who also completed the decorations of Queen's Staircase. The Tudor ranges are generally 2-3 storeys with mullioned windows usually of 2-4-lights. Those by Wren have 4 storeys with arched windows or arcades to the ground floors, tall, square headed windows with moulded surrounds and sometimes pediments to the first floors, round windows to the second and almost square windows to top storey, treated as an attic above a stone cornice. Further cornice and balustraded parapet above. Many surviving interiors, Tudor and later.
[Historic England]
The Great Vine
In the palace gardens
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown directed the planting of the Great Vine from a cutting taken at Valentines Mansion in Essex.
In 1887 it was already 1.2 metres (4') around the base. It is now four metres (13') around the base and the longest rod is 36.5 metres (120').
The Vine is grown on the extension method where one plant fills a glasshouse, as Victorian gardeners thought this method would produce a larger crop...
Queen Victoria had grapes from the Great Vine sent to the Royal Household at Windsor or to Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight. The decision to allow them to be sold to visitors was made by Edward VII, who decided the Royal Household no longer needed them. Later they were sold in small wicker baskets at St. Dunstans, the home for soldiers blinded in the First World War.
In the Second World War German P-O-Ws were given the task of thinning out the bunches of grapes.
The Vine grows on the site of the first greenhouse at Hampton Court. There have been five or six glasshouses on the site throughout its history.
In the early 1900s a three-quarter span wooden glasshouse was built which was a new shape and quite different from what existed before, as this one incorporated a viewing area for the public.
In 1969 a new glasshouse was needed. By that time, the Vine had become so entwined in the existing structure the only way forward was to build a new aluminium glasshouse over the old wooden one. The dormant vine was protected by polythene sheeting and the old glass and its supporting wooden frame was removed, leaving the iron framework of the 20th-century structure and the Vine in place.
[Historic Royal Palaces]
Hampton Court Palace initially built from 1514.
Begun by Cardinal Wolsey, much of whose work survives particularly the ranges around the Base Court, the Clock Court and the Kitchen Court. King Henry VIII made extensive alterations between 1529-40, including the rebuilding of the Great Hall from 1532 the remodelling of the Chapel (1535-6) and building of Chapel Court. The extension of the kitchens and the addition of the projecting, turretted side wings to the west facade. Queen Elizabeth made some changes including the building of the privy kitchen but in 1689 William III began a major building campaign with Sir Christopher Wren as architect. This consists chiefly of the Fountain Court, to the south-east corner of the old palace, on site of Tudor Cloister Green Court, and the Colonnade in Clock Court. A little work was done under George II, including the remodelling of the Tudor range, between Clock and Fountain Court by William Kent who also completed the decorations of Queen's Staircase. The Tudor ranges are generally 2-3 storeys with mullioned windows usually of 2-4-lights. Those by Wren have 4 storeys with arched windows or arcades to the ground floors, tall, square headed windows with moulded surrounds and sometimes pediments to the first floors, round windows to the second and almost square windows to top storey, treated as an attic above a stone cornice. Further cornice and balustraded parapet above. Many surviving interiors, Tudor and later.
[Historic England]