Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park, London - April 2011

Isabella Plantation is a

woodland garden A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shrub ...

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of Royal Parks of London, London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I of England, C ...

in south west London. It is managed by

The Royal Parks The Royal Parks of London are lands that were originally used for the recreation, mostly hunting, of the royal family. They are part of the hereditary possessions of The Crown, now managed by The Royal Parks Limited, a charity which manages ...

. Originally located in a boggy part of Richmond Park, it was labelled on a 1771 map as ''Isabell Slade''. ''Slade'', or , meant a bog or open space between woods and or banks, and ''isabel'' meant dirty or greyish brown, referring to the colour of the soil there. The Isabella Plantation was established in the early 19th century when

Lord Sidmouth Viscount Sidmouth, of Sidmouth in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 12 January 1805 for the former prime minister, Henry Addington. In May 1804, King George III intended to confer the titles ...

, who was Deputy Ranger of Richmond Park and a former

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

, fenced it as an area of woodland to keep the park's deer out. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was transformed into a woodland garden. It is now organically run, resulting in a rich

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

. Opened to the public in 1953, p.32 it is now a major visitor attraction in its own right. In October 2012 it was reported that about 40 per cent of the Isabella Plantation is covered with ''

Rhododendron ponticum ''Rhododendron ponticum'', called common rhododendron or pontic rhododendron, is a species of ''Rhododendron'' native to the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe and the Caucasus region in northern West Asia. Description ''R. ponticum'' is a d ...

'', a non-native and invasive variety of rhododendron introduced by the Victorians, and that this would be removed over the next five years. In 2014, improvements were made to the Plantation to incorporate new direction signs,

wheelchair-accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

pathways and toilets and a new shelter and

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. Etymology The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries (website), Oxford D ...

through a project funded by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The works also incorporated de-silting of all three ponds (Peg's Pond, Thomson's Pond and Still Pond) in the Plantation and establishing new waterfalls in the streams, funded by The Royal Parks with contributions from the

Friends of Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer par ...

References

External links

The Royal Parks: Isabella PlantationVisitRichmond: Isabella PlantationPanoramic Earth: Isabella Plantation
{{Coord, 51.433, -0.277, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Richmond Park Woodland gardens