MHS members’ event
Our speaker tonight is Graham Huckstepp, Head Gardener at Rochester Cathedral, England’s second oldest cathedral. The gardens today are cared for by the Gardeners and have for centuries been an integral part of the Cathedral story, as well as providing a stunning seasonal setting for the Cathedral and Precinct.

In 604, King Eathelbert donated to the first Bishop of Rochester the land comprising the entire southern half of the area within the walled Roman settlement of Durobrivae, now known as Rochester. The Cloister Garth (literally ‘enclosed lawn’) in its current form dates to the early 12th century. Today the cloisters remain a place of quiet contemplation. In 2020 a Japanese Knot Garden was planted on the south side of the cloister, continuing this tradition of nature and reflection.

As well as the Cloisters, the Cathedral also has the Old Deanery Gardens and the Kings Orchard.

In the 1880s Reynolds Hole was made Dean of Rochester. A famous and popular preacher Hole’s love of roses had turned him into a horticultural celebrity. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the then poet laureate, went as far as addressing him in letters as ‘The Rose King’. With his new found fame he inaugurated the first Grand National Rose Show in St. James Hall, London in 1858. Later, in 1876, Hole founded the National Rose Society, dedicated to the cultivation and appreciation of roses.

On arrival in Rochester, then a busy industrial city with cement works, he was met with the inescapable acrid smells of lime. Dean Hole soon began on a new garden to ‘perfume the air’. His gardening friends admired and advised, including Gertrude Jekyll. The gardens at Rochester became famous and received a special mention in Jekyll’s Some English Gardens.

As Dean Hole said ‘He who would have beautiful roses in his garden must have beautiful roses in his heart’

Competition: Caryn Bird Photographic Competition ‘The Rose’ - £10 voucher to the winner