Springhead Trust, Fontmell Magna, 21 Feb 2025

Above: Snowdrops © Phillip Delve

Leader: Phillip Delve

The Springhead Trust is located, east of Fontmell Magna village, along a small valley; cut into chalk uplands by a spring fed tributary of the River Stour. On our arrival, eleven BNHS members were met by trust guide Jonathan Pinder. As Jonathan led us around the trust gardens, he introduced us to both the site and origins of the trust.

The presence of fresh water springs where chalk down land meets the green sand of the valley floor has been a draw for people and wildlife over hundreds of years. The abundance and purity of the water is arguably the reason for the settlement of Fontmell Magna.

The garden of Springhead is built on an ancient site. Mesolithic flints from about 6500BC-4000BC have been found locally. Fontmell is mentioned in the Domesday Book being listed as to the Abbess of Shaftesbury. In 1665 it was a fulling mill owned by Henry Monkton. However by the 18th century it was owned by Samuel Bishop and run as a corn mill until the mill was passed onto Robert Hussey in 1832.

In 1881 the corn mill was closed and the buildings were used for making bottle tops before becoming a dairy for making cheese. In 1911 it became a private residence with Humphrey Springhead being the first owner.

In 1926 Springhead was acquired by the artist Harold Squire. He took over a run down and wildly overgrown property. With great imagination and determination Harold and a local gardener created the template for the garden today. Many trees were planted and the long borders were constructed.

Sadly Squire had to sell up and in 1933 Rolf and Marabel Gardiner to live at Springfield. As well as being a home for the couple and their three children, it became a nucleus of a widely extending farm and forestry operation and a centre for the arts and revival of traditional cultures. Rolf was one of the pioneers of organic farming movement and a founder member of the Soil Association. Marabel Gardiner took up the challenge of making use of the garden for imaginative celebrations, festivals, opera, children’s plays.

Sadly after she died the garden then fell into a period of decline.

In 1973 on the death of Rolf Gardiner, the family set up a trust to take forward Rolf and Marabel’s vision for Springhead and to secure it in perpetuity for people of all walks of life. In 1997, Rosalind Richards the daughter of Marabel and Rolf Gardiner set about restoring the garden and adapting it to the needs of the Springhead Trust.

In 2016 Rosalind Richards, the life tenant of Springhead died having spent the previous 20 years restoring the gardens.

The estate is used by schools, mainly primary on a regular basis. It is also a venue for Tai Chi and Yoga retreats as well as a location for theatrical and musical events.

The gardens here have been planted with Cherry and Magnolia trees, alongside old mill ponds. Poplars trees, which were once in great demand for the production of matches, remain along the garden boundary. Except for the green of ivy, mistletoe and lichens; all the trees stood stark and bare at the time of our visit. Hart’s Tongue ferns clad damp shaded banks, especially where the spring water was welling up at the stream source.

Greensand silt from the spring formed attractive wave patterns on the chalk stream bed, reminiscent of wave patterned sand on a low tide beach.

Within the garden there were a very good number of Snowdrops, of various species, including Brenda Troyle, Brian Matthew, Desdemona, Dionysus, Helen Tomlinson, Marjorie Brown, Merlin, and Trumps. Trumps is not particularly orange and has apparently a face like a trumpet.

Amongst the other plants were some delightful Iris reticulata (Katherine Hodgson), and the dwarf iris ‘Katherine Gold’.

In spite of inclement weather we saw a few birds; distant Buzzards, a flock of Field-Fare and Redwings with a Mistle Thrush. Ivy clad bushes held a few small birds; Blackbird, Goldcrest, Robin, Wren, Blue Tits, Goldfinch and Greenfinch. Along the fast flowing stream was a Little Egret.
To avoid a heavy shower, we sheltered in a pop up cafe provided by the Trust for lunch; but then plans for a further walk on surrounding downland were discarded as the weather deteriorated.

Thanks to Andrew Harrison for most of this report.

Phillip Delve