Wilderness Reserve

Wilderness Reserve is an area of restored natural lakes, parkland and woods situated in Suffolk's Yox Valley that flows into Minsmere nature reserve on the Heritage Coast. The reserve is part of a recently implemented design in the nearby Blyth Valley by the landscape architect Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716–1783).

Wilderness Reserve surrounds Heveningham Hall, a former National Trust house, now in use as a private residence. In 1782, a Capability Brown design for Heveningham's grounds was commissioned by Sir Gerard Vanneck, 2nd Baron of Huntingfield and then owner of Heveningham, but, following Brown's death in 1783, the plans were only partly implemented.

In 1994, Heveningham was purchased by British entrepreneur Jon Hunt, who set about restoring Brown's original design, using his original plans. Hunt sought the help of landscape architect Kim Wilkie. At first Wilkie refused; as he told the Financial Times: "When I realised that Jon was property developer I didn't want to go anywhere near it". Wilkie was persuaded to join the project after visiting Heveningham with Hunt, studying the original Brown plans and taking inspiration from the landform. Work began in 1995, with parts of the Reserve opened for private hire in 2013.

To develop the reserve, Hunt has purchased a total of 5000 acres of adjacent land, pieced together in numerous property deals.

Restoring Brown’s vision required Wilkie and Hunt to remove modern features inconsistent with an 18th-century design. Numerous concrete roads, car parks, telegraph poles and farm outbuildings were either demolished or buried. Referring to this programme of re-wilding the estate, Hunt told Country life Magazine that he "...didn't like the human bits."

A large area of arable farmland was left to return to the wild. As Country Life magazine reported: "…sharp-leaved fluellen, field madder, heartsease, corn mint – these and other plants that an arable farmer would regard as weeds flourish unsprayed". Returning this farmland to the wild over two decades has allowed significant numbers of animal species, flora and fauna to settle in the area.

Wilkie says that "98 per cent" of Brown's original 600-acre design at Heveningham is now in place, and that the wider area has been developed according to principles that Brown would recognize as consistent with an Arcadian pleasure ground, including lakes, parkland and woods and a variety of historic manor houses.

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Wikipedia