AS many of us are venturing outside and enjoying our gardens at this time of year, it seems apt to flag up the Dorset History Centre's collections which reveal a passion for gardening going back centuries.

At the centre, in Bridport Road, Dorchester, there is a plan of Frampton House and its grounds demonstrating the changing fashions in 18th century garden design.

In 1778 a survey of the grounds shows a very formal landscape with neat walks, regimented orchards and the River Frome diverted into canals and ponds. This style of garden was influenced by French and Dutch design but by the end of the 18th century a new ‘natural’ style of garden had come into fashion. Pioneered by such designers as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown the English Romantic Style sought to enhance the beauty of the natural landscape.

At Frampton most of the canals, ponds and orchards were swept away to be replaced with a more ‘wild’ landscape with artfully positioned clumps of trees. Shockingly perhaps is the fact that most of the homes, the mill and even the Red Lion Inn which lay south of the Dorchester Road, which were owned by estate, were also swept away to be replaced by this wild ‘natural’ landscape.

A recent discovery by volunteer Cat revealed a beautiful plan of gardens on the Bladen Estate in Briantspuddle. The plan dates from 1924 and features what must be an early example of a car wash among detailed drawings of planting and pathways.

You can contact the Dorset History Centre for enquiries concerning the collections by emailing archives@dorsetcc.gov.uk