C O N T E X T 1 2 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 25 S written in 1994. Another related to the development of management proposals for the Winchester water meadows, concerning landscapes largely formed by natural forces but impacted by the human activities they have supported.With reference to views illustrated in historic paintings, Wilkie showed how changes in land use, particularly the cessation of grazing, had resulted in visual changes from open pasture to a much more enclosed wooded landscape. He demonstrated how this had not only affected the land’s natural function in terms of alleviating flood risk but also how its character was perceived. His proposals for the future management of these areas involved a reintroduction of grazing, the selective removal of trees and, in the case of the Thames at Richmond, the removal of more recent flood defences. In the case of the Winchester water meadows, his plans included the introduction of planned water courses to recreate the concept of a water meadow, but with an imposed geometry to emphasise his human intervention into this landscape. The third case study, a very different project, concerned Wilkie’s work at Broughton Park, Northamptonshire. It is a rare survival of formal planned landscaped grounds developed on the advice of Charles Bridgeman, which is being restored by Lord Buccleuch. Unlike other Bridgeman gardens such as Blenheim, Stowe and Claremont Gardens, Broughton Park had not been modified by Capability Brown, retaining its formality and geometrical qualities. Wilkie had designed an intriguing new contemporary intervention in an area dominated by a rectangular mound. It was formed from earth excavated from a water feature and a water parterre in the form of a simple rectangular pool. His response to this included the removal of trees to reveal the mound and its juxtaposition with the pool, restoration of the grass terraces and the introduction of a new feature in the form of KimWilkie (above) and his extraordinary intervention at Broughton Park (left), where the original early 18th century mound is now complemented by an inverted pyramid.
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