Sheringham Park
Sheringham Park is a National Trust estate on the north Norfolk coast that represents one of the finest surviving examples of the work of Humphry Repton, the landscape designer who effectively inherited Capability Brown's mantle as the leading practitioner of the English landscape style in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Repton was commissioned to design the park in 1812 and declared it his favourite work, a claim that the finished landscape, combining woodland, parkland, walled garden and spectacular coastal views, goes some way to justifying. Repton's approach differed from Brown's in several important respects. Where Brown characteristically swept away earlier formal features and reshaped the landscape on a massive scale, Repton worked more sympathetically with existing features, retaining and enhancing what was already there while using careful planting and path placement to improve views and create the sense of landscape variety that characterised his best work. At Sheringham he had a naturally strong topography to work with: the park occupies a ridge above the Norfolk coast and the sea views available from the high ground were an important element of his composition. The highlight of any visit to Sheringham Park is the rhododendron and azalea collection that flowers spectacularly during May and June. The park contains one of the finest rhododendron collections in the country, with plants of considerable age and stature covering the hillsides in layers of colour that range from the palest blush to vivid scarlet and deep purple. The scent during peak flowering is extraordinary and the combination of colour, fragrance and the coastal landscape visible through gaps in the woodland creates a garden experience of remarkable sensory richness. Beyond the rhododendron season, the park offers year-round interest. The woodland provides habitat for a wide variety of birds including woodpeckers, nuthatches and several warbler species. The viewing towers provide excellent views across the coast toward Sheringham and Cromer. Walking routes through the park connect the main car park with the coastal path and the beach below, allowing a circular walk that combines garden, woodland and coastal scenery.