英国巴茨福德树木园 Batsford Arboretum – 英国非营利樱花国家收藏园

庄园由来

巴茨福德树木园（Batsford Arboretum）在英国英格兰西南部格洛斯特郡的科茨沃尔德（Cotswolds），离小镇莫顿因马什（Moreton-in-Marsh）西北约 1.5 英里，处在科茨沃尔德陡崖的东坡上，园地约 55 英亩（22 公顷）。园子的脉络从 19 世纪末算起：1886 年，外交官 A. B. Freeman-Mitford 间接继承了巴茨福德庄园。这位 1902 年获封第一代雷兹代尔男爵的人物，1860 年代在俄国、日本和中国任职时迷上了东方山水，回国后拆掉了园中那座乔治式旧宅，新建了一座都铎复兴式新宅，并把整片地改造成按中国和日本手法布置的天然野趣花园。

宅邸与中式点缀

Mitford 几乎抹去了原有布局，沿西侧开凿了长约 600 米的人工溪流，溪旁建有日式休憩屋、茅屋、隐士洞和假山。入口附近镌刻着中文「竹」字，1900 年前后他从东方带回的释迦牟尼佛像、两只铜鹿和一只踩着景泰蓝地球的「福犬」也安置在园中，至今仍是标志景点。Mitford 1916 年去世，庄园传给戴维·米特福德（David Freeman-Mitford，继任第二代雷兹代尔男爵），他的几个女儿后来成为英国文坛知名的米特福德姐妹，长女南希·米特福德的小说《寒气袭人的恋情》就是以他们一家在巴茨福德的早年生活为蓝本。一战后米特福德家族无力维持开销，庄园被卖出，由后来成为第一代达弗顿男爵的吉尔伯特·威尔斯（Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills）接手，他夫人维多利亚着力整理了园林正式区域和围墙花园。

植物收藏与林地

1956 年弗雷德里克·安东尼·汉密尔顿·威尔斯（Frederick Anthony Hamilton Wills）继承庄园成为第二代达弗顿男爵。他在二战后园子荒废的背景下重新整理，逐步补种桦树、枫树、栎树、梣树、椴树、玉兰、花楸、松树、冷杉、云杉等树木，形成了今天树木园的核心骨架。1992 年 2 月第二代达弗顿男爵去世，树木园交给他生前于 1983 年设立的巴茨福德基金会（Batsford Foundation）管理——这是一个在英格兰和威尔士注册的慈善信托，宗旨是推动树木、园艺、建筑方面的研究与教育（登记号 1090796）。基金会将园内日本开花樱（Prunus sato-sakura Group）收藏申报为植物遗产（Plant Heritage）的国家植物收藏，自 2002 年起通过认证，囊括已知栽培种约七成。

保护与公众参与

园方长期与爱丁堡皇家植物园共同开展国际针叶树保护项目，园内栽种部分最濒危的智利针叶树，作为野外灭绝后的活体基因库；同时接纳来自邱园、贝奇伯里和韦斯顿比尔特等园的红皮书中濒危植物。园中现有标牌植物约 2850 株，包括槭树、樱、毛竹、松树、花楸、玉兰和栎树等。园内另设斯堪的纳维亚松木和雪松瓦屋顶的教育中心，举办过自然观察、儿童工作坊和园艺学校活动；基金会还为本地学校和团体提供基于植物的学习项目。

参观与服务

树木园位于莫顿因马什附近，从伦敦帕丁顿乘火车到莫顿因马什约 1 小时 40 分钟，再步行 25 分钟或换乘短途公交即可到达。园内附设植物中心和礼品店，访客中心免门票入内；游客可在 Garden Terrace Café 用餐，节日期间还会举办圣诞老人洞穴等家庭活动。园方也提供树苗领养、捐赠和遗赠等方式支持基金会的保护工作。

官网: https://batsarb.co.uk/

Estate history

Batsford Arboretum covers about 55 acres (22 ha) on the Cotswold scarp in Gloucestershire, roughly 1.5 miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh, in the English Cotswolds. The estate’s story begins in 1886, when the diplomat A. B. Freeman-Mitford inherited the Batsford estate indirectly. Mitford, created 1st Baron Redesdale in 1902, had spent the 1860s in Russia, Japan and China with the foreign service and fallen for the Eastern landscape. On returning to England he demolished the old Georgian house in the grounds and built a neo-Tudor replacement, then reshaped the entire estate as a wild garden of naturalistic Chinese and Japanese planting.

House and oriental features

Mitford erased most of the earlier layout and cut a roughly 600-metre artificial watercourse down the western side, lining it with a Japanese rest house, a thatched cottage, a hermit’s cave and rockwork. Chinese characters honouring bamboo appear near the main entrance, and the bronze Buddha, two deer and a Foo Dog imported around 1900 still stand in the garden. Mitford died in 1916 and the estate passed to his son David Freeman-Mitford, who became 2nd Baron Redesdale and whose daughters were the literary Mitford sisters; the eldest, Nancy Mitford, set the early part of her novel Love in a Cold Climate at Batsford. The family sold the estate after the First World War. It was bought by Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills, created 1st Baron Dulverton in 1929, whose wife Victoria took charge of the formal areas and the walled garden.

Plant collection and woodland

(Frederick) Anthony Hamilton Wills, the 2nd Baron Dulverton, inherited the estate in 1956 and revived the neglected garden after the war, replanting the trees that still shape today’s arboretum: birch, maple, oak, ash, lime, magnolia, mountain ash, pine, fir, spruce and many other rarities. He died in February 1992 and left the arboretum to the Batsford Foundation, a charitable trust he had set up in 1983 to promote research and education in conservation, arboriculture, gardens and architecture (registered charity number 1090796, registered with the Charity Commission in 2002). The Foundation holds Plant Heritage’s National Collection of Japanese flowering cherries (Prunus sato-sakura Group), accredited since 2002, with roughly 70% of known cultivars.

Conservation and public engagement

The arboretum takes part in the International Conifer Conservation Programme run by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, growing some of the rarest Chilean conifers as a living gene bank; it also receives red-data material from Kew, Bedgebury, Westonbirt and other gardens. About 2,850 labelled specimens stand in the collection, including maples, cherries, bamboos, pines, rowans, magnolias and oaks. The on-site Education Centre, a Scandinavian-pine hall with cedar-shingle roof, hosts schools, clubs, talks and family workshops, and the Foundation’s charitable remit covers both exotic and native tree conservation.

Visiting and services

The arboretum lies about 1.5 miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh station, roughly 1 hour 40 minutes from London Paddington by train. Visitors can browse the plant centre and gift shop and eat at the Garden Terrace Café, and seasonal events such as the Santa’s Grotto run through the year. The site also offers tree adoptions, donations and legacy giving to support the Foundation’s work, and group rates apply for parties of 20 or more.

Official Site: https://batsarb.co.uk/