03/08/2026
Did you know the Countess of Warwick gave jobs to men that society had written off as unemployable?
It's 1902. The Countess has commissioned Harold Peto, the pioneering Edwardian garden designer, to create her new gardens. But instead of hiring contractors, she makes a bold decision - she employs men from the Salvation Army Colony at Hadleigh.
These are men rescued from the streets of London. Ex-drunkards and convicts, society calls them. Unemployable. Worthless. The neighbourhood is outraged at the very idea. Local people worry these men will corrupt the area.
But the Countess knows something others don't - that everyone deserves a second chance.
So 67 men from Hadleigh arrive at Easton Lodge. They come from all walks of life: two doctors, a professor of music, hairdressers, a stock-broker, a commercial traveller, a jeweller. They've lost everything, but they haven't lost their dignity or their ability to work.
The challenge? Build an entire set of gardens - Italian Garden, Japanese Garden, formal lawns, Yew Walk, pergolas - in the bitter cold of winter. These men have never done this kind of work before. Most have never even worked in a garden.
In five months, they do it. Not just competently. Magnificently.
The work is completed with such excellence, with such conduct and discipline, that Sir John Gorst rises in the House of Commons to speak about it: "There was no crime, no drunkenness, and no disorder of any kind during their stay."
Out of 67 men employed, only one walked away.
The Countess, reflecting on what she's witnessed, says simply: "The work and conduct of the men have justified the experiment far beyond my highest expectation."
But she doesn't stop there. She houses the men in temporary wooden dormitories. She feeds them well. She pays them weekly money grants - which they're encouraged to save. And she lets them use the estate’s cricket pavilion for recreation, complete with bagatelle tables, ping-pong, and games of draughts.
As the work ends, the Countess does something very generous. She sends a cheque for £25 - a significant sum at the time - to help 14 of these men emigrate to Canada for a fresh start. The local community, moved by what they've witnessed, contributes over £50 more.
These men - once deemed unreformable by society - leave for Canada "in good spirits at the prospect of beginning life afresh in a new land".
It's a story about second chances. About seeing potential where others see only failure. About recognising that circumstance, not character, defines a person's worth.
Come and walk through these magnificent gardens – the only example of Peto’s work in East Anglia. And remember the men who built them, and the woman who believed in them.
📍 Visit Family Fun Day - Sunday 9th August 11am-5pm
Or every Thursday 11am-3pm (until end of October)
