Capability Brown's Tercentenary

Capability Brown's Tercentenary

Celebrating 300 years of Capability Brown in our Peak District and Staffordshire local areas ....

The nickname ‘Capability’ came from his fondness of saying that landscapes had capability of improvement. ..... His landscapes are naturalistic, featuring curving lines, flowing lakes and picture perfect viewpoints all carefully crafted to appear in the landscape for the enjoyment of people exploring the grounds ....
  • The national Capability Brown Festival  -  celebrating the Tercentenary of Brown’s birth took place in 2016 highlighting many of the sites influenced by Brown getting involved to showcase his work 
  • This was the first national celebration of landscapes - the festival may be over but there is still so much more on the website so you can  still explore and find out about Brown's sites.
  • Explore the Staffordshire and Derbyshire information
Discover, learn and enjoy  a few places locally on a day out:- 

  • Brown was employed at Trentham Gardens from 1759 to 1780 and created the mile long lake and the surrounding parklands in the gardens. As a result The Trentham Estate intends to play a significant role in this celebration.
  • To celebrate Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s Tercentenary in 2016, their plan was to restore one of his lost landscapes at Trentham Gardens - see here for more details
  • Award winning Trentham Gardens have also been doing escorted Capability Brown tours- where you can learn more about their fasinating history of these award winning gardens.
  • These gardens have already been featured in The Daily Telegraph and won BBC Garden of the Year 2014/2015 in the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards.
  • WATCH:-  the Trentham Estate Capability Brown Meadow on the BBC News 


  • Magnificent Chatsworth house is often called the 'Palace of the Peak'. 
  • Chatsworth House is often more associated with Joseph Paxton who was head Gardener for the 6th Duke of Devonshire in the 19th Century - creating the present 100 acre gardens laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton (who later designed the Crystal Palace) in the 1840s.
  • However the 1,000 acre park was constructed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown when he redesigned the landscape, at Chatsworth in Derbyshire for the 4th Duke of Devonshire between the late 1750s and 1765, out of what was then working farmland
  • Brown’s work at Chatsworth came relatively early in his career as an independent landscape architect, at a time when his style was becoming established.
  • Chatsworth includes all Brown’s signature features: smooth rolling grassland running up to the house, a natural-looking lake, trees planted singly, or in belts and clumps, particularly on hills, and carriage drives with carefully planned views. The drive he created at Chatsworth, with falling parkland in the foreground and views of the bridge and the house beyond, backed by steeply rising wooded slopes, is one of the most impressive approaches to a country house in England.
  • Find out more here
  • Award winning 17th Century Stately Home set in 1000 acres of sweeping 'Capability' Brown Parklands - situated on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border.
  • Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown improved the landscape park at Weston between 1765 and 1768 for Sir Henry Bridgeman, 5th Baronet and later 1st Earl of Bradford. Find out more here
  • Attractions include the House, Adventure Playground, Miniature Railway, Gallery and Gift Shop, Stables Coffee Bar and Restaurant, Auditorium, formal gardens, woodland walks, lakes, follies, newly plants Yew Hedge Maze and Orchard

Lancelot (Capability) Brown often talked of a garden’s ‘capabilities’ which earned him his well-known nickname 'Capability'.... as he would often say of an area that "This has capabilities".
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