Chatsworth House

Home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, the Chatsworth Estate has a rich and varied history spanning over 450 years. It consists of a 17th century Palladian mansion and extensive gardens set in a ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland. Today, the 105 acre garden combines a diverse range of historic and modern features that sit seamlessly alongside each other. Historic features include: the 17th century Cascade, the 195 foot gravity fed Emperor Fountain, and Joseph Paxton’s monolithic Rock Garden (1840s). More recent additions have been a 3-acre Kitchen and Cutting Garden, the Display Greenhouse and ongoing development of the Trout Stream area, the inspiration for Dan Pearson’s 2015 ‘Best in Show’ Chelsea Garden.  Tom Stuart-Smith has worked extensively in the gardens on a variety of development projects including redesigning a 16-acre area of woodland at the heart of the gardens and refining the path network and planting design in Paxton’s Rock Garden. A range of exciting events, including the annual Chatsworth Country Fair in September, are hosted on site to engage with as broad an audience as possible.

As a trainee, you will work as part of a large established garden team. Your training will be varied, working in the Cutting and Kitchen Garden, Glasshouses and Ornamental Gardens on a two weekly rota. You will learn to care for turf, trees, cut flowers, borders, glasshouse plants and hard landscaping whilst developing an understanding of how large historic estates open to the public operate.

Steve Porter, Head of Gardens & Landscape: “Having hosted trainees through the Professional Gardeners Guild and the Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme at Chatsworth for many years, it is always a pleasure to see them learn, develop, fit into the team and contribute to the care of the garden. Many have now become valuable members of the team and are able to share their experience and knowledge with new trainees.”

Placements available: One

Staff numbers: 25 full-time gardeners; 70 volunteers; 1 HBGTP trainee and 1 PGG trainee

Ease of access: The closest train station to Chatsworth is Chesterfield. However buses from Chesterfield do not come all the way into to Chatsworth. The closest bus stop is Baslow (2 miles by foot). Baslow (3 miles drive) and Bakewell (5 miles drive) have shops and other amenities.

It is possible to take the train to Sheffield then take a bus from the Sheffield Interchange directly to Chatsworth. Buses run approximately every hour.

Accommodation: The garden is able to offer some on-site rental accommodation for trainees.