A HISTORIC garden was chosen as the backdrop for a famous BBC television program.

The Marks Hall Gardens and Arboretum were featured on BBC Gardeners’ World on BBC2.

The segment is part of a series of films exploring a day in the life of a head gardener, and is presented by Alan Power, the head gardener at Stourhead in Wiltshire.

Mr Power is more than familiar with the beautiful gardens on the estate as he worked on the gardens with current curator Jonathan Jukes after completing his course at Writtle College in Chelmsford.

Filming took in some key locations around the grounds including Gondawanaland, an area dedicated to southern hemisphere species, where the duo planted some new Monkey Puzzle trees.

Mr Jukes said: “Since his time here at Marks Hall, Alan has continued to offer us a great deal of support and we were delighted to get the call from the production team at Gardeners’ World to say they were coming to Essex to film us.

“It was great to see him back at the estate.

“This time we were not only able to look at some trees which Alan had helped to plant and nurture some 20 years ago, we also harvested some of the acorns from our iconic Honywood Oak, which we will be propagating for future planting.”

Rebecca Lee, general manager at Marks Hall, said “Marks Hall is a charitable trust and we have been open to the public since 1993 so in a sense we are still quite a young arboretum.

“Featuring on Gardeners’ World really helps to get the word out about Marks Hall.

“Autumn is a particularly wonderful time to visit, we are becoming well known for our display of rich autumn colour.”

The estate dates back to Saxon times, when it was known as Merkshall, however, when it was bought by Thomas Phillips Price in 1897 it started its journey to becoming what it is today.

After his death in 1932, Mr Phillips Price left the estate in his will to the interests of the nation, however they remained with his wife until her passing in 1965.

During the war several parts of the estate were requisitioned by the military and even hosted a wing of the American Air Force during the Second World War as well as nearby RAF servicemen from Earls Colne Airfield.

The Marks Hall gardens are now run by the Marks Hall Trust.

For more information about Marks Hall, visit: www.markshall.org.uk.