The gardens at Beeleigh Abbey continue to be a very popular tourist destination, and if you have visited them yourself you will understand why.

Under the skilful management of Writtle Agricultural College-trained head gardener Chris Cork, the three acres of spectacular grounds include mature trees, water features, cottage and bog gardens, an extensive formal rose garden, kitchen and soft fruit gardens, an orchard, wild flower meadow, stunning mixed borders and much more besides.

All in all it is a beautiful, tranquil oasis – a green lung on the banks of the tidal River Chelmer, centring on the sun-dappled, age-old, stony remains of the abbey itself.

My personal favourite there is a gnarled climbing rose on the outside wall of the Calefactory (or Warming Room) called Handel – a nod to the fact that the organ which the master allegedly composed his famous Largo on is preserved in the nearby Chapter House.

Then there is the Maldon Wonder apple, raised at Heybridge in 1900, introduced in 1933 by H Brewer of Maldon, and now appearing in the fruit garden at Beeleigh.

As spectacular as the gardens are, they are really part of the secular, post-Dissolution (of 1536) heritage of the site, with a lineage that only goes back to the late 19th century.

At that stage the then tenant, retired Indian civil servant John Doyle-Field (died 1911), planted a variety of English flowers and arches of climbing roses which were described at the time as “the finest to be seen in the district”.

In that respect our talented gardener Chris is continuing on in Doyle-Field’s floral footsteps with a horticultural tradition that goes back just over 100 years.

However, he is now overseeing a new and exciting project which will allow us to make a tangible connection with the very heart of the abbey’s 12th to 16th-century history.

As well as a new ornamental glasshouse for climbers, citrus and seasonal pot plants, from this month there will also be a herb garden.

This will include a wide range of both culinary and medicinal herbs, which the canons of Beeleigh would have been very familiar with.

In common with other abbeys, Beeleigh would have had what was known as a herbarium.

It was probably located in the open cloister-garth, the very epicentre of the site, roughly where the lower section of the gravelled driveway and modern kitchen are today.

The herbs grown there would have been the raw material for the pharmacy situated in the infirmary (the site of which continues to allude us).

Use would have been made of betony (as a cure-all), clary sage (as an eyewash), hyssop (to be rubbed on bruises), chamomile (for flatulence), comfrey (to set broken bones), mugwort (as a foot ointment) and mint (to address stomach problems).

In addition, herbs would have been used as sort of primitive air-fresheners (including thyme and lavender) for the ‘frater’ or dining room (now long gone) and in the ‘reredorter’ (toilets) to the south end of the surviving building.

More importantly herbs, prolifically sage, and mint, would have played a great part in cookery (the kitchen was probably in a separate structure at the end of the west range where one of the water features is today).

Dill was popular then – and, indeed, still is – for flavouring fish.

There was even a primitive toothpaste made from sage which, when chewed, whitened the canons’ teeth.

Towards the end of the abbey’s life, herbs such as spearmint, lemon balm, hyssop and thyme would have been used to make tisanes (a medicinal drink or infusion), cordials and potent pick-me-ups (the most famous successors of these being Bénédictine and Chartreuse).

As well as the herbarium, the Premonstratensians at Beeleigh would have undoubtedly grown fruit and vegetables somewhere in the grounds.

There may even have been a corner set aside for flowers so that, as St Francis once put it, the canons could “contemplate in them the Author of all beauty”.

After all flowers, whether they are nurtured by man or natural, are an immediate reminder that all beauty stems ultimately from God.

There is no doubt that this is exemplified in the well tended gardens of Beeleigh Abbey and the resurrection of a herbarium there can only make a visit even more special.

n If you want to see the herbarium, Beeleigh Abbey Gardens are open on the following remaining dates in 2019 – May 24 and 31, June 14 and 21, July 5, 19 and 26, August 9 and 23, and finally September 6.