The National Trust took over the house, garden and estate in 1986 following the death of Ralph Dutton, the 8th and last Lord Sherbourne, in 1985. The formal garden is 12 acres and sits within the 80 acre park which itself sits within the 1650 acre estate. The Trust adopted the property, not because of the house, but because of the garden being as it is one of the best examples of a mid-20th century garden laid out between the early 1920s and the Second World War.
The house was built on its current site in the early 1790s and replaced the Tudor House, built in the mid sixteenth century, on the site of what is now The Orchard, being abandoned and demolished in 1793 having a reputation for being haunted.
The house was re-modelled in the Victorian Gothic style and extended in 1860 by Ralph Dutton’s grandfather, John Thomas Dutton, and originally there was a north wing which extended from the house in front of the tea room.
Ralph Dutton re-modelled the house again between 1936 and 1939. His vision was to replace the Victorian monstrosity (his description) with a house that had it been built on this scale in the 1790s would have looked like this – an elegant Georgian mansion.
Another re-build occurred in the early 1960s following a disastrous fire that virtually destroyed the house and all of its contents. The fire started in the Library when an ember jumped out of the log fire into a sofa which rapidly ignited and spread the fire throughout the house.
The house was let to a tenant from 1986 until 2005 as the National Trust did not consider it of interest because of the ‘modern’ methods and materials used in the 1960s rebuild.
The walled garden was re-modelled in the 1860s on the site of the old kitchen garden of the Tudor House and is much as you see it today except that all of the grassed areas were given over to vegetables with the borders around the east and south walls used for cut-flowers for the house. Root vegetables were grown outside the walled garden on the west side where our nursery greenhouses now are. A number of the apple and pear trees were planted in late Victorian times shortly after the walled garden was laid out. From 1986 – 2005 the walled garden was the tenant’s private garden enclosing an open-air swimming pool and a hard tennis court. Opened to visitors in 2006 it has been extensively renovated and re-planted.
The three greenhouses that remained in 2005 have now been restored and those destroyed by the hurricane in October 1987 have been replaced, one as a vine house to replicate the original.
We don’t label plants because:
We are not a Horticultural Society; we preserve the garden as it would have been and this would not necessarily involve labelling.
There are four full time gardeners and some 25 volunteer gardeners who do anything from half a day a month to a day a week. There are also a number of volunteer estate workers who do work in the Park and the wider Estate.
Although we are on chalk we can grow Rhododendrons and Camellias because there is a seam of acid clay that runs from the car park up the drive and through the Magnolia Garden. There is also a pocket of acid clay by the sundial which turn the pink/red Hydrangea macraphylla blue.
We will not be re-planting the missing lime-trees along the avenue to the obelisk, as they are not missing. The lime trees were planted in the 1720s along what was the main drive to the Tudor house, which ran from what was then the main Winchester to Petersfield road, just beyond the obelisk until that road was re-located to its present position in the mid-19th century. (Now the A272) There was originally an avenue of limes but they were thinned to leave three groups of four trees in the late 18th century. The trees are coming to the end of their life and nearly half have fallen. However they have been propagated and 12 sapling trees were delivered early in 2021. We now have to work out where to plant them.
There was once a large Paulownia (Foxglove tree) to the left of the seat in the Dell which was removed in 2009 as the base of the trunk was rotting. A new tree has sprouted from the stump and displays the large leaves of young Paulownias as do those either side of the Philadelphus Walk.
The tree with the red bark at the entrance to the Dell is a Chinese red barked birch (Betula albosinensis).
The trees on the south side of the tennis court lawn are pollarded limes. Pollarding involves cutting back to a knuckle in mid-winter to maintain the shape and size of the tree as against pleaching which normally means the branches are encouraged to grow together. The trees are uncommon red limes – Tilia platyphyllos ‘Rubra’.
The Yews either side of the long walk are Irish Yews – Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’.
February
The yellow flowers in the wood adjoining the East Lawn are winter flowering Aconites, although they are not Aconites at all they are Eranthis hyemalis. The snowdrops here, as in most of the rest of the garden, are common snowdrops Galanthus nivalis and Galanthus nivalis Flore Pleno, the double flowered variety. Species snowdrops can be found in the Temple and Diana beds. Groups of more unusual snowdrops continue to be planted around the garden.
March
Hydrangia Paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ is the woody shrub with no shoots in the bed at the right side of the front of the house.
Ribes speciosum (Fuschia flowered current) is the plant on the right corner of the east (lily pond) side of the house.
Cornus mas (Cornellian cherry) is the yellow flowered shrub at the end of the church border
Scilia are the spring flowered bulbs under the Horse Chestnut by the statue of the Nymph and those by the Temple are Chionodoxia.
April
Actinidia kolomikta is the variegated shrub on the east wall (lily pond side) of the house and the scented shrubs in this area are Viburnum carlcephalum
May
Erigeron karvanskianus (Mexican fleabane) are the daisy like perennials that grow on the steps leading to the house and the sunken garden.
Poncirus spina-christa is the shrub with large spikes in the terrace border in front of the bay window and next to it is the white form of the Judas tree.
The large rambling rose in the west courtyard is R. banksiae.lutea
The large yellow tree peonies at the entrance to The Dell are Paeonia delavayi lutea
June
The large rambling rose growing over the conifers at the entrance to the Dell is Kiftsgate.
The agapanthus growing in pots are taken in during the winter, although they are hardy, because of the risk of water logging and subsequent frost damage. They are quite happy in open ground.
July
Pyracantha ‘Orange Charmer’ and Hydrangea petiolarus are intermixed across the north front of the house.
Cotinus coggygria atropurpurea (purple smoke bush) is the large purple leaved shrub to the east of the Temple with there green cousins on your left as you walk away from the Temple.
Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ are the yellow flowered shrubs in front of the yew trees at the crossing.
Dierama robusta (Angels fishing rod) is the perennial in the east border of the Sunken Garden..
The 100 roses in the long rose border by the Lilly Pond are R. ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, recently planted to replace the Iceberg roses.
Digitalis ferruginea (perennial foxglove) are the large erected foxgloves with copper brown flowers mainly in the Temple borders. There are also other varieties of perennial foxgloves around the garden.
Inula helenium are the large yellow flowered perennials on your left as you enter The Dell.
August
The large pink and yellow shrub in the Autumn border on the church side of the Drive is Weigela decora and the white flowered shrub on the opposite side with oak leaf like foliage is Hydrangea quercifolia.
The lily like plants either side of the main terrace steps are Crinnum powelli
Ceanothus ‘Gloire de Versailles’is the lilac flowered shrub on your right as you walk away from the Temple.
Hydrangia Paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ is the woody shrub with large conical white flowers in the bed at the right side of the front of the house.
September
Tricyrtis hirta (Toad Lily) is the plant under the Viburnum on the right side of The Dell
Lobelia tupa is the red flowered perennial half way up the bank on the left side of the Dell.
Clerodendron bungeii is the pink flowered sub-shrub on the left looking at the Obelisk
October
The shrub with blue spike flowers in the Tennis Court Garden is Elsholtzia stauntonii
The grey leaved shrub to the right of the steps in the sunken garden is Buddleja ‘Morning Mist’ and the furry grey leaved shrub to the left of the steps leading from the Lily Pond garden is Buddleja Crispa.
November
Not many people, not many questions.
December
The glossy green leaved shrubs with white flowers at the front of the house and by the steps down from the Yew Garden to the Long Walk are Viburnum tinus