Explore Enchanting Garden House in Devon England I Relaxing Tour of Historic 10-Acre Garden

The Garden House in Devon, England is a true plantsman’s paradise set on 10 acres of stunning gardens. @the.garden.house is the elegant former home of the vicars of Buckland Monachorum. Built in the early 19th century, the house accommodates the tearooms and offices.

The history of this 10-acre garden is closely entwined with that of Buckland Abbey and the local church. In 1305 the Bishop instructed the Abbot to build a house for the parish priest and this site was chosen. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the Abbot became the vicar of Buckland Monachorum and by the early 1700s, the vicarage consisted of a substantial 3-storey dwelling. The remains of this building, a tower with spiral staircase and a thatched barn, formerly the kitchen, are now the romantic ruins on the lower terrace in the walled garden.

A modern vicarage was built in the 1920s and The Garden House was sold as a private dwelling. The house came onto the market again just after the Second World War and was purchased by Lionel Fortescue, a retiring master at Eton, and his wife Katharine.

Lionel was the son of a Newlyn school painter and had a good eye for color as well as being an exacting plantsman. Lionel and Katharine set about renovating and developing their garden whilst running a thriving market garden business, providing stock plants for growers in the Tamar Valley, and managing a herd of Jersey dairy cattle.

Over 40 years the Fortescues created a garden which was – and continues to be – viewed as one of the finest in Britain.

By 1961 they had established the Fortescue Garden Trust, an independent registered charity, to which they bequeathed the house and garden to ensure the survival of this beautiful place for future generations. After their deaths in the 1980s ownership passed to the charity, which maintains the Fortescues’ lovely legacy. Today, The Garden House is considered to be one of the finest gardens in Britain, with good reason, as you'll see! Enjoy!

00:01 The Long Walk: The Long walk stretches away from the house and main lawns and takes you through the Summer Garden, The Dell and The Cottage Garden up to the stone circle and our famous Betula ermanii “Grayswood Hill’ tree.

00:33 The Summer Garden and the start of the Long Walk and a highlight all year round but particularly during summer months. Herbaceous perennial planting interspersed with numerous varieties of grasses with a strong backdrop of flowering shrubs and trees.

02:57 The Cottage Garden: Naturalist planting of summer flowers surround the ruined walls of an old cottage and lead into the Wild Flower Meadow. A beautiful place to sit, listen to the gentle hum of bees and take in the view!

6:43 The Acer Glade, magnificent in the autumn months with its ‘New England’ colors but also in March with its carpet of Crocus and again in April/May with its young leaf color, Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

11:54 The Walled Garden: A huge seasonal highlight at The Garden House. The 2-acre walled garden is set around the remnants of a 16th century vicarage. Most of the flowering in the walled garden comes between July and late September, with a huge variety of Dahlias, set amongst herbaceous perennials, becoming the stars of the show!

15:10 The Jubilee Arboretum was officially opened by HRH The Countess of Wessex in 2013 and contains over a hundred specimen trees, all carefully selected and many of them recent introductions from temperate zones of the world.

15:55 The Old Tennis Court: The old tennis court, within the walled area of the old vicarage, has now shrunk in size giving way to large flower borders and a garden ‘room’ filled with color, peace and tranquility.

Learn more about The Garden House on their website: https://www.thegardenhouse.org.uk/

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