A visit to The Manor House, Upton Grey, Hampshire, RG25 2RD
This is a lovely house with a perfect Getrrud Jekyll garden. Well worth a visit. Try to go when the weather is sunny, and you’ve plenty of time on your hands. This garden isn’t huge, you can get aound it in an hour. But that’s not the point – the magic of this wonderful place is in the detail. Quiet contemplation reaps rewards.
The house is not open to the public, so the garden is the star.
The garden has an interesting history. It was designed whilst Gertrude Jekyll was at the height of her powers. Charles Holme, a significant figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement, owned the C15th Manor House and was remodelling aspects of the building. In 1908 Gertrude was commissioned to plan the gardens around the house. In just 5 acres she built this monument to the Arts and Crafts movement. The garden was a ruin when the property was purchased by the present owners in 1984. They “discovered” the garden and were able to faithfully reproduce the the original layout by referencing Gertrude’s original plans which had been deposited with the University of Berkely, California. An exhibition in one of the outbuildings shows that restoration was long and laborious. The original planting scheme was adhered to, with startling reults.
Look out for the Yew tree on the entrance drive which has been shown by various experts to be 2,000 years old.
