History of Rosemoor

Rosemoor was originally part of the Rolle estate (a local Devon family), owned by a Colonel Graham. In 1923 the last Earl of Orford, bought Rosemoor to use as a family fishing lodge. When he died in 1931, it became home to his daughter, Lady Anne Berry, and her mother.

In 1932 the Stone Garden was built on a patch of rough land which led from the lane bank to the lawn. The walls were built from stone collected from the limekiln (which is situated below the garden's nursery site) and slate slabs for the paving were found elsewhere on the estate.

In 1947 Lady Anne returned to live permanently at Rosemoor with her husband and young son and found a house in need of modernisation and farm buildings in serious need of repair. For a number of years they ran the estate as a dairy farm with a herd of up to 50 Ayrshire cows until the herd was sold and the farm reverted to pasture land rented out to local farmers for grazing.

The story of the RHS Garden Rosemoor begins for us in 1959 when Lady Anne (Lady Anne Palmer, as she was by then married) caught measles from her children and, while recuperating in Spain, met the noted plantsman, Collingwood Ingram. He invited her to visit his garden on her return to England and encouraged her to return to Rosemoor with a few of his plants to start a garden of her own.

And that’s how Lady Anne’s love of plants started. Over the following 30 years she developed Rosemoor into a plantsman’s paradise, travelling all over the world, collecting specimen plants.

When Lady Anne gave the Rosemoor estate to the RHS in 1988 it consisted of the 3.2 hectare (8 acre) garden around the house and 13 hectares (32 acres) of pasture land.

Rosemoor Garden is composed of two distinct areas: the original garden – Lady Anne’s Garden around the house – and the new garden, effectively the rest of the estate. The whole site is bisected by the B3220.

The RHS started developing Rosemoor in 1989 by building of the new visitor centre, and the linking of the two parts of the garden with an underpass which leads visitors under the B3220. The Formal Gardens were started in 1990.