Great Dixter gets lottery funding
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has earmarked more than £4 million towards a £7 million project to safeguard the future of Great Dixter, internationally famed for its garden and its Grade 1-listed timber-framed house, for the continued enjoyment of the nation.
The HLF endorsement provides an important launchpad for the Great Dixter Charitable Trust to achieve its objectives:
- to bring the entire Estate under the ownership of the Trust
- to conserve and present previously unseen family papers and collections
- to make essential repairs to the historic buildings, and
- to develop its unique training of horticultural students
The Trust is fundraising to secure the remaining £3 million.
Great Dixter contains one of the largest surviving medieval timber-framed halls in the country. The inspirational garden was established and maintained by the Lloyd family over the 20th and 21st centuries.
The 57-acre Great Dixter estate was the home of the famous 20th century gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd (Christo) who spent his long and distinguished horticultural career practising and communicating his dynamic approach to gardening, while also ensuring the estate was self-sufficient and sustainable.
Success with the Stage 1 HLF bid, submitted in September 2007, means the project team can draw up detailed plans for a Stage 2 submission to the HLF in autumn 2008. A decision early in 2009 would hopefully provide funding for work to begin.
At Dixter there is a long tradition of nurturing people and plants as gardeners, students and volunteers, all live and work together. The project will improve the educational facilities, providing opportunities for more people to experience intensive and experimental horticulture and other activities essential to maintaining a sustainable estate today.
The project will also provide greater public access to the Dixter archive. This is a time capsule of the 20th century with records of lives led at Great Dixter from the arrival of the Lloyds in June 1912. This contains a wealth of original drawings, journals and historic photographs and correspondence between Nathaniel Lloyd, Christo’s father, and Sir Edwin Lutyens the great early 20th century British architect, who was commissioned to restore and enlarge the decaying medieval house to accommodate the needs of an Edwardian family.
For further information about Great Dixter visit www.greatdixter.co.uk.