About the garden
Owned by
Hestercombe Gardens Trust
Designed By
Gertrude Jekyll
Hestercombe's famously restored gardens span three centuries of garden design. Edwin Lutyen’s hallmarks are everywhere: iris-choked rills, pergolas, seats, relieved staircases and pools where reflections twinkle on recessed apses. Gertrude Jekyll’s planting is bold and simple, which adds vigour. The combination of Lutyen's design and Jekyll’s plants is extremely photogenic: Hestercombe is a highly rewarding garden to learn about symmetry, balance and proportion.
The secret landscape garden, which Coplestone Warre Bampfylde laid out in the late 18th century, is a fair match for the Edwardian area: 40 acres (16.1ha) of lakes, temples, combes and woodlands that have not been seen for more than 100 years.
Add to this arcadia, the centrepiece of Hestercombe House and you will see a reunited estate. Open to the public for the first time in more than 200 years, Hestercombe House now contains a contemporary art gallery, a second-hand bookshop and an exquisite restaurant serving lunches and afternoon tea overlooking the splendid Edwardian Formal Gardens.
