| Wakehurst Place | |
|---|---|
 Wakehurst Place house | |
| Type | Country house estate |
| Coordinates | 51°04′02″N0°05′20″W / 51.06720°N 0.08894°W /51.06720; -0.08894 |
| OS grid reference | TQ 33950 31418 |
| Area | West Sussex |
| Built | 1590 |
| Governing body | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Owner | National Trust |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | Wakehurst Place |
| Designated | 28 October 1957 |
| Reference no. | 1025764 |
| Official name | Wakehurst Place |
| Designated | 1 June 1984 |
| Reference no. | 1000189 |
  Location of Wakehurst Place in West Sussex | |
Wakehurst, previously known asWakehurst Place, is a house and botanic gardens inWest Sussex, England, owned by theNational Trust but used and managed by theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew). It is nearArdingly, West Sussex in theHigh Weald (grid reference TQ340315), and comprises a late 16th-century mansion, a mainly 20th-century garden and, in a modern building, Kew'sMillennium Seed Bank. Visitors are able to see the gardens, the mansion, and also visit the seed bank. The garden today covers some 2 km2 (490 acres) and includeswalled andwater gardens,woodland andwetland conservation areas.
RBG Kew has leased the land from the National Trust since 1965 and much has been achieved in this time, from the Millennium Seed Bank project and the creation of the Loder Valley and Francis Rose Nature Reserves to the introduction of the visitor centre, the Seed café and Stables restaurant, along with the development of the gardens.
Wakehurst islisted Grade I on theNational Heritage List for England, and its gardens are listed Grade II* on theRegister of Historic Parks and Gardens.[1][2]
The stables are listed Grade II* and the South Lodge and gateway is listed Grade II.[3][4]
The mansion was built by SirEdward Culpeper in 1590. It originally formed a complete courtyard prior to being altered various times, and currently has an E-shaped plan. Wakehurst was bought in 1694 by Dennis Lyddell,comptroller of theTreasurer of the Navy's accounts and briefly MP forHarwich. His sonRichard Liddell, a profligaterake, was discovered incriminal conversation with Lady Bergavenny, wife ofWilliam Nevill, 16th Baron Bergavenny. Nevill brought a lawsuit against Liddell who, rather than pay the damages of £10,000, handed the Wakehurst estate over to his younger brother Charles and went abroad. He was later an opposition Whig MP forBossiney, and brieflyChief Secretary for Ireland.[5]
The house was illustrated inJoseph Nash'sThe Mansions of England in the Olden Time (1839), pp. 97–98.
It was sold in 1869 to Caroline,Dowager Marchioness of Downshire and then passed to theBoord baronets.[6]
The gardens were largely created byGerald Loder (later Lord Wakehurst) who purchased the estate in 1903 and spent 33 years developing the gardens.[7] He was succeeded by SirHenry Price, under whose care the Loder plantings matured. Sir Henry left Wakehurst to the nation in 1963 and the Royal Botanic Gardens took up a lease from the National Trust in 1965.
In 1887, American architectDudley Newton completed a replica of Wakehurst inNewport, Rhode Island, for sportsman and politicianJames J. Van Alen from plans designed byCharles Eamer Kempe.Salve Regina University purchased the mansion from the Van Alen family in 1972.[8]
In 2022, the mansion was closed for an extensive renovation, predicted to last at least two years.[9]
Wakehurst is home to theNational Collections ofBetula (birches),Hypericum,Nothofagus (Southern Hemisphere beeches) andSkimmia. TheGreat Storm of 1987 decimated Loder's plantings, toppling 20,000 trees.[10] Since then, Kew has redesigned the gardens to create a walk through the temperate woodlands of the world.[11]
TheWellcome Trust Millennium Building, which houses an internationalseedbank known as theMillennium Seed Bank (run by Kew, not the National Trust), was opened in 2000. The aim of the Millennium Seed Bank is to collect seeds from all of the UK's native flora and conserve seeds from 25% of the world's flora by 2020, in the hope that this will save species fromextinction in the wild.[12]
Nearby, also cared for by Kew, are the Loder Valley Nature Reserve of woodland, meadowland and wetland habitats, and the Francis Rose Reserve, the first devoted tocryptogams (mosses, lichens and ferns).[citation needed]
Wakehurst is home to the largest growingChristmas tree in England, agiant redwood. The tree stands 35 metres (115 ft) tall and is lit with around 1,800 lights fromAdvent untilTwelfth Night.[13] The lightbulbs on the tree were changed in 2006 to energy-saving lightbulbs, so the tree is not as bright as before but uses less energy.[citation needed]
Much ofKenneth Branagh's 2006 filmAs You Like It, adapted fromShakespeare's play, was filmed on location at Wakehurst.[14]
On 4 June 2021, theBBC broadcast an episode ofGardeners' World from Wakehurst.[15]
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