'Ruins at Nymans'

A lovely day today...we went to one of my favourite National Trust properties...Nymans.

Three generations of the Messel family have developed the gardens here. In the late 19th century Ludwig Messel, a member of a typically creative German Jewish family settled in England and bought the Nymans estate with 600 acres. The garden reached a peak in the 1930s and was regularly opened to the public. The reduction of staff in World War 11 was followed by a disastrous fire in the house, which remains as a garden ruin. The house was partially built and became the home of Anne Messel and her second husband the 6th Earl of Rosse. (Anne was the mother of Anthony Armstrong Jones..who married Princess Margaret). In 1953 after the death of her father Leonard Messel the estate was willed to the Nat.Trust with 275 acres of woodland, one of the first gardens taken on by Nat.Trust. Lady Rosse continued to serve as a Garden Director. Still a lot of restoration going on since the great storm of October 1987 when extensive damage caused them to lose 486 mature trees and also many shrubs. The statue looking figures are actually plants that have been wrapped up in fleece for the Winter.

We had a lovely walk..then soup in the restaurant...Creamy Fennel!.