Lost Gardens of Heligan

The story of this garden is magical and moving.  It was the Tremayne family who first created and then developed the gardens over 200 years through to the 20th century.  But after the First World War it was neglected and gradually forgotten.  

In 1990 John Willis the landowner and Tremayne descendant explored the grounds - he found a door to a walled garden and a thunderbox room where the young men about to go to war had signed their names with the date, August 1914. Of the 22 gardeners on the estate before the Great War, 16 of them were killed. John decided the garden restoration would be a tribute to these people who had worked on the estate.

The Italian Garden, in the extra, was one of my favourite parts - it was Jack Tremayne's love of Italy that inspired it.

The "Mud Maid" living sculpture was created by Sue and Pete Hill in 1998.  Depending on the season the Mud Maid's 'hair' and 'clothes' change when the seasonal plants and moss grow over the sculpture.