Hestercombe House & Gardens, Taunton, Somerset

Hestercombe is another of our 'lost' gardens.  The house itself dates to 1280 and the landscape garden was created by Coplestone Warre Bampfylde in the 1750s.  But it was only in 1908 that the famous Gertrude Jekyll / Edwin Lutyens formal garden was completed. 

Lutyens is responsible for the layout and hard landscaping and Jekyll for the planting. The 'great plat' formal garden is framed by the east and west rills and enclosed at the bottom by a pergola.  

During the Second World War the house and gardens were used by the army.  In 1944 it was accepted in lieu of death duties by the Crown Estate and then leased to the Fire Service in 1953.  Although the garden was looked after by the fire brigade gardener Jekyll's original planting scheme was all but lost and the borders became more overgrown.  It was in the 1960s that the original plans were chanced upon in the potting shed!  In the 1970s the slow road back to restoration of the garden started and is still ongoing today. 

I've wanted to visit Hestercombe for years.  I don't think I've ever had such a strong emotional reaction to a garden on first site.  I adored it and it's gone to the top of my list of favourite gardens!