Long Barn

Today I visited Long Barn in Kent with a friend. It is without a doubt the prettiest garden I have ever seen. The house was originally built in the mid 14th century and is the former home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. The lived there from 1915 to 1930 and developed the garden and added a new wing to the house. Vita wrote a few books and poems there and the Bloomsbury set were frequent visitors. This garden was the forerunner for the beautiful gardens at Sissinghurst which they moved into after leaving Long Barn.

The American aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife rented the house from the Nicolsons from 1936 to 1938, when the Nicolsons moved out. They came to England to escape the media-circus after the kidnapping and murder of their son, and villagers still remember their second child being watched over by an armed body guard while playing in the grounds.

It is only open a few days a year as it is very much a private home for the current family who live there. The owner of the house was there to explain the garden to us, and it is understandably a full time job running the house and those gardens. They were absolutely magnificent, and it is worth seeing more images of Long Barn here.