Historic gardens going into administration

twopenny · 5 August at 10:51PM

Hester Combe house and gardens have gone into administration due to low visitor numbers.
This is a beautiful garden that I've known and watched for decades.
I've known it before it became commercial and followed it through.

Luytens and jeykll garden.

It was abandoned but interesting.
It was restored in the flower area and stunningly beautiful.
It was sold and tidied to within an inch. The wild area restored but added superficial themed areas rather than authentic.

Last time I went there was little to enjoy and all you could hear throughout was tractor lawnmowers. No scent, no colour and few plants. It was very tidy.

I'm wondering if it's a first of several or a case of private business has the wrong idea of how to run an historic garden.

Anyone else have garden near you that is in trouble?

fatbelly · 6 August at 2:32AM

Not one I've visited but sad to hear of its problems

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j9zzv8gvno

I suspect there will be others following. I heard someone say in a different context that things were better in the olden days BC (before covid)

KajiKita · 6 August at 6:56AM

Sudeley castle. Very disappointing last time I went. But they have just appointed a new CEO who was garden director at Painswick and they should recover … 🤞

KK

Dustyevsky · 6 August at 7:11AM

Interesting. I was briefly at uni with the person who oversaw much of the restoration work, but I've not visited the garden for about 40 years. At that time, it was the Somerset Fire Service HQ, and maybe a little frayed at the edges.

fatbelly said:

I suspect there will be others following. I heard someone say in a different context that things were better in the olden days BC (before covid)

Gardens like Hestercombe are part of British culture, which, coincidentally, seems to have become rather unfashionable since those far-off days before 2020. Let's hope it can be rescued without becoming a theme park or an OTT billionaire's plaything.