Pioneering garden designer and writer Gertrude Jekyll's former home in Surrey has been purchased by the National Trust in a private sale.
Munstead Wood is the internationally significant home and garden where Jekyll conducted many of her planting experiments which went on to have a huge influence in Britain and further afield.
Discover more about Gertrude Jekyll and her legacy
Jekyll was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour, and once said of Munstead Wood: "My garden is my workshop, my private study and place of rest." Munstead Wood is comprised of 11 aces of gardens and from the 1890s until her death in 1932, Jekyll based herself there and grew her influence on garden design and horticultural practice and inspired others to garden through her books and over 1000 articles.
At the Chelsea Flower Show 2023, the RHS introduced the new Elizabeth Medal of Honour, joining the Victoria Medal of Honour as an important horticultural accolade.
Surrounding an Arts & Crafts house, which showcases Gertrude Jekyll's collaboration with Sir Edwin Lutyens, the garden was a place of experimentation, particularly in innovative use of colour in her planting. She designed areas to flower in different seasons and laid out a woodland garden as well as collecting plants in Britain and Europe, introducing thirty new varieties to British gardens.
Some of Jekyll's original planting survives at Munstead Wood, particularly in the woodland garden. The formal paths, walls and pond near the house, designed by Lutyens, remain intact and recently, Jekyll's innovative rock garden was rediscovered buried under layers of garden debris.
Andy Jasper, Head of Gardens and Parklands at the National Trust, said: “Munstead Wood continues to showcase Jekyll’s signature naturalistic design, her bold use of colour and innovative use of everyday plants. There is no greater example of a classic English garden.”
Simplified in the 1950s, subsequent owners of the property restored Jekyll's design and planting. There is a wealth of documentary evidence in the form of planting plans, paintings and written descriptions of the garden, offering the opportunity for further authentic restoration.
The National Trust has begun fundraising to support the restoration and re-imagination of the garden and house and will now work with the community and partners to develop plans on the best way to open the property to visitors in the future.
Hilary McGrady, Director General of the National Trust said: “I’m delighted that we have had the opportunity to acquire this special place, which has such strong connections to garden and building design history. The survival of both house and garden offers an extraordinary chance to tell the story of the house and garden, and Jekyll’s enormous impact, inspiring a new generation of gardeners and nature lovers. Jekyll changed the way we think about garden design and created more gardens than ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton combined. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this seminal garden.”
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