National Trust - Sissinghurst Castle, Aug 2012 (94)
National Trust Properties
Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Sissinghurst, Kent. The garden was created by Poet and gardening writer Vita Sackville-West along with her husband Harold Nicholson, writer and diplomat. She was fortunate and wrote a gardening column for The Observer and this helped to make her garden very well known.
A manor house with moat was built on the site in the Middle Ages and in the 1530’s an addition of a new brick gatehouse. More building work took place in the 1560’s. The first part of the work was commissioned by Sir John Baker, one of Henry VIII’s Privy Councillors and the second part by his son Sir Richard Baker.
After the collapse of the Baker family towards the end of the 1600’s, the building underwent many changes, it was a prisoner-of-war camp (In the 7 Years War), a workhouse for the Cranbrook Union, then homes for Farm Labourers.
When Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson purchased Sissinghurst it was derelict. With great vision, they designed and planted a series of ‘rooms’. Each room had a different character of colour or theme. They were influenced by the gardens of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens but their hand is evident when the garden was completed. It was first opened to the public in 1938 and has been ever popular, possibly one of the most famous in England.
The National Trust took over Sissinghurst, a grade I listed site, in 1967 and is definitely a garden well worth visiting. This is the 2nd of two postings.
National Trust - Sissinghurst Castle, Aug 2012 (94)
National Trust Properties
Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Sissinghurst, Kent. The garden was created by Poet and gardening writer Vita Sackville-West along with her husband Harold Nicholson, writer and diplomat. She was fortunate and wrote a gardening column for The Observer and this helped to make her garden very well known.
A manor house with moat was built on the site in the Middle Ages and in the 1530’s an addition of a new brick gatehouse. More building work took place in the 1560’s. The first part of the work was commissioned by Sir John Baker, one of Henry VIII’s Privy Councillors and the second part by his son Sir Richard Baker.
After the collapse of the Baker family towards the end of the 1600’s, the building underwent many changes, it was a prisoner-of-war camp (In the 7 Years War), a workhouse for the Cranbrook Union, then homes for Farm Labourers.
When Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson purchased Sissinghurst it was derelict. With great vision, they designed and planted a series of ‘rooms’. Each room had a different character of colour or theme. They were influenced by the gardens of Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens but their hand is evident when the garden was completed. It was first opened to the public in 1938 and has been ever popular, possibly one of the most famous in England.
The National Trust took over Sissinghurst, a grade I listed site, in 1967 and is definitely a garden well worth visiting. This is the 2nd of two postings.