East Lambrook Manor
| East Lambrook Manor Gardens | |
|---|---|
| Type | Cottage Garden |
| Location | East Lambrook, Somerset, England |
| Coordinates | 50°58′00″N 2°48′40″W / 50.9667°N 2.811°WCoordinates: 50°58′00″N 2°48′40″W / 50.9667°N 2.811°W |
| Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
| Plants | Geraniums, euphorbias, helleborus, snowdrops, roses, rare and unusual cottage garden plants |
| Collections | National Collection of Geraniums |
| Website | http://www.eastlambrook.co.uk/ |
East Lambrook Manor is a small 15th-century manor house in East Lambrook, Somerset, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is surrounded by a 'cottage garden' planted by Margery Fish from 1938 until her death in 1969. The garden is Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
The two-storey house, was originally built as an open hall-house. It which was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1959, was built of Somerset hamstone in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a disused chicken farm, built of limestone, which had fallen into disrepair until the restoration in the 1930s.
Margery Fish and her husband Walter Fish bought East Lambrook Manor in 1937 for £1000. They had several terraces constructued in 1938. She described the informal planting style as jungle gardening. She wrote several books on cottage gardens, she laid out the 2 acres (0.81 ha) gardens which hold the National Collection of Geraniums, and a collection of snowdrops.
Several plants are named after the garden including: the silver-leafed wormwood Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Silver', the spurge Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, 'Lambrook Gold', and the primrose Primula 'Lambrook Mauve'.
The garden has been restored since 1985 into the state it was left at the time of Fish's death in 1969. It was awarded Grade I status by English Heritage in 1992. In 2011, the gardens were opened for a horticulture course, the East Lambrook Diploma in Horticulture, which covers both theoretical and practical gardening.
East Lambrook Manor gardens are open to the public, and entered through the Malthouse, a stone building within the gardens which also contains a gallery and a café. Behind the Malthouse is an area known as the 'Ditch', which originally had water flowing through it and Fish planted moisture liking plants, but as the water no longer flows through the Ditch it has been replanted as a sunken garden. To the east of the house is the Silver Garden, which includes Mediterranean plants, often with silver leaves.
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