Trevarno, Cornwall
| Trevarno | |
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| Location | Crowntown near Helston, Cornwall, England |
| Area | 70 acres (28 ha) |
| Opened | 1998 |
| Visitors | 80,000 |
| Status | Closed - now a private residence |
| Collections | National daffodil collection Museum of Gardening |
Trevarno is a private country estate in south-west Cornwall, England, UK, near the village of Crowntown, 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of Helston. First developed in the 13th century, the estate was owned by a succession of families until 1994 when it was sold for development as a tourist attraction based around its extensive gardens. It was open to the public from 1998 until 2011, but the estate has since been broken up and the house and gardens are again a private residence.
The estate lands were developed from 1246 when it was owned by Randolphus de Varno, Trevarno in the Cornish language means "farm/settlement of Varno." The main house was developed from 1296, with a Tudor architecture manor house built on the site; its east wing foundations are now under the conservatory and some of its walls are incorporated into the current main house. It was then owned by a series of notable families, including the Arundells from the mid-1500s for two hundred years. It was later owned by John Oliver, the father of Dr. William Oliver, the inventor of the Bath Oliver biscuit.
In 1874 the estate was bought by William Bickford-Smith, a descendant of William Bickford, the inventor of the miner's safety fuse. Bickford-Smith was a rich local businessman turned Liberal politician, whose interests included tin mining and the Helston Railway, which ran through the estate and of which he was co-developer and chairman. He supplemented the existing well-developed Georgian garden to create a merger of Georgian-Victorian styles, adding:
In the locally mild climate, rare tender plants, trees and shrubs could easily flourish.
After four generations of occupation, in 1994 the Bickford-Smith family sold the residual 750 acres (300 ha) estate to the two directors of a local electronics company. A programme of restoration began in 1995, with the intention of reopening the estate as a garden-based tourist attraction. The resultant 70 acres (28 ha) of publicly accessible grounds opened in 1998, and included:
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