East Lambrook Manor

House

The two-storey house, Grade II* listed in 1959, was originally an open hall-house. It was built of Somerset hamstone in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a disused chicken farm, which had fallen into disrepair until the restoration in the 1930s.

Garden

Margery Fish and her husband Walter Fish bought East Lambrook Manor in 1937 for £1000. They had several terraces constructed in 1938. She described the informal planting style as "jungle gardening". She wrote several books on cottage gardens. She laid out the 2 acre gardens, which hold the National Collection of Geraniums, and a collection of snowdrops.

Several varieties of plants are named after the garden, including a silver-leafed wormwood, Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Silver', a spurge, Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, 'Lambrook Gold', and a 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 for nine months of the year, usually from Tuesday to Saturday. It is 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. There Fish planted moisture-loving 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.

External source

• The official East Lambrook Manor Gardens website: eastlambrook.com

References

References

1. {{NHLE
2. "East Lambrook Manor Gardens". Visit Somerset.
3. {{NHLE
4. "East Lambrook Manor Garden, East Lambrook". Somerset County Council.
5. (1 June 2015). "East Lambrook Manor Gardens". Somerset Life.
6. "East Lambrook Manor, Taunton, England". Parks and Gardens Data Services.
7. Bond, James. (1998). "Somerset Parks and Gardens". Somerset Books.
8. "East Lambrook Manor Garden". Gardenvisit.com.
9. Bourne, Val. (2008-01-04). "Snowdrops: White magic". The Daily Telegraph.
10. Plumptree, George. (1985). "Collins Book of British Gardens". Collins.
11. (2015). "First Ladies of Gardening: Designers, Dreamers and Divas". Frances Lincoln.
12. "East Lambrook Manor Garden". Sisley Garden Tours.
13. "East Lambrook Manor Gardens leaflet".
14. (27 August 2011). "East Lambrook diploma is a hit with students". This is the west country.
15. Admissions [http://www.eastlambrook.com/pages/site.php?pgid=71 Retrieved 22 June 2018.]
16. (June 2014). "The Garden: East Lambrook Manor Gardens".
17. "East Lambrook Garden".