When Heckfield Place, a country house hotel in Hampshire, opened its doors in 2018, the sprawling gardens became an immediate selling point. Come with us on a tour.
Says head gardener, Philip Bailey: “A team of twenty-four gardeners and arborists have spent the last five years restoring the gardens, the pleasure grounds, and the trees.”
The house was being used as a corporate training center when the property was taken on; the walled garden was being used as a football pitch.
The arboretum—which includes many rare trees, such as the Lebanese cedar and a Monterey pine —had been left untended for years
A gazebo beckons.
William Wildsmith’s pleasure grounds were commissioned by the Shaw-Lefevres, the first occupants of Heckfield Place.
White agapanthus is grown in one of the greenhouses on the estate.
The farm has a herd of 50 Suffolk sheep, as well as 200 Rhode Island Red chickens, which are used exclusively for egg laying, and a herd of Jersey cows for dairy.
The produce grown here is served exclusively at Heckfield Place and Spring.