Wakehurst Place - March 2022

Derek Evans
Mar 30, 2022
1 min read

Wakehurst Mansion

This months blog features Wakehurst which is situated only 6 miles from our home here in West Sussex near the village of Ardingly in the High Weald. I haven’t been here for many years so I was really impressed by the developments that have taken place.

Wakehurst Mansion - Lake view

Wakehurst (previously known as Wakehurst Place) is a house and botanic gardens owned by the National Trust but used and managed by the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. Wakehurst comprises a late 16th-century mansion, a mainly 20th-century garden and, in a modern building and Kew's Millennium Seed Bank. Visitors are able to see the gardens, the Mansion, and also visit the Seed Bank. The garden today covers some 2 SqKm and includes walled and water gardens, woodland and wetland conservation areas.

RBG Kew has leased the land from the National Trust since 1965 and a lot has been achieved over this time, from the Millennium Seed Bank project, the creation of the Loder Valley and Francis Rose Nature Reserves to the introduction of the visitor centre, the Seed Café and Stables restaurant along with the development of the gardens.

Wakehurst is listed Grade 1 on the National Heritage List for England, and its gardens are listed Grade II* on the register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The stables are listed Grade II* and the South Lodge and gateway is listed Grade II.

All the photographs here were made on the Sony A6500 with the 16-70 f4 Zeiss lens and edited in Lightroom.