Gravetye, West Sussex


 

 

Gravetye is a grade I Registered park and garden which was the home of William Robinson between 1885 and 1935. ACTA was commissioned to assess how Robinson changed the gardens and estate, how much of his landscape survives and the measures necessary to conserve and restore it. The landscape that he created reflected his views on informal and wild gardens and his experiments with plant cultivation and forestry.

Using Robinson’s journals and plans it was possible to trace the sequence of development of the gardens and woodland and in some cases the survival of individual plants. The management re-commendations made are being implemented
by the owners, the Forestry Commission.


 

 
Today the style of Robinson’s planting has been incorporated within the grounds of a country house hotel

 
Robinson kept a very detailed record of the changes that he made to Gravetye , supported by a fine collection of early twentieth-century photographs

 
Robinson retained and modified the formal garden adjacent to the house and experimented with plant groupings. Some of the original plants around the lawn survive

 
Robinson used the formal layout already present when he bought the property to try out many of the plant combinations he described in his writings
The planting combinations were described and illustrated in detail in many of Robinson’s publications
 

 

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