Woolbeding Gardens

Woolbeding Gardens fill 26 acres outside Midhurst, in the valley Disraeli called the greenest with the prettiest river in the world. The National Trust acquired the estate from the Lascelles family in 1956 and later leased the Georgian house and garden to Simon Sainsbury and Stewart Grimshaw, who in 1973 had Lanning Roper lay out formal garden rooms and Philipp Jebb build the Tulip Folly and summerhouse, and then Julian and Isabel Bannerman shape the Long Walk, pleasure garden and the dry entrance garden with its water pools. Highlights include the potager of around 1,200 lettuces round a topiary swan, William Pye's four-metre stainless-steel fountain on the site of a lost cedar, the river-god grotto and Gothic summerhouse with its waterfall, and the ten-sided 2021 Heatherwick glasshouse set in a Silk Route garden. The house is not open. Reviewers praise the sheer variety of the garden rooms and the welcome from staff and volunteers. Tips from visitors: every ticket must be pre-booked, there is no parking at the garden, so park in Midhurst and take the free minibus, and steps and cobbles make parts of the garden hard going.