The restoration and landscaping of the garden at Strawberry Hill House has been completed and features a rare example of an 18th century theatrical shrubbery.
Horace Walpole created the first landscape scheme at the Gothic castle between 1747 and 1797, with further living care put into the four acre site recently as restoration works.
Landscape historian Mark Laird from Harvard University, who helped devise the restoration scheme, said: “The key idea we’re playing with in order to recreate the spirit of Horace Walpole’s garden at Strawberry Hill is to work through the senses – rather than simply ‘viewing’ – to best evoke the world of nature.”
Work on the garden began in 2010 after completion of the £9m phase one restoration of the house. More than 150 new trees have been planted and the 1750s Walpole Oak has been carefully pruned of its dead wood and given a new lease of life.
The restoration has been guided by conservation architect Peter Inskip of Inskip+Jenkins and funded with the aid of a £49,100 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
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