Munstead Wood

Book Online Book online or if NT member register interest with Gareth Manning (organiser-southern1@pgg.org.uk).

PGG visit to Munstead Wood

Recently purchased by the National Trust, Munstead Wood is the internationally significant home and garden where Gertrude Jekyll conducted many of her planting experiments which went on to have a huge influence in Britain and further afield. Jekyll was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour, and once said of Munstead Wood: ‘My garden is my workshop, my private study and place of rest.’

Munstead Wood comprises 11 aces of gardens and from the 1890s until her death in 1932, Jekyll based herself there and grew her influence on garden design and horticultural practice, inspiring others to garden through her books and over 1,000 articles.

Surrounding an Arts and Crafts house, which showcases Gertrude Jekyll’s collaboration with Sir Edwin Lutyens, the garden was a place of experimentation, particularly in innovative use of colour in her planting. She designed areas to flower in different seasons and laid out a woodland garden as well as collecting plants in Britain and Europe, introducing thirty new varieties to British gardens. Some of Jekyll’s original planting survives at Munstead Wood, particularly in the woodland garden. The formal paths, walls and pond near the house, designed by Edwin Lutyens, remain intact and Jekyll’s innovative rock garden was recently rediscovered buried under layers of garden debris.

The National Trust has begun fundraising to support the restoration and re-imagination of the garden and house and will now work with the community and partners to develop plans on the best way to open the property to visitors in the future. They are keen to engage with PGG members to further these plans.

Programme

10.00am. Arrive.
10.15am. Tour.

Directions

Munstead Wood, Heath Lane, Godalming, Surrey GU7 1UN

Cost

£20.00 per person or free if you are a National Trust member – bring your card.

Booking

Book Online Book online or if NT member register interest with Gareth Manning (organiser-southern1@pgg.org.uk).

More info.
nationaltrust.org.uk