East Lambrook Manor is a small 15th-century manor house in East Lambrook, Somerset, England, registered by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.[1] It is surrounded by a "cottage garden" planted by Margery Fish between 1938 and her death in 1969.[2] The garden is Grade I listed in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.[3]
The two-storey house, Grade II* listed in 1959, was originally an open hall-house. It was built of Somerset hamstone in the 15th and 16th centuries.[4] It was a disused chicken farm, which had fallen into disrepair until the restoration in the 1930s.[4][5]
| East Lambrook Manor Gardens | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Cottage Garden |
| Location | East Lambrook, Somerset, England |
| Coordinates | 50°58′00″N 2°48′40″W / 50.9667°N 2.811°W |
| Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
| Plants | Geraniums, euphorbias, helleborus, snowdrops, roses, rare and unusual cottage garden plants |
| Collections | National Collection of Geraniums |
| Website | http://www.eastlambrook.co.uk/ |
Margery Fish and her husband Walter Fish bought East Lambrook Manor in 1937 for £1000. They had several terraces constructed in 1938.[6] She described the informal planting style as "jungle gardening".[7] She wrote several books on cottage gardens. She laid out the 2 acres (0.81 ha) gardens, which hold the National Collection of Geraniums,[8] and a collection of snowdrops.[9]
Several varieties of plants are named after the garden, including a silver-leafed wormwood, Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Silver',[10] a spurge, Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, 'Lambrook Gold', and a primrose Primula, 'Lambrook Mauve'.[11]
The garden has been restored since 1985 into the state it was left at the time of Fish's death in 1969.[12] It was awarded Grade I status by English Heritage in 1992.[13] In 2011, the gardens were opened for a horticulture course, the East Lambrook Diploma in Horticulture, which covers both theoretical and practical gardening.[14]
East Lambrook Manor gardens are open to the public for nine months of the year, usually from Tuesday to Saturday.[15] It is entered through the Malthouse, a stone building within the gardens which also contains a gallery and a café. Behind the Malthouse is an area known as the Ditch, which originally had water flowing through it. There Fish planted moisture-loving plants, but as the water no longer flows through the Ditch, it has been replanted as a sunken garden. To the east of the house is the Silver Garden, which includes Mediterranean plants, often with silver leaves.[16]
