the gardens at Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey, in England, once the country estate of Lord Beaverbrook
Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey, in England, is a late Victorian mansion, once the country estate of Lord Beaverbrook (1879-1964). Lord Beaverbrook, politician and owner of the Express Newspapers group, acquired the house after it had been damaged by fire, and re-built it as a comfortable country seat that he kept for the next 50 years. During Beaverbrook's time, the house attracted many famous weekend guests including Winston Churchill, Andrew Bonar Law, Rebecca West, Wells, Harold Macmillan and Rudyard Kipling. Beaverbrook passed the house on to his son Max some years before his death in 1964. The house later became the property of the Beaverbrook Foundation, a charitable foundation set up by Lord Beaverbrook, now headed by Timothy Aitken, his grandson. By 2002 Cherkley Court had fallen into disrepair but for the past five years the Beaverbrook Foundation has been restoring the property, with the intention of opening it to the public in the same way as the great houses owned by the National Trust. And on April 1st 2007 it opened its 16 acres of formal gardens and walks as Surrey’s latest tourist attraction to paying visitors. The gardens offer a rare and exciting mixture of formality and intimacy with outstanding views across yew woods to the Mole Valley. The garden has been designed by Simon Johnson, who specialises in country house work. One of his recent projects included working on an English Heritage garden at Walmer Castle in Kent for the late Queen Mother. As well as grand terraces, garden pavilions, a stone grotto and a stunning Italianate garden there are wild flower meadows, a walnut grove and woodland walks.
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Photo credit: © Jack Carey / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: .., andrew, architecture, bonar, building, churchill, estate, garden, guests, harold, including, kipling, law, macmillan, manor, national, pond, rebecca, rudyard, surrey, trust, victorian, wells, west, winston
