Hethersett, (also known as Littleworth Cross), Guildford, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

A new country house was built at Littleworth Cross, an open heathland site, for Harry Mangles in 1873. His brother James, who lived at nearby Valewood, Haslemere, was one of the earliest rhododendron collectors and hybridisers. When James died in 1884, most of his plant collection was brought to Littleworth Cross and Harry continued hybridising and exhibiting rhododendrons, with the help of his sister Clara. Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), who lived nearby at Munstead, knew the Mangles family and was visiting one afternoon in May 1889 when she was introduced to a young architect, Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) who was designing a gardener's cottage and some garden buildings for Harry Mangles. The meeting was important for both Lutyens and Jekyll: she discovered someone with a similar love of the vernacular architecture of south-west Surrey, who would design her new home, Munstead Wood (see description of this site elsewhere in the Register), and through her, he was introduced to many potential clients. Lutyens and Jekyll began a collaboration of building and garden design that would last until her death in 1932.

Harry Mangles died in 1908 and his sister lived on at Littleworth Cross until 1931. The property was then purchased by Mr R E Horsfall, an azalea enthusiast who planted many new varieties in the woodland. During the Second World War the house was used as a boys' preparatory school and the gardens were badly neglected. After the war the property was divided into two but some 8 acres (about 3.5 hectares) of the rhododendron wood was purchased by Mrs Douglas Gordon in 1947. As Violet Streatfeild she had lived nearby at Fulbrook (designed by Lutyens for her parents) in her youth and had visited frequently and so was aware of the rhododendron collection. She began to clear the scrub and trees which were taking over the site, and in 1958 was joined in the task by her son and his wife who had acquired the eastern half of the house. The family have continued to look after the important plant collection, adding to it with sympathetic planting. Badly damaged by the storms of 1987 and 1990, the original rhododendrons have been propagated and young plants are now in the Savill Gardens, Windsor and the RHS Garden, Wisley (there are descriptions of both these sites in the Register) as well as in the garden at Littleworth Cross. The site remains (2000) in divided private ownership.