Little Thakeham, Pulborough, England

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

An early 20th-century formal garden laid out in 1902-3 by Sir Edwin Lutyens with planting by the owner Ernest Blackburn, set in surrounding early 20th-century orchards.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Little Thakeham lies on the north side of Merrywood Lane, 0.75km east of its junction with the B2139 Thakeham to Storrington road. The 8.5ha registered site, comprising a one-hectare formal garden set within 7.5 hectares of orchards and a small area of informal lawns and shrubbery, lies on ground which is level at the northern end and then follows a gentle slope down towards the southern boundary. The site is bounded on the west side by a tree- and hedge-lined gravelled lane which forms the drive (it is also a public bridleway). To the south, a belt of woodland separates the site from Merrywood Lane while to the north and east agricultural fencing and fringes of trees or hedgerows largely enclose the site from the surrounding landscape of gently rolling mixed farmland and small woods.

REFERENCES used by English Heritage

Country Life, 26 (28 August 1909), pp 292-9

L Weaver, Houses and Gardens by E L Lutyens (1913), pp 103-16

J C Sheppherd and G A Jellicoe, Gardens and Design (1927), pp 219-30

C Hussey, The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens (1950)

I Nairn and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex (1965), pp 349-50

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), p 187, pls 11 and 12

The Field, (December 1986), pp 13-14

Maps

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1875; 3rd edition published 1911; 1937 edition

Archival items

The diaries of Ernest Blackburn, which include material on the planting of the garden, are held in a private collection.
 

Description written: November 1997

Amended: January 2000

Edited: June 2000