Wisley Gardens, Woking, England

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

Experimental wild gardens laid out by G F Wilson from 1878 to 1902 and acquired by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1903, and further enlarged and developed since then.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Wisley Gardens lie c 3km north-east of Ripley on the A3, Portsmouth Road. The roughly 65-hectare registered site is bounded on the south-east by the A3 and on the south-west by Mill Lane. The River Wey forms a natural boundary to the north-west, and Wisley Lane encloses the site to the north-east. The private road to the gardens runs down the east boundary, flanked by a variety of buildings which enclose the gardens on the east. A high ridge runs from east to west across the southern half of the site, the ground sloping down to the A3 at the southern perimeter. The northern half of the site lies in the relatively flat flood plain of the River Wey. The site is enclosed by security fencing consisting of a two metre palisade alongside the A3 and two metre post and wire fencing around the rest of the gardens.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Gardeners' Chronicle, (26 January 1884), pp 110-11; (15 August 1903), pp 118, 123; (22 August 1903), p 138; (12 December 1903), pp 404-5

Country Life, 2 (25 September 1897), pp 319-21; (9 October 1897), pp 371-2; 8 (8 September 1900), pp 304-10; 14 (15 August 1903), p 254; 73 (18 February 1933), pp 170-5; 166 (6 September 1979), pp 646-8

G Jekyll, Wood and Garden (1899, reproduced 1981), p 253

Journal Royal Horticultural Society XXXVII, 2 (1912); LXII, (1937); XCV, 3 (1970)

G Jekyll, Wall, Water and Woodland Gardens (1933, repr 1994), pp 263, 289

G Jekyll, A Gardener's Testament (1937, reproduced 1982), p 12

Wisley Gardens, guidebooks, (RHS 1947, 1956, 1958, 1998)

T Wright, Gardens of Britain 4, (1978), pp 236-43

M and A Rix, Wisley - The Royal Horticultural Society's Garden (1989)

Maps

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1864-7, published 1869; 2nd edition published 1897; 3rd edition published 1909; 1931 edition

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1869, published 1870; 2nd edition published 1894; 3rd edition published 1912; 1934 edition
 

Description written: February 1999

Amended: May 2003

Edited: February 2003