Trebah Garden
The renowned Fox family had a hand in the creation of many of Cornwall's finest gardens. Trebah, created by Charles Fox during the 1820s and 30s, is a casual and colourful semi-wild 'ravine' garden of some 25 acres, dropping 200 feet down a sheltered valley to a private beach on the broad estuary of the peaceful Helford River. After some 50 years of neglect, the Hibbert family began restoring Trebah in 1980. It is a garden of many parts and really merits the best part of a morning or afternoon to do it full justice. An impressive Visitor Centre - with shop, caf� and art gallery - is in the form of a tea planter's bungalow. Trebah’s essence is of Cornish Spring Garden - magnolias, camellias, azaleas and giant rhodos - but it is much more. Central in the ravine, a stream garden meanders through ponds and water gardens to the beach on the Helford River; around it are first bamboos, tree ferns and Chusan palms, later a sea of hydrangeas, brilliant in summer. High paths along the ravine offer glorious viewpoints and superb overviews. There is ample car parking. The National Trust's enjoyable and contrasting Glendurgan is very close by. For American interest at Trebah see the box below.
Trebah Garden in winter
Above Helford River 5 mls SW Falmouth. Trebah revisited 2014
There is totally unexpected American interest here. Your curiosity may be aroused by path edges, lined by massive balks of timber bound with iron bands. Then, descending Healey’s Hill from the Eirey viewpoint, you may be surprised by its studded concrete construction, apparently made to carry heavy vehicles. Around the lower Mallard Pond you may be puzzled by revetted trench-like recesses. At the foot of Mallard Pond and on the beach of Polgwiddon Cove, all is revealed. In June 1944, Healey’s Hill carried heavy vehicles to Yankee Beach in the cove, the trenches were machine gun positions, the timber balks were part of a series of ramps leading across the beach to pontoons in the estuary, from which the US 29th Infantry Division embarked on D-Day in June 1944.
Trebah and Glendurgan
More in Gardens
Trebartha Estate
We already knew the area where the Trebartha Estate is, to the south-east of Bodmin Moor. Some years ago we had walked from North Hill, taking in Hawke's Tor and Trewortha Tor. In winter 2006 I had passed through, and admired, Trebartha village, whilst walking the Copper Trail. So, when we heard that Trebartha's landscape garden was to be open for charity one day in September 2006, we jumped at the chance of a visit. Trebartha Hall was built by the Spoures around 1500, destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1720. Trebartha then passed to the Rodds. After use in the 2nd World War as a military hospital, the hall was almost derelict and new owners, the Lathams, demolished it to build a modern house. Near the car park is a fenced-off well, inside the fencing several old crosses and a direction stone. A path then leads along the River Lynher, past the Swan Pool and into fine mature woodland where a stream casacades down the hillside. Approached separately from the car park, a series of medieval fish ponds form another garden, the pools gradually being restored and planted. We found Trebartha enchanting though not outstanding and we enjoyed the home-made tea and cakes served in the old laundry. We returned in May 2007 to enjoy the spring shrubs.
Tregothnan, a great estate on the River Fal
The Boscawens acquired the estate in 1335 when John of Boscawen Ros in West Penwith married the Tregothnan heiress. The original manor house here, probably built by him, was severely slighted by Parliamentary forces in the English Civil War but had been rebuilt by 1652. What you see now is a result of an 1820s remodelling by William Wilkins. The upper part of the 100 acre garden is fairly level and geometrical. To see the very best, though, you need to head for the far corner to access the wilder sloping garden below. Throughout there are fine rhodos, camellias, azaleas and magnolias. You will also find a tree fern avenue, a series of ponds below a tea-house, a young Australian 'dinosaur tree', South American and South African collections, Cornish palms, hebes and masses of primroses. This is not a perfect place - restoration and replanting is under way - but it is sheer delight. We visited in April 2006.
Tregrehan Garden
An under-rated and under-visited garden, close to St. Austell, Pine Lodge Garden and Heligan, Tregrehan is the ancestral home of the Carlyons. It is a garden of two main linked parts. A large formal walled garden has well-stocked Victorian glasshouses, lawns, trees, a central fountain and herbaceous borders. Beyond is a long yew walk which feels like the dark nave of a gothic cathedral. So far, so good, but then you come to Tregrehan's best beyond this, a twenty acre woodland garden with great specimen trees, an old pinetum, an abundance of superb camellias, rhodos and other exotic shrubs, a valley with bog plants and Dicksonias, a recently planted collection of southern hemisphere trees and a blanket of bluebells in May. We visited in late April 2004 and were astonished by the rhodos, many in tree rather than shrub form - we had never seen such a range of colours. It was a very dull day but we returned in 2007 and enjoyed better weather. We recommend Tregrehan as a delightful garden which deserves many more visitors than it gets. It is signed off the A390 at the western end of St. Austell. There is ample parking and simple refreshments.