Quintessential manor house goes on the market for £2.25m

09/04/2023

Quintessential manor house with Britain’s only Grade I-listed cottage garden which has featured on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World goes on the market for £2.25m

The stunning gardens at East Lambrook Manor in Somerset span 2.8 acres

A quintessential manor house with Britain’s only Grade I-listed cottage garden which featured on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World has gone on the market for £2.25million.

The beautiful gardens at East Lambrook Manor in Somerset were created by celebrated plantswoman and gardening writer Margery Fish.

She became one of the most important influences on gardening in the 20th century, changing it from a past-time of the wealthy to a passion for everyone to enjoy.

The five-bedroom Medieval home has 2.8 acres of land and is on the market with estate agents Savills.

The internationally famous cottage garden is currently open to the public and attracts thousands of visitors each year from across the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA.

A manor house (pictured) with Britain’s only Grade I-listed cottage garden which featured on the BBC ‘s Gardeners’ World has gone on the market for £2.25million

The five-bedroom Medieval home has 2.8 acres of land and is on the market with estate agents Savills

The house is full of character, with exposed timber beams and panelling and stone floors

It has a nursery and converted malthouse which is used as a tea room, as well as two galleries and a meeting room.

Ms Fish moved to East Lambrook Manor from London in 1938 with her husband Walter.

She was a novice gardener in her mid-forties, but developed a style of gardening that was in tune with the times, creating a grand cottage garden on a domestic scale.

She wrote a book We Made a Garden, first published in 1956, which made her famous, inspired generations of gardeners and has rarely been out of print.

It is the only Grade I listed cottage garden in England and has appeared in practically every gardening and lifestyle magazine, also featuring often on BBC’s Gardeners’ World.

The Werkmeisters bought the property in 2008, having seen a feature about it in a national paper.

They have maintained and improved the gardens over the last 15 years, along with a small team of staff and volunteers. Mike Werkmeister built up a snowdrop collection and established a Festival of Snowdrops, which attracted more than 3,000 visitors in February this year.

The house has 4,340 sq ft of accommodation with a great hall, inner hall, kitchen, breakfast room, sitting room, drawing room and office on the ground floor and five bedrooms and three bathrooms on the first floor

Ashley Rawlings of Savills said: ‘East Lambrook Manor is a very special home with important Grade I listed gardens renowned for being the premier example of the English cottage garden style’

He said his aim has always been to maintain the ethos of Margery Fish’s garden and would like to find a like-minded buyer who will keep the garden open to the public.

Mr Werkmeister said: ‘My late wife Gail, an antenatal teacher and President of the National Childbirth Trust at the time, saw the Malthouse Gallery as a fabulous teaching space whereas I, a gardener from the age of about four, embraced the garden and nursery.

Quintessential manor house goes on the market for £2.25m

Quintessential manor house with Britain’s only Grade I-listed cottage garden which has featured on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World goes on the market for £2.25m

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