Leonardslee Gardens

A Grade I listed garden

Leonardslee Gardens, near Lower Beeding, is listed as Grade I in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, one of only a handful of gardens in the United Kingdom to receive such status and protection.

Please note that Leonardslee closed in June 2010 following its change of ownership.

Why is Leonardslee so special?

Firstly Leonardslee is a really big garden – over 200 acres of landscaped woodland in a spectacular valley setting with lakes and water features key Leonardslee's beauty.

Secondly Leonardslee Gardens has some outstanding exotic acid loving plants, including astounding azaleas, colourful camellias and ravishing rhododendrons. In spring and early summer there are few better displays of colour on offer.

Leonardslee also contains a sculpture garden and a large greenhouse full of temperate plants and an Alpine House.

Leonardslee has also recently extended its miniature Dolls House related attraction, called Beyond the Dolls House.

Although the great garden we know today is largely the work of Sir Edmund Loder, there had been a great house and garden at Leonardslee for many years before Sir Edmund bought the place.

In 1801 the Beauclerk family bought Leonardslee and started to lay the modern gardens out. Sir Edmund Loder purchased Leonardslee in 1899 from his in-laws. He set about filling the place with brightly coloured swathes of the exotic plants at breakneck speed.

The Loder family still own and live at Leonardslee. As well as maintaining and enhancing the gardens, the Loder family have, in Loder Plants, applied some of their knowledge of acid loving plants to a nursery nearby at Cyder Farm, Lower Beeding.

But, back to Leonardslee Gardens themselves. The gardens are set within woodlands which contain countless oak, beech, birch, larch and Scots pine trees.

Leonardslee highlights

One of the highlights of Leonardslee is the enormous Rock Garden, designed by famous Victorian landscape gardeners James Pulham & Sons. The gardens contain several man made lakes, which were originally used as hammer ponds in the days of the Wealden Iron Industry. These have been augmented with four new lakes. These water features now form a very attractive complement to the plants on show.

"...the kangaroos have had their day"

Sir Edmund Loder had an enthusiasm for the exotic in both flora and fauna. He stocked his garden with deer, antelopes, mouflon (wild sheep with big curly horns), kangaroos and wallabies. Today you can still see the wallabies and deer although the kangaroos have had their day.

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