Exbury Gardens is a informal

woodland garden A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shr ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England with large collections of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

azalea Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus '' Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections '' Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and '' Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Oct ...

s and

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controve ...

s, and is often considered the finest garden of its type in the United Kingdom. Exbury holds the national collection of ''Nyssa'' ( Tupelo) and '' Oxydendrum'' under the National Plant Collection scheme run by the Plant Heritage charity. The gardens are rated Grade II* on the

National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

Lionel Nathan de Rothschild Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, OBE (25 January 1882 – 28 January 1942), also Major Lionel de Rothschild, was a British banker and Conservative politician best remembered as the creator of Exbury Gardens by the New Forest in Hampshire. He wa ...

purchased the Exbury estate in 1919 and soon began creating a garden on an ambitious scale, emulating his father's at

Gunnersbury Park Gunnersbury Park is a park in the London Borough of Hounslow between Acton, Brentford, Chiswick and Ealing, West London, England. Purchased for the nation from the Rothschild family, it was opened to the public by Neville Chamberlain, then Min ...

in London.

Exbury House Exbury House is an English country house in Exbury and Lepe, Hampshire, situated on the edge of the New Forest. It is a Grade II* listed building with associated Grade II* listed parkland and gardens. The house consists of an 18th-century co ...

itself is a neoclassical mansion which was built around an earlier structure in the 1920s. The gardens are open to the public, but the house is not.

Location

Exbury Gardens is situated in the village of Exbury, just to the east of Beaulieu, across the river from Buckler's Hard. It is signposted from Beaulieu and from the A326

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

to Fawley road in the New Forest. In the summer, the gardens are served by the

New Forest Tour The New Forest Tour is an open-top bus service in the New Forest, running three circular routes around various towns, attractions and villages in the protected forest. It is run by morebus and Bluestar in partnership with Hampshire County Counci ...

open-top bus service. Exbury House - geograph

The gardens

Features include the Hydrangea Walk, the

Rock Garden A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...

, Iris Garden, the

Sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...

Garden, Centenary Garden and

Camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controve ...

Walk (which takes visitors to a path alongside Beaulieu river and back via the pond).The infrastructure included a water tower, three large concrete lined ponds, and of underground piping. Exbury Gardens is now open to the public for most of the year, with high seasons in the spring for the flowering shrubs and the autumn for the autumn colour. The Cinema Museum holds film of the gardens in 1967. HMO363

Administration

The gardens are run by a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

, Exbury Gardens Limited, whose objects are "to maintain, improve, develop and preserve Exbury Gardens in Hampshire, including opening them to the public, and to advance horticultural science, knowledge and learning for the public's benefit."

Steam railway

In the north east corner of the gardens there is also the gauge Exbury Steam Railway that goes on a journey through a tunnel, around Dragonfly Pond, through the Summer Lane Garden, along the top of the rock gardens and into the American Garden. The railway was built in 2000–2001 as an additional attraction in the gardens. Two narrow gauge style 0-6-2 tender tank locos were built specially for the line by the

Exmoor Steam Railway The Exmoor Steam Railway is a narrow gauge steam railway and locomotive manufacturer, located at Bratton Fleming in North Devon. gauge The railway was built by the Stirland family and first opened as a tourist attraction in August 1990. At ...

. The railway is a member of Britain's Great Little Railways. The railway however has proved to be more popular than anyone had anticipated, with trains often needing to be double headed. To solve this problem, a much larger

2-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Prairie. Overview The ...

tender loco, called ''Marriloo'', was built at Exmoor, and entered service on the line in 2008. It is notable for having carried the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

on a footplate trip round the railway. The railway stages popular Ghost Trains during the October half-term and Santa Steam Specials in the run-up to Christmas. There’s also a diesel locomotive called Eddy that is used for shunting operations.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 12¼ in gauge railways in England Botanical gardens in England Charities based in Hampshire Country houses in Hampshire Gardens in Hampshire Grade II* listed buildings in Hampshire Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Hampshire NCCPG collections in England New Forest District Rothschild family residences Tourist attractions in Hampshire Woodland gardens