![Trebah Gardens1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Trebah_Gardens1.jpg)
Trebah ( kw, Tre Worabo, meaning ''Gorabo's farm'') is a sub-tropical
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
situated in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, England, UK, near
Glendurgan Garden
Glendurgan Garden ( kw, Glynn Dowrgeun, meaning ''deep valley of otters'') is a National Trust garden situated above the hamlet of Durgan on the Helford River and near Mawnan Smith, in the civil parish of Mawnan, Cornwall, England, United K ...
and above the
Helford River
The Helford River ( kw, Dowr Mahonyer) is a ria (flooded river valley) in Cornwall, England, fed by small streams into its many creeks. There are seven creeks on the Helford; from west to east these are Ponsontuel Creek, Mawgan Creek, Polpenwit ...
(). Part of the parish of
Mawnan
Mawnan ( kw, Maunan, meaning ''St Maunan'') is a village and civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in the former administrative district of Kerrier and is bounded to the south by the Helford River, to the east by the s ...
, the gardens are set within an area of the same name, which includes the small settlements of Trebah Wartha and Trebah Woolas (both are of medieval origin).
History of Trebah
In 1831 Trebah was acquired by the Fox family who built Glendurgan Garden. Trebah was first laid out as a pleasure garden by
Charles Fox, a Quaker polymath of enormous creative energy who paid meticulous attention to the exact positioning of every tree. His son-in-law,
Edmund Backhouse, M.P. for Darlington, took the work further.
The Hexts
In 1907 Trebah was bought by
Charles Hawkins Hext and inherited on his death in 1917 by his wife,
Alice, who died in 1939. From 1939 to 1981 the garden fell into decline, since the substantial Trebah Estate was sold off in small packages, of which the house and garden was one.
Second World War and after
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Trebah was used for military purposes and the assault on
Omaha Beach in Normandy was launched from Polgwidden Beach, at the foot of Trebah Garden.
![TrebahDDay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/TrebahDDay.JPG)
One of the subsequent owners was
Donald Healey
Donald Mitchell Healey CBE (3 July 1898 – 15 January 1988) was a noted English car designer, rally driver and speed record holder.
Early life
Born in Perranporth, Cornwall, elder son of Frederick (John Frederick) and Emma Healey (née Mit ...
, the motor car designer, who removed some of the concrete military structures and provided a boathouse on the beach.
Development of the garden by the Hibberts
In 1981, on their 64th birthday,
Tony Hibbert
Anthony James Hibbert (born 20 February 1981) is an English footballer, currently playing for French amateur side ES Louzy.
Originally a midfielder, Hibbert converted to play at right-back. He spent his entire professional career with Everton, ...
and Eira Hibbert bought Trebah as their retirement home. They were persuaded to give up the first three years of retirement to restore the garden.
Indeed, when Major Hibbert agreed to three years, little did he know it would become a quarter century. The decision, he eventually wrote, "has given us the happiest twenty-four years of our lives and had we not taken up the challenge we'd have been dead long ago of gin poisoning and boredom."
Trebah My Story, Page 13: The Hibberts 1981 to 2002—Major Hibberts Log
As captured by Internet Archive Wayback Machine 20 Aug 2011
The Trust
The garden was opened to the public in 1987 and by 1989 visitor numbers had reached 36,000. The Hibbert family then gave the house, garden and cottages to the Trebah Garden Trust, a registered charity, to ensure that the garden could be preserved for future generations.
In 2000 visitor numbers had exceeded 105,000 and a £1.94 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
and Objective One
The regional policy of the European Union (EU), also referred as Cohesion Policy, is a policy with the stated aim of improving the economic well-being of regions in the European Union and also to avoid regional disparities. More than one third ...
allowed Trebah to build the new 'Hibbert Centre', to rebuild Alice Hext's seat, restore the nursery and carry out major landscaping and garden improvements.
Views from Trebah
Image:Trebah_001.JPG, View down the valley
Image:Trebah_002.JPG, View up the valley
Image:Trebah_003.JPG, Trebah view
Image:Trebah_004.JPG, Trebah view
Image:Trebah_Bamboo.JPG, Bamboo Garden
Image:Trebah_Gunnera.JPG, Gunnera jungle
Image:Gunnera manicata TrebahJPG.jpg, Gunnera about 6½ ft in height
Image:Trebah Rhododendron.JPG, Rhododendron hedge
References
External links
Official Trebah website
*"Trebah My Story"—Major Hibberts Log (as captured by Internet Archive Wayback Machine 20 Aug 2011)
{{Coord, 50.104143, -5.123246, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title, format=dms
Gardens in Cornwall
Botanical gardens in Cornwall
Operation Overlord
Fox family of Falmouth
Mawnan