Great Dixter is a house in Northiam, East Sussex, England. It was built in 1910–12 by architect Edwin Lutyens, who combined an existing mid-15th century house on the site with a similar structure brought from

Benenden Benenden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, to the west of Tenterden. In addition to the main village, Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street settle ...

, Kent, together with his own additions. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The garden, widely known for its continuous tradition of sophisticated plantsmanship, is Grade I listed in 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 ...

House

The original Northiam house, known as Dixter, dating from the mid-15th century, was acquired by a businessman named Nathaniel Lloyd in 1909. He had a 16th-century house in a similar style moved from Kent and the two were combined with new work by Lutyens to create a much larger house, which was rechristened Great Dixter. It is a romantic recreation of a medieval

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, complete with great hall,

parlour A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

, solar and yeoman's hall.

Garden

Lloyd and Lutyens began the garden at Great Dixter, but it was Lloyd's son

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

, a well known garden writer and television personality, who made it famous. The garden is in the arts and crafts style, and features

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

, a long border, an orchard and a wild flower meadow. The planting is profuse, yet structured, and has featured many bold experiments of form, colour and combination. The garden is currently managed by Fergus Garrett, who worked closely with Lloyd up until his death in 2006 as Head Gardener and introduced a number of innovations into the planting scheme. In the grounds of Great Dixter are three 18th-century

oast house An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many re ...

s, under a common roof, and a 15th-century barn. These are Grade II* listed. Image:Great Dixter 010.jpg, Porch Image:Great Dixter 011.jpg, Detail of porch Image:Great Dixter 007.jpg, Front door inside porch Image:Oast House, Great Dixter, Sussex, UK.jpg, Oast houses Image:Great Dixter 006.jpg, Roof beams inside thatched barn

Management

The house and garden are open to the public from the end of March to late October each year, while the nursery is open year-round. In 2003, the Great Dixter Charitable Trust was established by Christopher Lloyd to ensure the property was preserved after his death. Education is at the heart of the trust's work. A number of student placements and scholarships are offered every year to ensure that the skills of managing an intricate, complex garden are passed on. In addition, study days, week-long Symposia, workshops and lectures are held frequently

References

External links

Official siteDaily pics from Great Dixter Garden
{{coord, 50, 59, 48, N, 0, 35, 30, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Gardens in East Sussex Country houses in East Sussex Grade I listed buildings in East Sussex Grade I listed houses Historic house museums in East Sussex Houses completed in 1912 Arts and Crafts architecture in England Works of Edwin Lutyens in England 1912 establishments in England Hall houses Northiam