Fowey Old Grammar School
More than 300 years ago, Fowey landowner John Treffry donated land to the town to build a free school where 30 poor boys could be educated in everything from history and mathematics to navigation. The school has long since been demolished, and apartments now stand on the site – but the garden planted in the school grounds in 1692 is still flourishing.
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The Gardener’s House
A donkey once lived in a shed on the ground floor of the gardener’s house in Morrab Gardens. “The gardener never got up on time,” says present-day head gardener Joe Palmese. “So the people he worked with used to do something to annoy the donkey – and the gardener would come downstairs, angry because of the noise the donkey was making!”
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Godolphin
For more than 200 years, tenant farmers at Godolphin kept their animals in a field beyond the estate’s formal terraced gardens – but a survey of the paddock has revealed the remains of six additional garden terraces beneath the earth.
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Gyllyngdune Gardens
A century after the gates of Gyllyngdune Gardens were first opened to the public, the seeds have been sown for a £2.5 million scheme designed to restore Falmouth’s neglected seafront attraction to its Edwardian glory.
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Mary Newman’s Garden
Roses help cure inflammation of the brain, and dill is useful for bringing relief from wind. Such were the beliefs of the Tudors, and this interest in the medicinal properties of common plants and herbs was a major factor in shaping the gardens they created.
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Pengersick Castle
Honeysuckle and old roses twine around the oak bower in the herb garden at Pengersick Castle. Carved into the wood is the crest of John Milliton, who came to live here in the 15th century – before the castle was built – when his wife inherited the house which once stood close to the garden.
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Penrose
The giant granite press in the tool shed at Penrose is a tangible reminder of centuries of apple-growing in the fields around Helston. It is a heavy piece of kit. “We don’t know how the press was brought in. Maybe it was there before the shed was built,” speculates National Trust ranger Laura David.
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Trengwainton Walled Garden
A walled kitchen garden in West Cornwall, which first went into production nearly two centuries ago, is waking from a long hibernation. This was the original garden at the Trengwainton estate near Penzance, created long before the estate’s lush woodland garden with its spectacular display of rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias.
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