Shot! Woolbeding Gardens
World-class gardens, extraordinary landscapes, yet hidden from the public for most of the year. Welcome to West Sussex’s best-kept secret. If you can get in.
It has been shaped by a supermarket dynasty, a Victoria and Albert-worthy fountain, a Heatherwick glasshouse, and one of Britain’s greatest living gardeners.
Benjamin Disraeli once described it as sitting in “the greenest valley with the prettiest river in the world.”
Despite this, most people have never heard of it, and very few have seen it with their own eyes.
Almost seventy years ago, after having been handed down from one generation to another, the Lascelles family bequeathed their ancestral home to the National Trust. The family continued to live there until 1969, after which the property was briefly vacant.
Set within the South Downs National Park, this was no ordinary home. Unfortunately, when it was handed over, the Grade I-listed 17th-century country estate near Midhurst in West Sussex was in a state of disrepair. The cost of fixing it up was beyond the Trust’s coffers, so, rather than allow it to deteriorate further, they advertised Woolbeding, hoping to attract a wealthy benefactor. And that’s exactly what they got.
Simon Sainsbury – grandson of the supermarket founder – was already weekending at nearby Petworth and looking for an away-from-it-all retreat somewhere deep in nature to take on. The arrangement he struck in 1972 with the National Trust was unusual to say the least: a leaseback or long-term tenancy, whereby the Trust retains ownership, while ‘a tenant with means’ restores and maintains the property, often with philanthropic benefits to the Trust.
Woolbeding needed considerable work, and Sainsbury would have to pay for it all, as well as the upkeep. And then there were the gardens. Those required even more work.
Together with his partner, Stewart Grimshaw, Sainsbury set about restoring the 17th-century house and transforming the gardens – a project that would become their life’s work.
What followed was not simply a renovation. It consumed more than three decades of their time, a considerable fortune, and the creative energy of some of the most distinguished names in British garden design. But until recently, very few got to see the results of their efforts.
When Sainsbury died in 2006, Grimshaw took sole responsibility for Woolbeding, a home he still lives in most weekends each year. The grand plan was always to open the gardens to the public, and Sainsbury left a sizable bequest to ensure there were funds available to bring their shared vision to life.
And theirs was truly a grand vision. Beyond the house, the sprawling 26 acres of gardens were a blank canvas for green-fingered, vivid minds.
To get to see what the pair created, you can’t just show up at the door; one has to first get oneself to a leisure centre car park. With rigorous restrictions on visitor numbers and the days it’s open to the public, Woolbeding remains one of Sussex’s most spectacular secrets.
Those lucky enough to be able to visit need to book in advance and take a minibus from Midhurst, as there’s no parking on site. Once dropped off, you quickly realise this is like no other National Trust property. There are no crowds, no signs, and just one set of toilets.
The house itself is not open to the public and is currently covered in scaffolding as its window frames receive a fresh coat of paint.
Wherever you walk, the unspoilt verdant landscape is gorgeous and uninterrupted. Wherever you look, in whichever direction, all you survey is Woolbeding. Nothing else is visible. That’s because the estate comprises just over 1,100 acres of parkland, woodland, farmland, heath and river valley.
The first surprise, however, is almost jarring: a strikingly modern water feature by British sculptor William Pye, which at first sight looks like an overflowing champagne glass.
It is called ‘Cedra’ – a nod to the giant cedar tree that once stood on the site – and belongs to Pye’s ‘Coanda’ series, inspired by the Coandă effect, describing how fluids adhere to surfaces.
Fabricated from cast, spun, and rolled mirror-polished stainless steel, the bowl-like structure stands about four metres high and in diameter, water spilling over its edges and flowing down a central trunk, evoking the shape of a tree.
Within eyesight is another structure, although this one is neoclassical in nature. The Tulip Folly was designed by the architect Philip Jebb, who had previously worked on Sainsbury’s London house.
It marks the spot where an ancient tulip tree was blown down in a storm, just missing the house.
One of the first areas of the garden that Sainsbury and Grimshaw focused on was the West Borders.
Today, the planting – as with everywhere at Woolbeding – has matured beautifully, the borders resplendent and filled with groups of pom-pom alliums.
Adjacent are the formal Garden Rooms – a series of walled areas created by the American garden designer Lanning Roper, who was appointed to make sweeping changes to Woolbeding.
Here you will find an orangery enclosing a small Italianate swimming pool, a herb garden structured by box hedges and spiral topiaries, picking borders, a fruit cage, and best of all, a room devoted to what is considered the ‘real treasure’ of Woolbeding: a fountain topped by a youth astride dolphins.
It turns out that it is, in fact, a replica of the original 16th-century fountain created by the Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Rovezzano, which was made in England around 1536 for the court of Cowdray House.
When Cowdray House burned down in 1793 (its ruins are just up the road in Midhurst), the fountain was moved to Woolbeding.
In 1971, the National Trust placed the fragile original on indefinite loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum for preservation and conservation. The V&A created and installed a faithful cast replica at Woolbeding to replace it in its original garden setting. And that’s what you see today.
But nothing quite prepares you for The Silk Route – my favourite area in the gardens.
Although much more expansive, the Silk Route has the look and feel of a Chelsea show garden.
It takes you on a journey through twelve distinct geographical zones, with over 300 species tracing the ancient Silk Route’s plant introductions to Britain.
The primary consultant and designer for the planting scheme and overall garden concept was Fergus Garrett, the celebrated head gardener at Great Dixter.
The garden he created emphasises horticultural storytelling through its zoned planting.
Beginning with the Mediterranean and a magnificent ancient olive tree, the landscape subtly shifts as the winding path leads you from the Anatolian Plateau and Persia through Central Asia before ending in southwest China.
After the sweep and drama of the Silk Route, the Heatherwick glasshouse – the garden’s newest addition – should have been the crescendo. Being a huge admirer of the studio’s work, I was looking forward to seeing one of their rare private commissions. Sadly, the ten-sided glasshouse proved somewhat of a disappointment.
It was surprisingly small, meaning there wasn’t much to see inside, and – at least on the day of my visit – its main design feature, the opening glass sepals, wasn’t working.
For such a compact structure, it felt over-engineered at the expense of simply being made bigger to accommodate more palms.
For me, the most interesting element was the flooring – convergent lines and leaf-inspired metal grills – bearing a striking resemblance to some laser-etched metal panels I’d admired back in 2022 on the Morris & Co show garden at Chelsea – coincidentally the very same year the greenhouse was installed.
In search of shade and with showers forecast, I headed back to the visitor entrance to await the minibus to Midhurst.
It was only once I returned home that I realised I’d completely missed one of the garden’s highlights – The Longwalk, a wooded pleasure garden that took ten years to create. It was laid out by Julian and Isabel Bannerman, two of Britain’s most sought-after garden designers, best known for their work at the Earl’s Garden at Arundel Castle and the King’s garden at Highgrove. Names, in other words, entirely in keeping with Woolbeding’s remarkable pedigree.
Not that I needed an excuse, but knowing there’s even more to see means I’ll be going back – perhaps a little later in the year, when even more of the flowers will be in bloom. And maybe, just maybe, the Heatherwick glasshouse will fully reveal itself as its designers intended.
Behind the shot: All these images were taken handheld, mainly with the iPhone 16 Pro and a few with the Olympus OM-D E-M1. As always, it was all about seeking the most interesting subjects and then looking to find the most compelling compositions. Photographed at Woolbeding Gardens on 28 May 2026.
About the author: Based in Sussex-by-the-Sea, on England’s south coast, Gary is a creative writer and image-maker. He specialises in creating out-of-the-ordinary portraits of musicians and people with interesting faces, as well as photographing some of the world’s finest flowers and gardens, not forgetting an array of automotive exotica.
On the writing side, he has used his research skills to author deep dives into some noteworthy songs beginning with Bryan Ferry’s ‘These Foolish Things’, ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, ‘Real Wild Child’ by Ivan and ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott the Hoople.
He has also written a biography of Robert Palmer and the stories behind Whitesnake’s blatant Led Zep rip-off, ‘Still Of The Night’, Harry Styles’ anthem to positivity, ‘Treat People With Kindness’ and the little-known Queen track ‘Cool Cat.’
Most recently, Gary has penned the fascinating story behind George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ as well as ‘Believe It Or Not’, a look into the rise of fake news.
All these can be found here on Medium, along with his reviews of gigs and events and chats with musicians including the likes of Royal Blood, Joe Satriani and Wolf Alice.
