Page 20 • The HERALD • 3rd April 2025 v SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE HERALD v MR SWEEP THE CHIMNEY SWEEP keep it clean - keep it safer Open fires, wood burners, stoves etc. Both private and commercial properties Member of the Guild of Master Sweeps Tel: 07971 280906 www.mrsweeplymington.com email: mrsweeplymington@gmail.com 38 Bath Road, Lymington SO41 3SB Acorn Building Contracts Ltd u Reliable, local builders offering affordable, quality workmanship u Our employees are fully qualified and fully insured u All aspects of building undertaken including extensions, structural alterations, roofing, ground works, kitchens, bathrooms, carpentry and plastering u Drawings arranged u Insurance work undertaken u Local Authority Approved Contractor For free quotations and friendly advice please call Office: 023 8024 3336 Mobile: 07786 656865 Email: acornbuilding@gmail.com or visit our website: www.acorn-builders.co.uk You will not be disappointed Internal & External Decorating Wallpapering & Dustless Sanding FULLY INSURED PROFESSIONAL PAINTER & DECORATOR MARK 1 PROPERTY MAINTENANCE WILLIS DECORATING & JOINERY SERVICES Est Since 1986 Hand-painted Kitchens - Transform your Kitchen Interior & Exterior Painting and Decorating Call David on 023 8084 9800 or 07946 048261 E: david.willis24@btinternet.com Before After EXBURY GARDENS TO MARK 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF OPENING GATES TO VISITORS BY REDISCOVERING A ‘LOST CORNER’ OF THE GARDEN Exbury Gardens is to celebrate the 70th anniversary of public opening this year by starting the restoration of a magnificent specimens of trees, and many beautiful flowering shrubs. During the war years much of the 200-acre garden was obviously neglected, and when Lionel’s son Edmund was handed back the keys in 1955, he was faced with a very different garden to the one he’d grown up in. Edmund needed to kick-start the restoration of the gardens and faced with the monumental task of bringing it back to life, he opened the gates to the public for the first time. This restoration represents one of the final pieces of the original gardens to be reinstated. Over the next couple of years, we’re really looking forward to uncovering and sharing its hidden botanical treasures with visitors,” he added. “We hope to add another layer to the gardens’ already rich history for the benefit of generations to come.” Seventy years ago, in spring 1955 Edmund de Rothschild rst opened Exbury Gardens to the public, sharing the horticultural legacy that began in 1919 with his father Lionel de Rothschild, a passionate plantsman who was ttingly described as ‘a banker by hobby but a gardener by profession’. Lionel had begun creating one of the nest woodland gardens in the country, but this came to an abrupt halt when he died in 1942. e gardens were requisitioned by the Admiralty, along with Exbury House, and as the ‘stone frigate’ HMS Mastodon played an important role in the planning of D-Day. In 1955 when the overgrown gardens were nally returned to the de Rothschild family, the decision was made to welcome visitors for the rst time to explore its horti’ woodland wonders. Part of Lionel’s original garden included this six-anda-half-acre site and although large sections of Exbury have been transformed to their former glory, this ‘lost corner’ has remained unrestored, and inaccessible to visitors, since the war. Exbury Gardens is renowned for its stunning collection of rare plants and trees, including spring- owering rhododendrons and azaleas, acres of ornamental and native woodland, and beautiful herbaceous gardens. ‘long-forgotten’ corner of the world-famous Hampshire woodland garden. is six-and-a half-acre area has been virtually untouched for decades, dating back to when Exbury was requisitioned by the Navy in WW2. e two-year project will restore public access and uncover the wonderful, rare plants and trees, glades and vistas it contains, originally created in the 1920s when the garden was established. Also for the 2025 season, visitors will soon be able to follow a brand new 70th anniversary garden trail, spotting the unusual trees, landmarks and horticultural treasures, celebrating each of the seven decades the New Forest attraction has been open to the public. Events during the year will include the popular Exbury Festival of Music in August, cra workshops, a steam railway extravaganza and a pop-up pottery. Head Gardener Tom Clarke commenting on the ‘lost corner’ project said: “This section of the garden was originally planted in the 1920s by Lionel de Rothschild, a visionary horticulturist, and contains some truly Exbury Gardens azalea bowl (Credit: Stephen Studd) Exbury Gardens Steam Railway in the American Garden
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