Discover more at Sunnycroft
Find out when Sunnycroft is open, how to get here, the things to see and do and more.
Sunnycroft garden
Sunnycroft grounds contain a garden, as well as pasture land that was once used for grazing.
Garden significance
The garden includes the original features of an Edwardian garden and grounds including a paddock, orchard, formal rose garden, herbaceous borders, glasshouses and outbuildings.
Garden layout
The Slaney and Lander families used the garden for social activities and wellbeing.
The centrepiece of the formal rose garden is the R. Halliday & Co. conservatory. Built in 1899, it is one of only two known existing Halliday conservatories. It is a rare example of Victorian engineering and design, and was a status symbol of its time. It is Grade II listed in its own right.
To create their gardens, the owners of Sunnycroft turned to society magazines and horticultural journals to discover the latest trends.
The formal elements of the late Victorian garden merge with the more relaxed style of the Edwardian period. They continue through the fashions of the 20th century.
The working estate
Sunnycroft aimed to be self-sufficient, supplying its own produce.
Cows were kept on the pasture land, pigs were in the pig sties and chickens were kept in the orchard.
Apples, Damsons and other soft fruit would have been turned into jam or sold at Wellington market.
Joan Lander was known to cut an apple in half to get the correct weight! Inside the house her last batch of jam remains on display in the larder.
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