Donate to Munstead Wood

Imagine having the chance to see Getrude Jekyll’s beloved home and garden for yourself.  Being expertly guided through her seasonal garden rooms; her evocative Woodland Garden, her vibrant Spring Garden or her highly influential Long Summer Border. 

Envisage stepping inside her Arts and Crafts house, a design collaboration with the young architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, a place of career-launching ideas, beauty, and honest craft.

Imagine young people planting seeds for the first time in Jekyll’s restored glasshouses, apprentices learning to care for her unique azalea collection, architecture students sketching in Lutyens’ Long Gallery, and floristry, craft, and design classes being held in Jekyll’s original workshop.

These are the opportunities we want to provide for people, but we need your help.

You can give new life to Munstead Wood

Over the coming years, we need to raise substantial funds to carry out crucial restoration and conservation work to both the house and garden, and to update site infrastructure for sustainable 21^st century use.

Saving Munstead Wood was not expected, but it was vital.  Its cultural significance is so exceptional that our trustees took the unusual step of acquiring the property and bringing it into our care without an endowment.

Munstead Wood has always been a private, domestic home accessed only by a single-track bridleway.  It will take significant work and funds to upgrade its 130-year-old infrastructure.  This work is the most crucial step towards its future as a hub of gardening and design inspiration, open to all for guided tours and unique events.

We must upgrade and develop new infrastructure and provide safe access on to the property.  Over the next couple of years, landscape and building experts will work on submitting detailed designs and planning applications.  Once full permissions are granted, we can start the access and infrastructure work and hopefully open a year later.

This is where you come in

We need your help to provide a new public entrance and improved infrastructure so we can open Munstead Wood to you and others.

Your donation could help deliver essential infrastructure upgrades that transform Munstead Wood from a private residence into a welcoming National Trust property.

• A new entrance directly off the main road which will provide access to more forms of transport including shuttle buses and bikes.
• A new welcome building with toilets and changing place facility, and an accessible path network through the woodland and decorative garden, will ensure Munstead Wood can be enjoyed by all.  
• We must modernise site services and utilities. We want to invest in decarbonising the heating system through a ground source heat pump, and harvest rainwater to support garden self-sufficiency and mitigate the effects of climate change.

It might not be the most Instagram worthy element of our work, but it is the essential first step in realising what Munstead Wood could become – a hub of gardening and design inspiration, connecting people to nature, culture and heritage.

Will you help open the gate to Munstead Wood?

Donate today

Become a National Trust Patron

If you want to join a collective making a difference to places like Munstead Wood, become a National Trust Patron. 

As a patron, you will receive a carefully curated programme of events and communications throughout the year.  You’ll engage with world-leading experts and explore behind the scenes of the treasured collections, buildings and outdoor spaces in our care.

You can specify that the discretionary donation element of your patron membership directly supports Munstead Wood.

Every donation is powerful, but when you join a collective, the difference you can make is multiplied. Patron membership starts at £1,000 per year or £84 per month. 

To find out more about how you can support Munstead Wood by becoming a National Trust Patron, please talk to our friendly Patrons Team.

Become a patron of the National Trust

Talk to us about making a larger gift or leaving a Gift in your Will for Munstead Wood

The maximum amount the National Trust can accept via an online donation is £10,000.  If you wish to make a larger gift or consider leaving a Gift in your Will, please contact us directly and a member of the Munstead Wood team will be delighted to talk with you, email munsteadwood@nationaltrust.org.uk.