What next for Munstead Wood?

The National Trust purchases Munstead Wood, the internationally important Surrey home and garden of influential plantswoman, designer and author Gertrude Jekyll.  Now in our care, after seventy-five years in private ownership (outside of the Jekyll family), the house and eleven acres of the garden are secure, but our work to open them for future generations has only just begun. Fundraising to support this work is vital for the property's long-term sustainability.

A careful assessment of the house, outbuildings and garden were the priority, in order create a safe space in which to work. The house is in good order but as with many buildings of this age, some asbestos needed to be removed, wiring checked, floorboards replaced, and fire and intruder protection fitted.  Further surveys, repair and conservation work will be required over the next few years, with a particular focus on the roof, rainwater goods and windows.

The General Manager begins pulling together a small team responsible for the day-to-day care and running of the house and garden. The oil tank is replaced, temporary Wi-Fi installed, and the workroom becomes furnished as a temporary office.

By October we had brought together a team of experts across buildings, gardens, communications, fundraising and curatorial disciplines. The team is led by a project manager with the aim of developing our understanding of the significance of Munstead Wood and working through the feasibility of various options of opening for public access.

The role of curator is essential in helping us understand the significance of Munstead Wood and how best to approach its conservation and restoration.  She has embarked on many months of research including at the Environmental Design Archives at Berkeley, University of California, RIBA in London and the Surrey History Centre in Woking, as well as interrogating Jekyll’s published books and articles. Further research has begun to gather evidence to support restoring specific areas of the garden, such as the original greenhouses, the Yew Cat and the Summerhouse at the end of the Pergola.  Several surveys have been commissioned to assist with identifying both the original garden layout and plants and trees of particular significance.

Working with a wide range of people, from local neighbours, community groups, and gardeners to nationally recognised experts and current garden designers we have been examining what Munstead Wood means to people, what are their hopes for its future and what ideas they would like us to explore to share its many stories.

Springtime was the ideal time to get off-site and start sharing Munstead Wood's story and our hopes for its future with the local community.  We ran a three week exhibition at the local museum in Godalming with opportunities to come and meet the team and set up stall at the Town Spring Fair in April, to also hear peoples' thoughts.

Raising funds to assist with the care of Munstead Wood is a key priority and directly effects the pace at which we can work. In addition to our planned fundraising, there have been some very unexpected, but welcome gifts.  This summer the Trust ran a member competition to win a behind the scenes tour of the garden.  71,000 views and 42,000 entries later, and one ex-Godalming resident, now based in Canada, was moved to donate.  This gift has meant we can start on the essential task of safeguarding the decorative woodland.  The area consists of over 224 individual azalea plants which need to be identified, plotted and cared for. The azaleas are some our most significant historic plants with national importance.

Our current, all-female, garden team of the Head Gardener (at Munstead Wood for the last 23 years) and Senior Gardener, have recently been joined by a new member of the team, who was previously at National Trust Standen.  The team have been busy with a series of investigations to inform a garden management and conservation plan.  This has included topographical, ecology and ancient and veteran tree surveys, in addition to experts assisting with plant identification and advice on future care. We are still in the process of identifying and cataloguing all of the azaleas and rhododendrons at Munstead Wood, but have discovered that we have some National Champions for both height and girth amongst our 'Loder’s White' rhododendrons.

Green Hub are a local charity who support young people struggling with school attendance due to emotional or mental health issues. They offer the opportunity to come together once a week and benefit from being in green plots and garden spaces. We approached them about how we could support and were delighted to be able to run a very successful pilot with them over the summer, seeing our first ever (teen) garden volunteers working with our gardeners and having the chance to respond to the garden through art and craft activities. We will continue to work with Greenhub next year

A series of trial tours ran over the summer, testing access, capacity, routes and content.  Each session was followed up with questionnaires and focus groups which gave us very valuable feedback on how people might like to visit Munstead Wood in the future. Members of the local community were also welcomed for Heritage Open Days.

Gertrude Jekyll first trained as an artist at the age of 17 at the Royal Kensington School of Art.  A local art enthusiast has generously provided full funding for a project we are sure Miss Jekyll would approve of. The Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) have joined with us on this project to capture the signature plants of Gertrude Jekyll, many of which were bred by her at Munstead Wood or form part of the unique planting style she developed here.  SBA Artists from the UK and internationally were keen to take part and we were very glad to have the help of Vice Lord-Lieutenant for Surrey, Mary Creswell, when selecting who to choose, to paint each plant.  The florilegium will get underway next year.

We have started on the essential task of safeguarding the decorative woodland.  The area consists of over 224 individual Azalea plants which need to be identified, plotted and cared for. The Azaleas are some our most significant historic plants with national importance.  This winter we have started the conservation using new micro propagation methods at the Trust’s specialist plant conservation centre using buds collected by the garden team. This process ensures the survival of the collection’s original genetic material, should the plants at Munstead Wood ever suffer from disease or damage.

We have been delighted to welcome a series of artists to the site to capture some of Jekyll’s signature plants.  First to bloom in the year is the Iris 'Unguicularis' with its soft lavender butterfly-shaped petals and striking long spikey leaves.  A secondary school art teacher from Berkshire, who is one of the newest members of the Society of Botanical Artists made a trip here on a cold February day to get her initial sketches for the piece.  Hellebores were the next subject for study and the warm March sunshine saw the Primula 'Munstead Bunch' blooming early and the commissioned artist bring her own unique approach to her artwork.

May and June see the Rhododendrons come into bloom and amongst them the extensive collection of Ghent Azaleas.  This was the ideal time to call in experts to help identify those amongst the 247 bushes, which were unnamed.  Every plant was plotted on a detailed map of the garden and recorded on a database and soft wood cuttings taken of those which are the rarest or at risk from disease.  The central trust filming unit also captured some very useful drone footage which allowed us to understand more about Jekyll’s original intended colour plan for the copse and determine which of the bushes needed a heavy prune in future to restore blooms to the lower branches.

The curator led very important research and deskwork to compile a conservation management plan for the house and garden, consulting with external bodies in the form of The Garden Trust, Victorian Society and architectural experts.  The necessary restoration to house and garden has been assessed and costed.  This will assist our philanthropy team to create a fundraising plan, to help with the task of securing the finance to support what needs to be done to get us to the point of opening for future visits and education. A major fundraising event was held on site supported by the Trust’s Director General.

We have used the summer months to undertake some useful baseline surveys in the garden to help us inform where we need to improve habitats for pollinators and wildlife.  We were hugely encouraged by the number of butterflies and bees seen in the garden and this was backed up by some very favourable results in our Bee and Wasp baseline survey.  Local community visits were also arranged with groups with differing needs to help us understand more about adaptations we may need to make for access and we took the opportunity to share our ideas for Munstead at many local events and venues.