An afternoon at Benton End

Cedric Morris, reknown artist and gardener, lived at Benton End near Ipswich with his partner Arthur Lett-Haines from 1939 until Cedric's death in 1982,  (Arthur sadly dying earlier in 1978).  The house and garden was gifted to the Garden Museum in 2021 and they have been restoring the house and gardens.  This year they started a limited opening of the gardens.  It is still work in progress and I was keen to go and visit. 

Things you need to know:  you have to book your visit as the gardens are not large and so numbers of visitors are limited.  There is no parking at Benton End and you cannot park directly on the road outside.  It is advised on the website that you park in one of the car parks in nearby Hadleigh from where it is probably a fifteen minute or so walk.  

The house itself is really interesting.  It dates back to the 1520s and still retains many features from that time.

The house is charming, I spent some time admiring it and wondering about previous owners and how it has changed down the years.

The garden is being restored with design from Sarah Price.  

They are incorporating plants associated with Cedric Morris, such as Papaver rhoeas 'Cedric Morris'.

They are having to restore the garden from scratch as very little remained of his time there.

I liked that they are not attempting to recreate exactly, but more be in sympathy and inspired by.  This felt right as we all know gardens do evolve and have their own histories.

When you go through the gate at the rear of the garden you find the patch of Benton irises.  They have finished flowering now but it is good to see the collection being put back together.  The garden has been helped by some of the plants that Cedric gave to friends being returned to the garden.  What a lovely thing to do.

This part of the garden is fairly wild, with some interesting woven structures,

and the bones of an old greenhouse.  There is something very beautiful about a greenhouse skeleton.  I always think about the love that it once contained and the plants that it saw grow.  It has a romance about it.

We had a really nice visit.  As said the garden is not huge and is work in progress.  The Museum says it has plans to make this an artistic and horticultural centre.  This seems a great idea and I hope that this garden can continue to thrive and progress.

Take care and be kind.

For more from the Blackberry Garden follow me on Bluesky Twitter X  Facebook Instagram and Substack