Uploaded April 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Near the pretty town of Banbury, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Northants, lies the tiny village of Thenford. With a population of less than 100, this otherwise unremarkable spot conceals an astounding property, owned by Michael Heseltine and his redoubtable wife, Anne.
Over the 40-plus years they've owned it, Thenford House and its formerly tatty gardens have been systematically restored. Redesigning almost from scratch (the parterres were inspired by the Chateau de Villandry), and with a further 30 acres of farmland added over the years as neighbouring properties became available, the Heseltines have steadily designed and built a first-class, fully-fledged, 70-acre arboretum of both rarity and distinction.
Lanning Roper, whom they seconded in 1977; and developing it through Sir Harold Hillier, the Chairman of Hillier's Nurseries (which still houses the largest collection of woody plants in the world: over 12,000 at last count), this determined couple, despite Lord Heseltine's demanding ascendancy through the corridors of power in the Thatcher government (he rose to become Deputy Prime Minister), proceeded to exact both horticultural and arboreal miracles, amassing en route some 5,000 species of trees, shrubs and plants, including 400 different roses, almost as many oaks, 350 cotoneasters, and no less than 350 varieties of snowdrops (His Lordship's personal passion, not altogether shared by his wife).
Under Darren Webster, their amiable head gardener of long standing, this noble arboretum continues to develop unabated (it even sports its own nursery and a complex of greenhouses); and despite disasters both predictable and unforeseen - not least the influx of an undislodgeable flock of Canada Geese, with which your correspondent sympathises - Thenford has become the object of intense - and international - horticultural interest.
While it remains a private garden (the Heseltines plan to pass it on to one of their children), it is nonetheless open to the public, on a contained, ticketed basis, 4 times a year.
For those sufficiently interested in, but unwilling to indulge, the extravagance of the book itself (which Lord and Lady Heseltine wrote, personally and revealingly, in pleasantly adjoining chapters), you are referred to that bastion of bucolic living, Country Life, whose issue of April 3rd, 2019, features a most excellent article by the horticultural journalist, Charles Quest-Ritson.
Altogether a highly unusual garden, with a suitably handsome book to match.
More gardening video book reviews at
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/gardening-book-reviews
Near the pretty town of Banbury, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Northants, lies the tiny village of Thenford. With a population of less than 100, this otherwise unremarkable spot conceals an astounding property, owned by Michael Heseltine and his redoubtable wife, Anne.
Over the 40-plus years they've owned it, Thenford House and its formerly tatty gardens have been systematically restored. Redesigning almost from scratch (the parterres were inspired by the Chateau de Villandry), and with a further 30 acres of farmland added over the years as neighbouring properties became available, the Heseltines have steadily designed and built a first-class, fully-fledged, 70-acre arboretum of both rarity and distinction.
Lanning Roper, whom they seconded in 1977; and developing it through Sir Harold Hillier, the Chairman of Hillier's Nurseries (which still houses the largest collection of woody plants in the world: over 12,000 at last count), this determined couple, despite Lord Heseltine's demanding ascendancy through the corridors of power in the Thatcher government (he rose to become Deputy Prime Minister), proceeded to exact both horticultural and arboreal miracles, amassing en route some 5,000 species of trees, shrubs and plants, including 400 different roses, almost as many oaks, 350 cotoneasters, and no less than 350 varieties of snowdrops (His Lordship's personal passion, not altogether shared by his wife).
Under Darren Webster, their amiable head gardener of long standing, this noble arboretum continues to develop unabated (it even sports its own nursery and a complex of greenhouses); and despite disasters both predictable and unforeseen - not least the influx of an undislodgeable flock of Canada Geese, with which your correspondent sympathises - Thenford has become the object of intense - and international - horticultural interest.
While it remains a private garden (the Heseltines plan to pass it on to one of their children), it is nonetheless open to the public, on a contained, ticketed basis, 4 times a year.
For those sufficiently interested in, but unwilling to indulge, the extravagance of the book itself (which Lord and Lady Heseltine wrote, personally and revealingly, in pleasantly adjoining chapters), you are referred to that bastion of bucolic living, Country Life, whose issue of April 3rd, 2019, features a most excellent article by the horticultural journalist, Charles Quest-Ritson.
Altogether a highly unusual garden, with a suitably handsome book to match.
More gardening video book reviews at
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/gardening-book-reviews
