Sissinghurst

While working at the Winfield House in London, I was fortunate enough to accompany Stephen Crisp (Head Gardener-Winfield House) on a trip to Sissinghurst. Sissinghurst is a garden built on a truly ancient site in the weald of Kent. Weald (from the Old English for “forest”) is an name given to an area of South West England lying between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and South Downs. In the Middle Ages, Sissinghurst existed as a manor house with a three-armed moat. By 1305, the village was impressive enough to receive an overnight visit from King Edward I. By 1573, Sissinghurst attained further honor by having Queen Elizabeth I visit the village for three days.

By the 1930’s, Sissinghurst was unfortunately derelict and in ruins when Harold Nicolson and wife Vita Sackville-West decided to renovate the property. A most unusual couple, Harold was an English author, diplomat, diarist, and politician, and his wife Vita was a prolific garden writer garden writer, author, poet, and member of the Bloomsbury Group. The two had what we would call today “an open marriage,” both having multiple affairs with same-sex partners.

After studying this couple for my visit to Sissinghurst, I became stunned and fascinated by the so-called Bloomsbury Group. A group of intellectuals from different fields that held informal discussions in Bloomsbury during the 20^th century, the Bloomsbury Group had members ranging from John Maynard Keynes (“Keynesian Economics”/proponent of free markets), and noted author Virginia Woolf. Indeed Vita’s fringe involvement in the Bloomsbury Group brought about her most famous affair with Virginia Woolf which lasted for most of the 1920’s. Woolf’s novel Orlando (1928), dedicated to Vita, is partially a biographical tale of Vita’s life.

In Vita and Harold’s spare time, when they were not engaging in what must have been scandalous behavior at the time, they managed to create one of England’s most inspired gardens. The design of Sissinghurst was largely influenced by the styles of Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. The garden consists of multiple garden rooms created by a mixture of high clipped hedges and pink brick walls. The gardens are lush and colorful, and the views from the top of the Elizabethan tower are simply breathtaking.

In 2009, Sissinghurst was featured in an eight-part documentary by BBC Four entitled “Sissinghurst.” The documentary accounts the attempts of Adam Nicolson, wife Sarah Raven, and the National Trust to restore a type of Wealden agriculture to the castle farm. The land will be used to supply produce to the licensed restaurant at Sissinghurst.