Lost Gardens of Heligan

The Lost Gardens of Heligan, found in the Cornish countryside, was a Victorian garden which featured many newly discovered exotic plants. The earliest history at Heligan was building the manor in the 13th Century. In the 16th Century, the manor and the estate were bought by the Tremayne family and stayed within the family until the house was sold for flats in the 1970s. Throughout the Tremayne’s ownership of Heligan, they added and adapted the gardens, which can still be seen today. With the introduction of the Italian and Sundial Garden in the early 1900s, the popularity of Heligan grew within the Aristocratic society. During both wars, the estate was used to help the war effort, from being used as a hospital during the First World War to housing tanks on Flora’s Green in the Second. This, however, led to the ‘lost’ period of Heligan. It wasn’t until 1990 that the gardens were to be discovered again by Tim Smit.