Sensory delights at West Horsley Place

Karen Neville

Activities & Events, Camberley, Bagshot & Lightwater, Chobham, Community & Charity, Egham, Farnham, Godalming, Guildford, Haslemere, Old Woking, Round and About, Surrey, The Clandons

West Horsley Place is sharing the benefits and beauty of the estate with everyone in the community with the opening of a new sensory garden

The peaceful and beautiful sensory garden at West Horsley Place has been designed to be as accessible as possible to all.

In creating the garden, a group of blind and partially-blind people and members of their access panel who face a variety of different access barriers, were consulted.

The design included raised beds to bring plants closer to people, colours that help create contrast and ‘banks of smells’, as well as benches and places for sitting and reflecting.

The West Horsley Place team, which includes a dedicated group of gardening volunteers, worked for six months to transform the neglected patch of ground into a charming space. Plants were transported and propagated from the existing collection and materials were all recycled from the wider estate.

Over the last few years, West Horsley Place, the ancient Manor House where the BBC series Ghosts was filmed, has started opening to the public with an exciting programme of tours, workshops and performances. In Oct ober 2022, they announced a two-year project funded by the National Heritage Lottery called Heritage Without Barriers. This project has helped them to fulfil their aim to improve people’s wellbeing with access to culture, heritage and nature.

The sensory garden, which was opened by the Mayor of Guildford, Cllr Sallie Barker, pictured, is part of that project. It has also been supported by Surrey Gardens Trust, West Horsley Parish Council, East Horsley Parish Council, the Stevenson Family Trust, the Banister Charity Trust, the Horsley Community Fund and other charitable donors.

The Trust’s Director, Ilona Harris said: “We would like to thank the National Heritage Lottery Fund and our generous supporters for making this project possible. We are proud custodians of a 400-acre estate that is free for people to enjoy. It is wonderful to now have a space which is accessible and brings the benefits and beauty of that estate to everyone in our community. We hope you will come and enjoy it soon.”

West Horsley Place is a Grade I listed medieval manor house and estate, the house dates from 1425, though there has been a building on site since Saxon times. Recent work to conserve and maintain the house has made the principal rooms safe and comfortable for public access, but the house remains on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.

The West Horsley Place Trust aims to bring the house, gardens, 400-acre estate and eight Grade II listed outbuildings back into good repair and to improve people’s wellbeing through culture, heritage & nature.

Find out more at West Horsley Place Trust

West Horsley Place is sharing the benefits and beauty of the estate with everyone in the community with the opening of a new sensory garden

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