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Great Dixter is a house in
Northiam
Northiam is a village and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district, in East Sussex, England, 13 miles (21 km) north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother, East Sussex, River Rother. The A28 road to Ashford, Kent, Ashford ...
, East Sussex, England. It was built in 1910–12 by architect
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...
, who combined an existing mid-15th century house on the site with a similar structure brought from
Benenden, Kent, together with his own additions. It is a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.
The garden, widely known for its continuous tradition of sophisticated plantsmanship, is Grade I listed in the
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England
{{R from move ...
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.
House
The original Northiam house, known as Dixter, dating from the mid-15th century, was acquired by a businessman named Nathaniel Lloyd in 1909. He had a 16th-century house in a similar style moved from Kent and the two were combined with new work by Lutyens to create a much larger house, which was rechristened Great Dixter. It is a romantic recreation of a medieval
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
, complete with
great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...
,
parlour
A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
,
solar and yeoman's hall.
Garden
Lloyd and Lutyens began the garden at Great Dixter, but it was Lloyd's son
Christopher Lloyd, a well known garden writer and television personality, who made it famous. The garden is in the
arts and crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
style, and features
topiary, a long border, an orchard and a wild flower meadow. The planting is profuse, yet structured, and has featured many bold experiments of form, colour and combination. The garden is currently managed by
Fergus Garrett, who worked closely with Lloyd up until his death in 2006 as Head Gardener and introduced a number of innovations into the planting scheme.
In the grounds of Great Dixter are three 18th-century
oast houses, under a common roof, and a 15th-century barn. These are Grade II* listed.
Image:Great Dixter 010.jpg, Porch
Image:Great Dixter 011.jpg, Detail of porch
Image:Great Dixter 007.jpg, Front door inside porch
Image:Oast House, Great Dixter, Sussex, UK.jpg, Oast houses
Image:Great Dixter 006.jpg, Roof beams inside thatched barn
Management
The house and garden are open to the public from the end of March to late October each year, while the nursery is open year-round. In 2003, the Great Dixter Charitable Trust was established by Christopher Lloyd to ensure the property was preserved after his death. Education is at the heart of the trust's work. A number of student placements and scholarships are offered every year to ensure that the skills of managing an intricate, complex garden are passed on. Study days, week-long symposia, workshops and lectures are held frequently.
References
External links
Official siteDaily pics from Great Dixter Garden
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Gardens in East Sussex
Country houses in East Sussex
Grade I listed buildings in East Sussex
Grade I listed houses
Historic house museums in East Sussex
Houses completed in 1912
Arts and Crafts architecture in England
Works of Edwin Lutyens in England
1912 establishments in England
Hall houses
Northiam