
Nymans is an
English garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal ...
to the east of the village of
Handcross, and in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of
Slaugham in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...
, England. The garden was developed, starting in the late nineteenth century, by three generations of the Messel family, and was brought to renown by
Leonard Messel.
In 1953 Nymans became a
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
property. Nymans is the origin of many
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
, selections and hybrids, both planned and serendipitous, some of which can be identified by the term ''nymansensis'', "of Nymans". ''
Eucryphia × nymansensis'' (''E. cordifolia'' × ''E. glutinosa'') is also known as ''E.'' "Nymansay". ''
Magnolia × loebneri'' 'Leonard Messel', Camellia 'Maud Messel' and ''
Forsythia suspensa'' 'Nymans', with its bronze young stems, are all familiar shrubs to gardeners.
The gardens are listed
Grade II* in
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
's
Register of Parks and Gardens, and the house is a Grade II
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 ...
. During 2019, the gardens received 382,948 visitors.
History
In the late nineteenth century, Ludwig Ernest Wilhelm Leonard Messel (1847–1915), a member of a German Jewish banking family, settled in England and bought the Nymans estate, a house with on a sloping site overlooking the picturesque
High Weald of Sussex. There he set about turning the estate into a place for family life and entertainment, with an
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 ...
-inspired garden room where
topiary features contrast with new plants from temperate zones around the world.
After buying the property in 1890, Messel set about transforming the original
Regency house into a German-style structure. Ludwig's brother
Alfred Messel
Alfred Messel (22 July 1853 – 24 March 1909) was a German architect at the turning point to the 20th century, creating a new style for buildings which bridged the transition from historicism to modernism. Messel was able to combine the structure ...
, already a well-known architect in Germany, drew up the plans; construction work was carried out by local builders.
Messel's head gardener from 1895 was James Comber, whose expertise helped form plant collections at Nymans of
camellia
''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...
s,
rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...
s, which unusually at the time were combined with planting
heather (''
Erica'')
eucryphias and
magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendr ...
s.
William Robinson advised in establishing the Wild Garden.
Unfortunately Messel, who was of Jewish ancestry and of German extraction, was harassed during the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Unsubstantiated rumours abounded that he used the tower at Nymans for the purposes of espionage.
Ludwig's son Colonel Leonard Messel succeeded to the property in 1915 and, at the request of his wife
Maud, replaced the German-style wood-beam house with a picturesque mock-medieval stone manor, designed by Sir
Walter Tapper and
Norman Evill in a mellow late
Gothic/
Tudor style. He and his wife Maud (daughter of
Edward Linley Sambourne) extended the garden to the north and subscribed to seed collecting expeditions in the Himalayas and South America.
The garden reached a peak in the 1930s and was regularly opened to the public. The severe reduction of staff in World War II was followed in 1947 by a disastrous fire in the house, which survives as a garden ruin. The house was partially rebuilt and became the home of Leonard Messel's daughter
Anne Messel and her second husband
Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse. At Leonard Messel's death in 1953 it was bequeathed to the National Trust with of woodland, one of the first gardens taken on by the Trust. Lady Rosse continued to serve as Garden Director.
The garden suffered much damage in the
Great Storm of October 1987, losing 486 mature trees and many of the shrubs. The
pinetum, one of the garden's earliest features, was destroyed.
TourUK:Nymans
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File:Nymans 1932.jpg, The southern frontage of Nymans in 1932 before the fire and subsequent ruin
File:Nymans, Southern Frontage - geograph.org.uk - 709812.jpg, The southern frontage today. The ruined house remains a garden feature.
File:Nymans Gardens. - geograph.org.uk - 428649.jpg, Mixed borders of perennials and annuals in midsummer
Notes
{{Use British English, date=October 2024
National Trust properties in West Sussex
Gardens in West Sussex
Grade II* listed parks and gardens in West Sussex
Grade II listed buildings in West Sussex