Borde Hill Garden

About the garden

Set within 383 acres of an area of outstanding natural beauty on the High Weald, Borde Hill is a Grade II-listed garden and features one private collection of over 70 specimens of champion trees. Five generations of the Stephenson Clarke family have committed the last 130 years to protecting and enhancing Borde Hill’s significant collection of plants, trees and shrubs for future generations of visitor to enjoy.

Plants have been in Borde Hill’s DNA since 1598 when Stephen Borde, the grandson of Henry VIII’s private herbalist and physician, Andrew Borde, rebuilt the picturesque Elizabethan Mansion House at the heart of the estate. Centuries later, Colonel Stephenson R Clarke sponsored plant hunting trips around the world to create a nationally important plant collection.    

Surrounded by rolling parkland and ancient woodland, the garden is planted as a series of ‘outdoor garden rooms’, with highlights including the Azalea Ring, the Italian Garden, the Rose Garden, the sub-tropical Round Dell and newly planted perennial summer borders by acclaimed garden designer Chris Beadshaw.