Visit ‘Britain’s Greatest Garden Art Collaboration’ in a Landmark Year

Make 2026 the year you visit ‘Britain’s greatest garden art collaboration’, by making a bee line to Levens Hall and Gardens.  The property reopens on Friday March 27 and will be welcoming visitors, seven days a week, until Saturday October 3.

The historic house and gardens is preparing for a landmark year.  2026 will be the year in which it says goodbye to its 11th head gardener, Chris Crowder, and welcomes its 12th custodian, to play their part within a remarkable artistic garden sculpture collaboration that has stretched across 332 years. 

The world’s oldest topiary garden, located within the more extensive gardens at the glorious southern Lake District Elizabethan hall, was founded in 1694, by the first head gardener, Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont. Remarkably, only 10 other head gardeners have followed in his footsteps across the centuries.  

This speaks volumes about the garden and the passion that these gardeners have had for it.  The current head gardener has filled the role for 40 years – the target he set for himself as a 23-year-old interviewee for the job.

Each head gardener has left some form of legacy within the topiary garden. In Beaumont’s case, that can be seen, to this day, in the form of the two huge 10-metre-tall Umbrella trees in the garden. Both can speak of historical events going back more than three centuries.

The legacy of the current head gardener can be witnessed in a variety of tiered topiary pieces - his particular preference.  He also helped King Charles III to plant one of the newer topiary trees.

In the years between Beaumont and Chris Crowder, gardeners have collaborated to leave behind a variety of geometric and rather more eccentric topiary-shaped pieces.  This ranges from the Judge’s Wig and the Toppling Wedding Cake, to the Top Hat, Queen Elizabeth I and her Maids of Honour and two current-day fictional heroes, Darth Vader and Homer Simpson.

With many topiary pieces over 150 years old, as well as those that have double their longevity, what can be seen today is a true garden sculpture collaboration that cannot be found, in this style, anywhere else in the world. Eleven men have reached for the clippers, shears and, nowadays electric trimmers and cherry pickers, to create what visitors become mesmerised by, the moment they step through the garden door.

The garden collaboration does also extend beyond sculpture, with other areas to explore as well as the topiary garden.  These include the historic Bowling Green (now a croquet lawn), the Orchard, the Fountain Garden, the Herb Garden and what is probably England’s oldest ha-ha. 

There is also the goose bump-inducing Beech Circle, enclosed by a beech hedge, dating back to Beaumont’s time, that measures 5 metres in both height and width and which extends, in full, for about 500 metres.  Children can have fun in a play area and all can then relax and share their impressions of the gardens in the award-winning eatery, Levens Kitchen.

The entire garden was laid out by Beaumont and has been tended by the 11 gardeners, who have nursed it through politically challenging times, various changes of ownership, World Wars and the pandemic.  Nowadays, the small gardening team grows 30,000 plants on-site, planting these out in the garden in twice-yearly flowerbed displays. Add to this the Pastel and Red-blue herbaceous borders, a gloriously scented rose garden, fruit trees to tend in the orchard and much more, and the garden demonstrates how its gardeners may be its custodians but it has a life, vibrancy and deep determination all of its own.

The current head gardener describes it as a ‘living garden’ and one that appeals to modern visitors who want to see it through a camera lens on many occasions. To do that yourself, head to Levens, near Kendal and tick a must-see English attraction off your bucket list.  

Admission to the gardens only at Levens Hall and Gardens costs £13 for an adult, £4.75 for a child and £32.35 for a family of two adults and up to three children aged 5-16. Under-5s enter for free.  Combined Hall and Gardens admission, to view Elizabethan craftsmanship, possessions once owned by Wellington and Napoleon, the earliest English patchwork, and fabulous furniture and artworks, costs £17.30 for an adult, £5.75 for a child and £42.75 for a family of two adults and up to three children aged 5-16.  

Tickets can be bought in advance at www.levenshall.co.uk, or at the entrance kiosk on arrival.  

The Gardens are open from 10am to 5pm and the House from 11am to 3.30pm.  Last entry is at 4pm for the gardens and 3pm for the house.

Head to www.levenshall.co.uk for more information.

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Editors notes

Levens Hall & Gardens is a historic house in the South Lakes, Cumbria, close to Kendal and home to the world's oldest topiary gardens, dating from 1694, created by French garden designer, Guillaume Beaumont. The Hall is a stunning Elizabethan house built around a 13th century pele tower and has close links to the Duke of Wellington, as well as various items which once belonged to him and Napoleon Bonaparte. Levens Park is home to the rare Bagot goats gifted to the Bagot family and a place in which to stroll and enjoy nature. Levens Kitchen is the contemporary new cafe, full of delights for cake lovers and foodies alike.