2025 To Be the Year of 7-Day-a-Week Secret Sharing at Levens Hall and Gardens

South Lakes visitor attraction, Levens Hall and Gardens, will reopen its doors on Friday March 28, ready to reveal its significant secrets to individual travellers, families and groups.

Cumbria’s Small Visitor Attraction of the Year is likely to welcome more people through its doors than ever, thanks to new developments and a wave of publicity in late summer 2024. The gardening team’s annual topiary ‘haircut’, using cherry pickers and a host of other equipment, featured on prime-time ITN News and 10 other ITV channels, as well as on the BBC.  2025 will be the first opportunity to visit that many, who logged the amazing garden, will have had, having seen the footage. Some others may have since seen the garden on Monty Don’s Great British Gardens and Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes.

The first new development for 2025 is the arrival of seven-day-a-week opening for the first time.  This follows the move to six days a week a few years ago and means that nobody, who is restricted to when they visit the glorious Elizabethan Hall, the world’s oldest topiary garden, or the rest of the gardens’ glories, need miss out.

The second new thing for 2025 is the opportunity to tour the Hall and see it through the eyes of owner, Richard Bagot.  For the first time, group travellers, or large family and friend groups, will be able to book exclusive tours, in which Richard personally directs the proceedings and tells the stories of all of the Hall’s glories from his unique perspective.

Then there is a new challenge and a gauntlet being laid down.  Levens Hall and Gardens was unsuccessful in its attempts, a few years ago, to find out more about the world-record-holding garden’s founder, Guillaume Beaumont.  Now, it is renewing its appeal for information about him, as it tries to dispel one possible theory.

That theory relates to the fact that, because there seems to be no family tree or information that points to his origins, Guillaume Beaumont could have been a spy.  Such a role was fairly common for gardeners, back in the day, as they had perfect opportunities to come and go between important private residences, but also eavesdrop within gardens!

As it pushes on to dispel this theory, Levens Hall and Gardens will be giving its World Topiary Day celebrations for 2025, a distinctive spy theme, when they are rolled out on Sunday May 11.  This will engage children and adults alike.

But the same spirit of secret-sharing will infuse the year. Visitors to the South Lakes visitor attraction, located close to Kendal, will be able to find out secrets in a variety of ways.  There are audio guides, available at the ticket kiosk, which spill the beans about what visitors can see in the gardens, as they tour around.

There are also regular guided tours that can be taken with a Hall guide and there is the opportunity to book a private group tour with the head gardener, Chris Crowder.

Secrets are also shared in a variety of podcasts, to which visitors and prospective visitors can listen.  These have been recorded with hall guide, Sarah Miller, head gardener Chris Crowder, and with the head chef of Levens Kitchen, Robert Stacey.

Very special and unique topiary garden tours will be offered on World Topiary Day (May 11, 2025). Here, Chris Crowder will share the secrets of a number of the 100+ topiary pieces on show and also reveal the secrets of the team who tend to them.

And there will even be a few topiary secrets shared to help amateur gardeners perfect their home topiary.  In fact, there will be a 2025 trophy for the ‘Best Undercover Topiary Artist’.

Richard Bagot says, “Levens Hall and Gardens is often referred to as a hidden gem, with a secret garden. This is the year is which we will go all out to reveal our secrets, so that more visitors than ever can share the joy that comes from being in our exquisite Elizabethan manor house and our glorious gardens, which include the world’s oldest topiary garden.

“We shall be sharing secrets all season, so watch out for our news and take every opportunity to visit.  With more days at the visitor’s disposal than ever this year, we are hoping for a fantastic 2025.”

For more information, please visit www.levenshall.co.uk                                         

Tickets for Hall and Gardens admission in 2025 cost £16.45 for an adult, £5.50 for a child and £41 for a family of two adults and up to three children aged 5-16.  Gardens-only admission is £12.45, £4.50 and £31 respectively.  

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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.