************* Garden Owners, Please copy this information and paste it into an email to: wb [at] armchair-travel [dot] com Please make any changes in BRIGHT RED in your email back to us. Regards, Armchair Travel Co Ltd http://www.armchair-travel.com ************* Garden Name: Tylney Hall Hotel Last Modified: 25/01/2011 Garden ID: 0326 pic: 0326_Tylney.jpg Owner: Elite Hotels, Mark Ashton - General Manager Address: Rotherwick Hook Postcode: RG27 9AZ County: Hampshire tel: 01256-764881 fax: 01256 760224 website: www.tylneyhall.com email: sales {at} tylneyhall.com Features: Water gardens, Boathouse Lake, Orchards, Rose garden, Vista, Italian gardens, Dutch garden and Kitchen garden. English Heritage Grade: Opening Times: Suns; 17th April, 12th June, 9th October; Visitors also welcome by appointment, groups only Direct line: 01256 745532 Best Times of Year to Visit: To see: National Collection: National Garden Scheme days: Yes Comments: 17th April, 12th June, 9th October 10am - 5pm Parties / Coaches: No Comments: Viewing by Appointment: Yes Comments: Not on NGS open days, but all other times do need appointments House Open for Viewing: No Comments: Only if guests have booked to have lunch or tea after viewing gardens. Admission Prices: Adults £3.50 (for NGS); Children free. Parking: Yes Lavatories: Yes Disabled Access: Yes Shop: No Plants for Sale: Yes Lunches: No Teas: Yes Refreshments: Yes Picnics: No Dogs allowed: No Only on Lead: No Events: Yes Other Facilities: Guide dogs only. Limited facilities for disabled. Designer: Seldon Wornum Description of Garden: These historic gardens, influenced by Gertrude Jekyll, now surround a luxury hotel but can be visited on Garden Open Days. Visitors can then wander in the Italian Garden, which has been carefully restored after a tennis court was built over it! The original design by Seldon Wornum can now be seen. The garden also affords views of the lake and its boathouse bridge. Visitors may be drawn from here to the Rose Gardens and Azalea Garden in which orchids bloom in June. The view across the lawns from here is framed by Giant Redwoods and takes in a Victorian teahouse and the house. Closer to the hotel, are the Dutch Gardens, which, sadly, are missing much of their original statuary. Greenhouses designed by Weir Schultz and kitchen gardens as well as a productive orchard, can also be visited. The Water Gardens might well, however, prove the highlight of a visit, boasting cascades, a woodland glade in which bamboos and rhododendrons thrive, and a lower lake. The Schultz Arch offers views of much of these. History: Whilst there is some debate, it is recorded that a mansion house has existed on this site since 1561, although it is known that the first Tylney Hall was built about 1700. That building was demolished by William Pole-Long-Wellesley, later the 5th Earl of Mornington who had inherited it, either for the price of the materials, or in order to sell the timber on the estate. A possible explanation is that by the terms of the Trust, timber could not be felled within sight of the house, so he pulled it down. Timber, particularly in Hampshire, relatively close to the naval Dockyards at Portsmouth, was then at a premium. The Hall as it now stands was built at the end of the 19th century under the supervision of Sir Lionel Phillips. It has served in a variety of roles since, including a Hospital and an ASC base for mules in the First World War and in the Second World War, the headquarters of Clan Line Steamers Ltd., the then famous steamship company owned by Lord Rotherwick, who had bought the Hall in 1919. It became a school in 1948, until it closed in 1984. It then re-opened as a hotel, after extensive re-furbishment, the following year. It is now one of a string of luxury hotels owned by Elite Hotels. Local Inns: Coach and Horses, Rotherwick The Leather Bottle, Mattingly The New Inn, Heckfield Accomodation: In hotel Restaurants: Oak Room Restaurant in Hotel Village/Town/Sightseeing: Rotherwick Odiham has antique shops and canal. Farnham traditional market town