Imagine discovering a lost garden with tunnels and underground grottoes buried under thousands of tons of soil for over 50 years. That’s what happened at Dewstow gardens. Built around 1895 the gardens were buried just after ww11 and rediscovered in 2000. The gardens were created around the turn of the century by "James Pulham & Sons" landscapers, Rock Builders and Garden Designers. The gardens had been buried around the 1940s and 50s and after excavation, although some areas were in very poor condition, other parts remained as good as the day the gardens were built. Most of the repairs have now been completed during a massive restoration operation which began in 2000. The gardens contain many ponds and rills but interestingly a labyrinth of underground grottoes, tunnels and sunken ferneries.The rock gardens are made up of a mixture of real stone and faced stone using various types of Pulhamite. The site is approximately 7 acres and we hope to renovate as much as we possibly can and have landscaped and replanted the gardens in the past 6 years.

The Lion Grotto    

picture by Charles Hawes from the recently published book Discovering Welsh Gardens