THE largest private formal garden to be created
in England since 1945 is to be “destroyed” after an offer to bequeath it to the
National Trust was snubbed, The Daily
Telegraph reports.
Sir Roy Strong, former director of the Victoria
and Albert Museum and National Portrait Gallery, had wanted to leave Laskett
Gardens to the trust in his will. He also offered the trust an endowment worth
“several millions” to ensure the financial viability of the gardens, which he
spent more than 30 years creating with his late wife.
But the trust has rejected the offers because,
it says, the garden fails to “reach the high rung of historic
and national importance”. Sir Roy is so devastated that his offer has been
turned down he has threatened to “destroy” the four-acre garden at his home in Herefordshire.
‘I’m so upset now that I have decided to change
my will, stating that the garden will stay open to the public for one year
after my death, and then be destroyed.’ Clarifying what he meant by
“destroyed”, Sir Roy said: ‘Not bulldozed as such, but I will ensure that all
the personal aspects which really make the garden so extraordinary are taken
away. The house will now be sold after my death. There will be a garden
attached with it, but not as it is now.’
‘It’s my garden, and I can do what I want with
it,’ he told the BBC.
The garden is currently to the public with an
admission fee of £12 per person.
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Picture Credit: Laskett Gardens courtesy thelaskettgardens.co.uk
