Emmetts Garden

Emmetts Garden was open farmland until 1860 when the present house was built. The name 'emmett' is a local word for ant and refers to the giant anthills that covered the area until the 1950s. The house and land was purchased in 1890 by Frederic Lubbock, a banker and passionate plantsman. Lubbock's elder brother was John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, a world expert on ants, which may have influenced his decision to purchase the property. The gardens were initially laid out between 1893 and 1895 under the influence of Lubbock's friend William Robinson in the fashionable Edwardian style popularised by Gertrude Jekyll. The shrub garden was added later in 1900–1908. After Lubbock's death (1927),…

The garden, which covers an area of about six acres (approximately 2.5 hectares), occupies a commanding site on a 600 ft sandstone ridge, overlooking the Weald. One of the highest points in Kent, it offers expansive views towards the North Downs. It is mainly planted with trees and shrubs in the form of an arboretum; a magnificent 100 ft Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) fortunately survived the Great Storm. There is also a rose garden located next to the Victorian house to which the gardens once belonged. The house is not open to the public.