Layers of Time: The Gardens of Hestercombe

An exhibition of images and interpretation tracing over 300 years of garden design, decline and restoration at Hestercombe's Somerset estate.

This exhibition explores Hestercombe's evolution across four centuries, from its 17th-century Water Garden and Bampfylde's 18th-century landscape garden to the celebrated Lutyens and Jekyll formal terraces of the early 1900s. It also covers the gardens' 20th-century decline after military and institutional use, and their later restoration led by figures such as Philip White of the Hestercombe Gardens Trust. Through images and interpretation, visitors can discover how each generation shaped the Grade I listed landscape, which remains open to change today.