Levens Hall - Cumbria, UK
Posted by: 
martlakes
N 54° 15.599 W 002° 46.509
30U E 514646 N 6012471
The topiary at Levens Hall is quite famous. It dates back to the late 17th century and the French garden designer Guillaume Beaumont. The hall is the home of the Bagots, and with the garden, is open to the public part of the year (entrance fee).
Waymark Code: WM34XJ
Location: United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/10/2008
Views: 20
Levens Hall is a magnificent Elizabethan mansion built around a 13th Century pele tower, which was expanded and rebuilt towards the end of the 16th Century. It contains a collection of Jacobean furniture, fine paintings, the earliest English patchwork and many other beautiful objects.
The garden was conceived by the French garden designer Guillaume Beaumont in the late 17th century, when the craze for the precise clipping of evergreens into fantastical shapes swept from Holland, via France, into the gardens of the English aristocracy.
The garden has won many awards for the topiary, beech hedges and colourful seasonal beds, which create a stunning visual impact. The topiary consists of huge abstract shapes and is some of the oldest in the world. A team of six gardeners manage the gardens and the clipping of hedges and topiary takes six months.
For more information see: (
visit link)
Interesting news article about keeping the garden in shape: (
visit link)
The tops of the topiary can be seen from the road side and there are more across the road outside one of the estate houses. For the best view you will need to pay the entrance fee.