A gorgeous medieval home in Dorset with Grade I-listed gardens are up for sale, including their own tea room and gallery
Penny Churchill takes a look at East Lambrook Manor, a wonderful late medieval house with truly outstanding (and Grade I-listed) gardens.


Few homes are as oretty or charming as the Grade II*-listed East Lambrook Manor in the pretty Somerset village of East Lambrook, a mile from South Petherton and five miles from Ilminster. The former Somerset hall house, built of brick and hamstone under a tiled roof, dates from the 15th century, with later alterations and additions in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Just as magnificent as the house — perhaps even more so — are the gardens, which were the subject of a feature in Country Life in January 2016. East Lambrook Manor stands in 2¾ acres of famous cottage gardens created by gardening legend Margery Fish between 1938 and 1969, and listed Grade I by English Heritage in 1992. Ashley Rawlings of Savills in Wimborne is handling the sale, at a guide price of £2.25 million.
East Lambrook Manor offers 4,340sq ft of comfortable family accommodation on two main floors, including, on the ground floor, a Great Hall with a hamstone fireplace, a panelled drawing room, a sitting room, breakfast room and well-fitted kitchen, with an AGA and an old hamstone fireplace.
The first-floor bedrooms include a delightful principal bedroom with a part-vaulted ceiling and stone fireplace, four further bedrooms, two bathrooms and a shower room.
According to its listing details, East Lambrook Manor was, until the early 20th century, a typical manor farm with a small garden laid mainly to lawn, a large farmyard or ‘barton’ to the north of the house and two orchards.
Margery had lived in London all her life, working as secretary to Lord Northcliffe from 1912 and then to successive editors of the Daily Mail, including Walter Fish, whom she married in 1933. Five years later, the couple bought East Lambrook Manor for £1,000. By then in her mid forties, with little or no interest in gardens, she was about to embark on her second career, which led to her becoming one of gardening’s most influential figures in the 20th century.
Initially, Walter and Margery Fish worked on the restoration of the house, at the same time paving the small front garden and laying out a lawn to the north. In late 1938, Margery had a series of terraces built on the slope to the west of the house, after which an area of orchard above the terraces was absorbed into the garden.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
A further area of adjoining orchard was then acquired and a ditch that had previously marked the garden boundary was developed as a bog garden.
Walter died suddenly in 1949, but his widow, always the driving force behind the creation of the garden, continued its development up to her own death in 1969. During her widowhood, Margery developed contacts with leading British gardeners and plantsmen, including Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor, Gloucestershire, Nancy Lindsay and her own neighbour, Violet Clive of Brympton d’Evercy, Somerset, from whom she obtained rare, old and neglected plants.
She also wrote articles in The Field and Amateur Gardening, as well as eight books that drew upon her gardening experience at East Lambrook Manor and popularised her ‘cottage-garden’ style.
Following Margery’s death in 1969, East Lambrook Manor passed to her nephew, Henry Boyd-Carpenter, who continued to maintain the garden until 1985, when the manor was sold to Mr and Mrs Andrew Norton. In 2008, it was purchased by Mike Werkmeister and his wife, Gail.
During their tenure, the manor’s precious gardens have been maintained with the help of volunteers and now await a new custodian following Mr Werkmeister’s reluctant decision to sell.
Included in the sale are a converted Malthouse with a tea room, gallery, studio and meeting room, a nursery area and extensive parking — all of which are facilities connected to the year-round opening of the gardens to the public.
That said, this is very much a home: East Lambrook Manor is not being sold as a business.
East Lambrook Manor is for sale via Savills at £2.25m — see more details and pictures.
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
-
Uniquely unique? The Yorkshire grain silos transformed into a home that's a symphony in glass, steel and curves
Amid the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Castle Howard Estate, The Silos is a property for which the word 'house' simply doesn't cut it. And that's not the only way in which it's made us throw out the dictionary.
By Toby Keel Published
-
Polluting water executives now face up to two years in prison, but will the new laws make much of a difference?
The Government has announced that water company executives caught covering up illegal sewage spills could now be imprisoned for two years, under new laws — but many still have their doubts.
By Lotte Brundle Published
-
Uniquely unique? The Yorkshire grain silos transformed into a home that's a symphony in glass, steel and curves
Amid the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Castle Howard Estate, The Silos is a property for which the word 'house' simply doesn't cut it. And that's not the only way in which it's made us throw out the dictionary.
By Toby Keel Published
-
Graham Norton's elegant East London home hits the market, and it's just as wonderful as you would expect
The four-bedroom home in Wapping should be studied for how well it uses two separate spaces to create a home of immense character and utility.
By James Fisher Published
-
About time: The fastest and slowest moving housing markets revealed
New research by Zoopla has shown where it's easy to sell and where it will take quite a while to find a buyer.
By Annabel Dixon Last updated
-
A wisteria clad hall built by one of the founders of the Bank of England
Come for the history of Old Hall. Stay for the interesting interiors.
By Annabel Dixon Published
-
A gorgeous Scottish cottage with contemporary interiors on the bonny banks of the River Tay
Carnliath on the edge of Strathtay is a delightful family home set in sensational scenery.
By James Fisher Published
-
Six rural properties with space, charm and endless views, as seen in Country Life
We take a look at some of the best houses to come to the market via Country Life in the past week.
By Toby Keel Published
-
380 acres and 90 bedrooms on the £25m private island being sold by one of Britain's top music producers
Stormzy, Rihanna and the Rolling Stones are just a part of the story at Osea Island, a dot on the map in the seas off Essex.
By Lotte Brundle Published
-
A home cinema, tasteful interiors and 65 acres of private parkland hidden in an unassuming lodge in Kent
North Lodge near Tonbridge may seem relatively simple, but there is a lot more than what meets the eye.
By James Fisher Published