Paradise found

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF A MOST TREASURED SPACE

- DIARMUID CAVIN

WATCHING the VE Day commemorations made me consider a garden, which while being rejuvenated took on a deeper meaning - for lives lost in The Great War.

It’s on a hillside near Mevagissey in Cornwall and for decades it was lost, overgrown and forgotten. The Lost Gardens of Heligan now span over 200 acres with productive gardens, formal layouts, subtropical valleys and woods. But its story gives it such emotional weight.

The Heligan estate belonged to the Tremayne family for more than 400 years. In the 18th and 19th centuries, successive generations developed it into a showpiece of Victorian horticulture. There were and glasshouses believed to have been designed by Sir Joseph Paxton.

At its peak, the estate employed 22 full-time gardeners, but in August 1914, everything changed. Thirteen of those gardeners enlisted to fight in the war and only four returned.

Before leaving, several of them signed their names on the wall of a small lavatory behind the greenhouses - now known as the Thunderbox Room - beneath the words: “Don’t come here to sleep or slumber.” It was an informal roll call, left behind when none of them knew if they would come back.