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About The Secret Garden at Serles House
THE SECRET GARDEN AT SERLES HOUSE Described by Alan Titchmarsh as one of the ten best private gardens to visit in Great Britain, this is probably the most unusual garden and house experience in Dorset, if not further afield. The owner, the late Ian Willis, was featured in the ‘Great British Eccentrics’ supplement to BBC Home and Antiques, (February 2006). His creation, The Secret Garden at Serles House, is a treasure trove of relics which appeals to people of all ages. Highlights include the Anglo-Indian conservatory, the Millennium Folly, the shell grotto, a Victorian parterre, the children’s playhouse, windows originally in Wimborne Minster and Irvine the plant-pot man. The historical artefacts, some 60 in number, are endlessly diverting – a pair of cannons dragged out of the Solent, a cast-iron copper liner pulled out of a hedge at Tyneham`s abandoned village, part of the war defences on Studland Beach, a dovecote made from an old wash tub, ‘The Duchess of Argyll’ torso, ‘The Throne of Macbeth’, giant clam shells from the tropics and a makeup palette from Burma. The Secret Garden contains a Fernery dedicated to the memory of Ian Willis’s father who died at Easter 2004 and several items which commemorate Robin Noscoe who was Director of Art at Canford School and who died in 2002. The whole enterprise is one man’s amalgamation of vision and memory which has already delighted hundreds of visitors. It was opened for the first time under the National Garden Scheme in July 2003 by Madam Rosina, the well-known clairvoyant, who correctly predicted a successful future for the Garden. 2015 saw the garden welcome its 10,000th visitor since opening.
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