One Night with Lord Heseltine

Alitex Structure at Thenford

We were fortunate enough to have persuaded Lord Heseltine to give a lecture at the beautiful Walled Garden at Cowdray on his spectacular dream-become-reality garden.

Those of you who are new to the Alitex calendar may be interested to know that we hold these lectures annually, and previous speakers include Bunny Guinness, Sarah Raven and the Duchess of Alnwick. Such events will be included in our newsletters; please email enquiries@alitex.co.uk for further information.

Lord Heseltine began by describing his early love for gardening, and his subsequent search for the space where he could create the garden of his imaginings. His narrative carried us through every stage of his planning, from securing the services of one of the most prodigious garden designers of that time to mounting an enormous carving of Stalin in his now-legendary sculpture garden. The few photographs shown, although incomparably helpful in allowing the listener to picture the grounds, appeared to give only the tip of the iceberg of this fantastic multifaceted oasis.

As his lecture was entitled “Mistake by Mistake”, we are delighted that he merely brushed upon the 200-odd square footage of Alitex glasshouse in his Walled Garden. (We are less pleased, however, that his favourite place to potter is in his Cambridge greenhouse some great distance away from our structure...!)

What became palpable throughout this fascinating evening was our speaker’s absolute passion for his garden, and his utter dedication to the ongoing improvement and augmentation of it. The journey spans over 30 years of hard work, effort, time and money, and will clearly be one that continues for many years to come.

It may be of interest to some of you that a book detailing Lord Heseltine's gardening exploits over the past thirty years is in the offing. We will of course keep you informed of any further progress relating to this. In the meantime, should you wish to view the breathtaking gardens yourself, they are open to the public for four non-consecutive days in the year - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter by appointment only.

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Introduction