Formal gardens laid out by H Inigo Triggs in 1910.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
Harry Inigo Triggs (1876-1923), author, architect, and garden designer, purchased an C18 farmhouse with surrounding land and laid out gardens, as well as designing a new house for himself in 1910 as an extension of the existing farmhouse. The house and gardens have been little altered and remain (2000) in private ownership.
DESCRIPTION
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Little Boarhunt, c 2ha, is located on the south side of Liphook, 5km south-west of Haslemere. The property is bounded by the B2070 to the north-west, the London to Portsmouth railway line to the south-east, the gardens of detached houses to the north and north-east, and open land to the south-west. The boundaries are marked by a mixture of walls and fences. The ground slopes up gradually from west to east and views do not extend beyond the garden.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The house is approached from Portsmouth Road (B2070) by an entrance at the eastern end of the north-west boundary. A drive leads south-east through an arched gatehouse (Inigo Triggs, reconstructed 1910 from existing cottages, listed grade II) and by a straight formal approach of c 50m between banks planted with herbaceous plants and shrubs, backed by hedges, to a gate. Beyond the gate is a gravelled forecourt on the north-west side of the house, bordered by clipped yew hedges.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING Little Boarhunt house (listed grade II) was built by Inigo Triggs for himself in 1910 in a romantic Arts and Crafts style, adapted and extended from a small C18 farmhouse. The L-shaped house is built in coursed sandstone, with a tile roof with hips, half-hips, gables, gablets, and prominent chimneys. The main house is of two storeys with a single-storey service wing to the south-east.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The inner edge of the L-shaped house wraps around two sides of a rectangular sunken garden, in a formal neo-Elizabethan style. The centre is sunk within low stone walls and is approached by steps on the south-east and north-west sides. The lower level is laid to lawn, divided by a narrow brick canal or rill across the length of the sunken garden (from south-west to north-east), with a central rectangular dipping pool from which rises a brick column supporting a putto (a copy of one in the Baptistery in Florence, the present version being a late C20 replacement of Inigo Triggs' copy) at the centre. In the four corners are rectangular beds, each with a different pattern of paving marking out smaller beds for roses and other plants. Box clipped into balls line the edges and box spirals stand in the centre of each of the beds. The higher level is also laid to lawn, with a pathway backed by a border around the edge and an area of late C20 brick paving (in similar style to the earlier work) on the north-east side of the garden. In the south corner of the sunken garden is a diagonally placed corner gazebo or pavilion (listed grade II together with the walls of the sunken garden), built of brick with an arched entrance and an ogee pyramidal tiled roof, crowned by a weathervane. The garden is bounded by a perimeter stone wall on two sides, which has regularly spaced taller stone piers supporting wooden beams with climbing plants. A timber gate on the south-east side gives a view of the paddocks beyond, which are approached up a flight of semicircular stone steps. These paddocks wrap around the north, east, and south sides of the gardens, with tennis courts at the northern end. There are scattered mature deciduous trees within the paddocks and a mature boundary belt of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees runs along the line of the railway on the south-east boundary.
Another gated entrance (with late C20 gates in early C20 style) leads from the south-west side of the garden into a garden known as the Green Court. This consists of a sunken P-shaped lawn bordered by low stone walls. It is approached down a shallow flight of steps on the north-east side, aligned on the entrance from the sunken garden. The lawn is surrounded to the south, west, and north by trees and shrubs, with bulbs around the edge of the lawn. The eastern side is more open and is planted with lower-growing shrubs. A pool planned by Inigo Triggs for the centre of the southern half was never executed (Jekyll and Weaver 1913) but the rest of the design is as planned. In the north-west corner, at the end of the boundary wall which extends westwards from the house, is a brick dovecote with a tiled roof (listed grade II together with the gazebo and walls), built up from the wall. A path leads around the dovecote to a large open lawn to the north of the house, backed by clipped hedges on two sides and by large mature shrubberies and trees on the other two sides. A path runs along an old sunken road through a wooded dell on the west side of the garden, which leads down to the road and is entered between the Green Court and the north lawn.
Across the entrance forecourt from the north lawn, a path leads around the north-east side of the house to the service area. On rising ground above the house is a lawn beneath mature trees which is known as the Tea Lawn.
KITCHEN GARDEN An area of lawned kitchen garden and orchard lies immediately south-west of the forecourt and is reached by a short flight of stone steps from there. It is surrounded by hedges, trees, and shrubberies and is laid out with rose beds beneath fruit trees at the southern end and as a kitchen garden at the northern end. A large early C20 brick shed with a tiled roof is situated in the north-east corner with a late C20 greenhouse to the north.
REFERENCES
G Jekyll and L Weaver, Gardens for Small Country Houses (1913), pp 55-9 K Bilikowski, Historic Parks and Gardens (1983) D Ottewill, The Edwardian Garden (1989), p 178
Maps OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1869, published 1874 OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1897 3rd edition published 1910 1937 edition
Description written: May 2000 Amended: July 2001 Register Inspector: CB Edited: February 2004