On Tuesday we decided to visit Farringford House Walled Garden and parkland in Freshwater. It has only been open around 9 years and it is somewhere we have never visited. E found it advertised in the Wightlink ferry guide to the Isle of Wight and suggested going. Farringford was home to the Victorian poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892) and his wife Emily.
The house became a hotel between 1945 and 2007 when it was bought by the current owner Rebecca Fitzgerald who has had the house, grounds and walled garden restored to how they would have looked in Tennyson's time.
As soon as we left the car park to walk to the house we spotted a new species for the 2026 Wild Plant Challenge - English Stonecrop.
Honey Bush native to South Africa
The Walled Garden
Tennyson had a traditional Victorian Walled Garden where he grew flowering plants along side vegetables and fruit trees. Both he and Emily were interested in gardening.
The restoration of the garden took inspiration from Emily Tennyson's diaries, the water colours of Helen Allingham who had visited the house and Tennyson's poetry. Restoration work was finished in 2017.
It certainly is a beautiful garden full of herbaceous plants and is one of the loveliest gardens I have visited.
We explored half the garden and then went to look at the house. I would have liked to have gone on a tour of the house but B, D and E weren't keen.
The house was originally built between 1805 and 1823 by Edward Rushworth Esq. c1825 John Hamborough bought the house and added Gothic ornamentation. Between1853 and1892 the house was lived in by Alfred Lord Tennyson and his family and additions were made. Tennyson's son Hallam who inherited the house also made additions. The house remained in the possession of the Tennyson family until in 1945 it was sold to British Holiday Estates Limited who turned it into a hotel. It remained a hotel until 2010 when the present owner closed the hotel and began restoring the house to a home. It is a Grade I Listed Building.
There was a circular route round the parkland of just over a mile which we decided to walk.
We immediately started to add new species to the 2026 Wild Plant Challenge
Self Heal
Creeping Cinquefoil
No flowers but these are the leaves of Silverweed
This Wellingtonia tree was planted by The Farringford Tennyson Society in 1996 replacing the one planted by Garibaldi in 1864 and commemorates the centenary of the death of Lady Emily Tennyson.
Bird's Foot Trefoil - already on the plant list
I've tried to identify this plant without success - if anyone has any suggestions please leave a comment.
Oontitoomps!
Another new species for the plant list - Tongues Hart Fern
Finally, we arrived back at the house.
We visited an exhibition on the restoration of the house, grounds and garden but I won't add any photos as there are already far too many in this post.
We then returned to explore the rest of the Walled Garden.
We saw around 5 Painted Ladies all nectaring on the same plant. We also saw another Hummingbird Hawkmoth.
The Victorian styled Greenhouse
After leaving Farringford House we stopped off in Freshwater briefly and in the evening D and I visited St John the Baptist church in Niton which is is very close to the cottage. I will write about those visits in the next post.
Reference: Farringford House website
All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera and those marked *D taken by my son with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).
