Long Barn
It has been called ‘Vita’s other garden’, in fact this garden was Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson’s first ever garden in the UK. As newlyweds they lived in Istanbul (then Constantinople), due to the fact that Harold was working there as a diplomat and they had a small courtyard garden. Vita grew up at Knole, one of the largest houses in England and because she was a woman she couldn’t inherit the family home. At this point in their early married lives they knew precious little about gardening and Long Barn was their first proper home and garden, a place where they would learn and a place that became the glue that kept their marriage together.
Situated in Sevenoaks Weald, Long Barn is a very special place, it is an intimate, romantic garden where you can see and feel the evidence of Harold and Vita’s gardening journey. It has some echoes of Sissinghurst but on a much smaller footprint. We know they lived a somewhat unconventional life but Long Barn was their constant and they loved creating it together. In a letter from Vita to Harold (they wrote to each other daily) she describes the line of Irish Yews that stand along the lawn; ‘When you and I are but a handful of ashes, people will come from London in charabancs to see our yew trees’.
Well you don’t have to hire a bus to visit, simply go to the website:
