Tintinhull Garden, near Yeovil, in South Somerset.

The National Trust’s Tintinhull Garden is east of Yeovil and just a mile or so south of the A303 in Somerset.  Tintinhull is well signposted and the Garden is easy to find just off the centre of the village; its small, but adequate car park only a few yards beyond the Crown and Victoria pub.

The National Trust's Tintinhull House, near Yeovil, in South Somerset.

Cedar Court in Tintinhull Garden, South Somerset.

I visited on a very warm Monday lunchtime in June and found the gardens tranquil and uncrowded. As I explored, at any one time I found only two or three other people in each of the seven gardens – ideal for taking photos.

The 17th century house and garden was bought by Phyllis Reiss and Captain Reiss in 1933.  Over the years Phyllis designed and created the Arts and Craft style garden, and upon her death in 1961 left the house and its grounds to the National Trust.  The gardens were further developed by Penelope Hobhouse and her husband Professor Malins when they took over the tenancy twenty years after Phyllis Reiss’s death. 

The vegetable garden at Tintinhull.

The Pool Garden at Tintinhull.

The Pool Garden was designed by Phyllis Reiss as a poignant tribute to her nephew, Sub-Lieutenant (A) John Michael Lucas, (RNVR), a Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot.  At the age of 21 he was killed in action while flying from the aircraft carrier HMS INDOMITABLE on 12th August 1942 during operation Pedestal, the hard fought five day convoy battle which successfully relieved the siege of Malta. 

The memorial plaque in the Pool Garden at Tintinhull remembering John Michael Lucas, Sub-Lieutenant (A), (RNVR).

Before leaving Tintinhull, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book, I took an enjoyable stroll back to the centre of the village.  Paul Newman in his Somerset Villages (Robert Hale – London, 1986) describes it as: “. . . yet another bright star in the galaxy of Hamstone havens.  The quarried blocks have weathered so beautifully here that many of the buildings might have been composed of chunks of tarnished gold.”  Newman’s evocative word picture of Tintinhull has certainly stood the test of time.