Tour of Benton End House and Garden - additional date

Tour of Benton End House and Garden

Guided tour of the gardener and artist Cedric Morris’s house and garden by the Benton End House and Garden Trust.

Our earlier visits quickly sold out last year and again this year, but we are delighted to be able to offer another date for 2025, hopefully to coincide with irises in bloom. The garden is in the process of revival following its heyday during Morris’s lifetime, so the visit will provide the opportunity to view work in progress. The group will be split in half, with half beginning with a tour around the house by Matthew Hodges, Manager of the Trust, focussing on some history of the 16C building and with the main focus on Cedric and his partner’s Arthur Lett-Haine's time here 1940-1982. The garden portion of the tour will then focus on the history of Cedric's garden and cultivating and the ongoing revival. There is a break halfway through for a cuppa and a biscuit and then the groups swap over. House tours take approximately 50 mins as do the garden tours.

Benton End is a Grade II* listed 16th century, half-timbered house, situated on the edge of the historic market town of Hadleigh, Suffolk. The house enjoys a commanding position overlooking the Brett Valley.

Benton End was the home of Cedric Morris – an important figure in the worlds of both art and horticulture. The house and garden where he lived with his partner Lett Haines for four decades from 1940 served as a home, an art school, a place for creative self-expression and at various times, a residential medical centre offering gardening and horticultural therapy, and as an important site in queer history, offering a safe space for persecuted gay men. Benton End brought together a rich array of people from a range of disciplines – including art, horticulture, cuisine, literature and illustration – who came to study, to garden or to socialise.

Benton End was a sanctuary for a diverse range of influential artists, writers, musicians, and botanists of the 20th century. Morris made a garden as influential in its day as Sissinghurst for its freedom of form and planting; it became one of the first modern gardens of naturalistic design, developed as it was for the study of the unusual plants Morris chose with his keen artist’s eye.

In 2021 Benton End was majority gifted to the Garden Museum by The Pinchbeck Charitable Trust with the aim of reopening the house and garden to the public once again. Work to preserve the house and garden is ongoing, ensuring that the rich history of Benton End is not forgotten. This is an ambitious project and it is anticipated the first phase will be the re-opening of the walled garden in 2026.

Directions by car: From Essex, take the A12 towards Ipswich at its junction with the A120. After 4.9 miles, take the exit towards Flatford/Raydon/Holton Saint Mary and turn right onto B1070. Benton House is a further 4.1 miles down the road on the right hand side. Parking will be available in the farm adjacent to Benton End on its right.

Accessibility: The tour of the 16th century house involves negotiating narrow stairs and uneven floor surfaces.