This garden, which contains the largest Eucalyptus tree in Sussex, has been sensitively restored, replanted and improved since the Great Storm of 1987. Michael and Sue Prideaux bought Selehurst from Robin Loder in 1976. It had been built by Mr Loder’s great-grandfather William Egerton Hubbard in 1889 as part of the Leonardslee estate at Lower Beeding, now famous for the rhododendrons bred by Sir Edmund Loder, Hubbard’s son-in-law.
Selehurst is now an outstanding garden in its own right. The house itself is no architectural gem: its glory lies not in its design, but in its situation on the edge of the Sussex Weald, surrounded by springs, overlooking a meadow that slopes very gently down towards oak woodland in the middle distance. The property is splendidly open to the south-west, so that the eye is then drawn 10 miles further to Chanctonbury Ring on the distant blue escarpment of the South Downs.
‘A garden should have a view,’ Mrs Prideaux’s mother had declared when they were house-hunting 50 years ago. The house was fairly run down when the Prideaux took up occupation. Moreover, the garden around the house had all but disappeared after the neglect that began with the Second World War.
But the property came with some 80 acres, which encouraged the Prideaux to design and plant their garden on an expansive scale. Their understanding of the history, values and unique qualities of Selehurst came quickly. They noted that the soil was sandy, with innumerable small springs.
