Heligan estate

The Heligan estate (/hɛˈlɪɡən/; Cornish: Helygen, meaning willow tree) was the ancestral home of the Tremayne family near Mevagissey in Cornwall, England. The family also held property in the form of another roughly 2000-acre estate and various estates in Sydenham near Marystow in Devon.

History

Heligan House

Heligan (meaning "willows" in Cornish) is first recorded in the 12th century.^[1] The estate was bought by Sampson Tremayne in 1659.^[2] Heligan House was built by William Tremayne in 1603 in Jacobean style,^[2] but only the basement of that house remains. The house was substantially rebuilt in 1692 by Sir John Tremayne (1647–1694) in William and Mary style ^[2] and extended in 1810 and 1830. Unusually for Cornwall, the house is built of brick.^[1]

Gardens

Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne; by Henry Bone

The members of the family who developed the garden were:

• Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne (1741–1829)^[3]
• John Hearle Tremayne (1780–1851), son of Henry Hawkins Tremayne
• John Tremayne (1825–1901), son of John Hearle Tremayne
• John Claude Lewis Tremayne (1869–1949), son of John Tremayne and better known as "Jack"

The estate was let out after the First World War. The house was divided into flats and sold in the 1970s.^[2] The garden remained in the ownership of the Tremayne family, but was not maintained. It was rediscovered and rescued in a televised project in 1996.^[4] The Lost Gardens of Heligan are now a major visitor attraction.

References

1. Lost Gardens of Heligan on Mevagissey website
2. "Our Timeline". Lost Gardens of Heligan. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
3. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain 1863, p.1535: Tremayne descent.
4. "The Tremaynes and the Gardens at Heligan" in Philip McMillan Browse (Editor) Heligan survivors: an introduction to some of the historic plantstock discovered in the "Lost gardens of Heligan", Penzance, Alison Hodge (2007) ISBN 978-0-906720-53-0, pp.4-5

Coordinates: 50°17′N 4°48′W / 50.283°N 4.800°W