Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Sissinghurst Castle Garden, at Sissinghurst in the Weald of Kent in England, was created by Vita Sackville-West, poet and writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. It is among the most famous gardens in England and is designated Grade I on Historic England's register of historic parks and gardens. It was bought by Sackville-West in 1930, and over the next thirty years, working with, and later succeeded by, a series of notable head gardeners, she and Nicolson transformed a farmstead of "squalor and slovenly disorder" into one of the world's most influential gardens. Following Sackville-West's death in 1962, the estate was donated to the National Trust. It was ranked 42nd on the list of the Trust's most-visited sites in the 2021–2022 season, with over 150,000 visitors.
Aerial view in 2009: "The most famous twentieth century garden in England"
Model displayed at Sissinghurst depicting Sir Richard Baker's house circa 1560
Sackville-West's portrait by Philip de László hanging in the Big Room of the West Range
The statuary at Sissinghurst was not always of the highest quality. Anne Scott-James describes this one of Dionysus as looking "particularly depressed".
Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH, usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer.
Sackville-West around 1915, from The Life of V.Sackville-West by Victoria Glendinning
Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West, Baroness Sackville. Vita's mother, circa 1885
Vita in childhood
Vita Sackville-West in 1913