Buckhurst Park

Buckhurst Park is an English country house with landscaped grounds in Withyham, East Sussex. The present house stands on the site of earlier mansions linked to the Sackville family since the 12th century. The Grade II listed building sits within a Grade II* listed park designed by Humphry Repton in the 1830s. Formal gardens laid out by Edwin Lutyens were planted by Gertrude Jekyll. The estate also includes the Hundred Acre Wood, once part of Ashdown Forest. The house traces its origins to a moated manor recorded in 1274 and praised in a 1579 Latin poem. Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, moved his household to Knole House in Kent around 1605, leaving only a gateway tower. His son built a new mansion called Stoneland in 1603, later enlarged by Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. Arabella, Duchess of Dorset, renamed the estate Buckhurst Park and commissioned Humphry Repton to landscape it. Visitors find a house remodelled in the early 19th century with Repton’s parkland around it. Gertrude Jekyll’s planting plans have been recreated in the gardens, and surviving Brunswick fig trees mark Lutyens’ former work. The Hundred Acre Wood, separated from Ashdown Forest in 1678, inspired A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Cattle, sheep, pigs and Shetland ponies graze the estate, which also hosts weddings and outdoor events.