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Monument details
| HER Number: | TQ 65 NW 258 |
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| Type of record: | Landscape |
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| Name: | Great Comp |
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Summary
Great Comp
| Grid Reference: | TQ 63193 56707 |
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| Map Sheet: | TQ65NW |
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| Parish: | OFFHAM, TONBRIDGE AND MALLING, KENT |
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| PLATT, TONBRIDGE AND MALLING, KENT |
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Monument Types
- GARDEN (Post Medieval to Modern - 1540 AD to 2050 AD)
- ROSE GARDEN (Post Medieval to Modern - 1540 AD to 2050 AD)
| Protected Status: | Historic Park or Garden 118: Great Comp |
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Full description
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DESCRIPTION
The owners were influenced by existing features and several gardens visited (for example, Sissinghurst). Two open areas are surrounded by mature trees including limes. A number of important trees, including some limes, were felled in the October 1987 storm. The site has more exposure now, but in spite of the storm the garden is, on balance, improved.
The most spectacular vista is from the house terrace across the peninsulas and promontories of many massed heathers and low growing shrubs with vertical pinnacles of fastigiate conifers and further masses of shrubs and trees. Over recent years more emphasis has been laid on perennial plants and summer flowering shrubs. There is a rose garden, several urns, a temple and two summer houses. Some simulated ruins have been created in recent years.
Mr and Mrs Cameron, in the years since they acquired Great Comp, have built up a remarkable collection of several thousand different hardy plants, trees and shrubs. These are all referred to in great detail in the latest Garden Guide book.
Principal building:
House Created 1600 to 1650
HISTORY
The house is an early-17th century one, of which Hasted wrote ‘In Queen Elizabeth and King James I's reign, Great Comp was the residence of Sir John Howell'. It has a large informal private garden. This has been developed since the 1960s by Mr and Mrs Cameron with bold effective planting associations with abundant ground cover.
Features
temple
summerhouse
Two summerhouses.
garden terrace
rose garden
urn
Several urns.
(1-2)
<1> Parks and Gardens Data Services Limited (PGDS), 2005, Parks and Gardens UK (www.parksandgardens.org) (Website). SKE16061.
<2> Kent County Council, 1996, The historic parks and gardens of Kent (Kent Gardens Compendium) (Unpublished document). SKE12972.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | <1> | Website: Parks and Gardens Data Services Limited (PGDS). 2005. Parks and Gardens UK (www.parksandgardens.org). |
| <2> | Unpublished document: Kent County Council. 1996. The historic parks and gardens of Kent (Kent Gardens Compendium). |
