page_title: Swaylands
section_title: Gardens
hierarchical_section_title: Swaylands / Gardens
caption_attribution_description: The rockery at Swaylands
context_page_description: Swaylands is a private parkland estate set high upon the Kentish Weald, on the edge of the village of Penshurst in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England.
  The Estate is situated between the market town of Tonbridge and the spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, at the heart of an area of countryside between the neighbouring villages of Penshurst, Chiddingstone and Hever.
  The three main apartment buildings on the Estate are, from north to south, Drummond Hall, Swaylands House and Woodgate Manor, which together fall within the Sevenoaks district. Drummond Hall and Woodgate Manor are relatively new buildings, whose architecture is inspired by the original house.
  Situated wholly within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Estate comprises over forty acres of terraced gardens and grounds, featuring a rockery, a cricket pitch and its listed pavilion, a tennis court, a rose garden, a pond, a lake, waterfalls and a small landscape park, all of which were developed through the second half of the nineteenth century. Following years of deterioration in the late twentieth century, the gardens and buildings have now been restored.
context_section_description: The main garden lies to the south-west of the house where an extensive series of grass terraces extends from below the stone wall of the top terrace. To the south-west of the original house is a sunken rose garden, replanted in 1994 and 2010. 
  The gardens were described in detail in Country Life in the edition from 16 June 1906. In the Country Life description it is noted that, for twenty years, George Drummond had been, with the assistance of his gardener Hosier, transforming the site into a garden of "rare charm and picturesque beauty.... The terracing is a triumph of landscape gardening.... It is a pure delight to sit here in the sun, surrounded with these flower masses, and look across to the misty Sussex hills in the far distance."
  
  A complex of terracing to the south-east of the house is shown on a sale plan of 1877. Since the gothic finials to the short stone piers bordering the sets of steps match those at nearby Penshurst Place and the walled staircase at the south-east end of the terrace is similar to that at Nonnington Park, Kent, the terrace is thought to be by George Devey. 
  
  George Drummond was assisted by his gardener, Christopher Hosier, and Hosier's son, in the building of the 5 acre rockery.  Hope Constable's building firm provided stonemasons to arrange the massive sandstone boulders which are from a quarry in nearby Langton Green. Waterfalls and lakes completed the design and were fed by a combination of rainwater and water pumped from the nearby Medway river. 
  From the centre of the south-west front, steps lead down through the terrace wall, continuing in a walk which leads to and round the western boundary of the pleasure grounds, divided from the park beyond by a ha-ha. A path from the south-east end of the house also leads south-west down steps from the top terrace, this straight walk meeting a cross-walk; immediately to the south-east of the junction is a small late 19th century classical pavilion. This garden building is surrounded by trees and looks onto an expanse of level lawn lying to the south-west (formerly the cricket pitch), the northern edge of which is marked by a path bordered with yews. This area was replanted with trees in about 2010.  The flower beds, pond and rockery have been substantially restored.
  After restoration, the Estate is maintained by gardeners employed by the Board of Management. In season, the Estate is home to a large number of Sheep which graze the fields to the south of the main buildings.
caption: Part of the Rockery
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 6", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "10.3.1", "Image DateTime": "2017:05:29 11:25:30", "Image ExifOffset": "182", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[51, 9, 1357/25]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[0, 11, 3817/100]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "14819/242", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[10, 25, 30]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "38677/455", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "38677/455", "GPS GPSDate": "2017:05:29", "GPS Tag 0x001F": "5", "Image GPSInfo": "1574", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/920", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:05:29 11:25:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:05:29 11:25:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "4204/427", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7801/3429", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "8648/985", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[3036, 2149, 610, 612]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "842", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "842", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "29", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2"}