Buckinghamshire garden awarded new status

14:02:20 9th February 2010

Garden and greenhouse enthusiasts in Buckinghamshire may be interested to know that a local horticultural attraction has undergone a status change.

The Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens is now a Grade I listed site after English Heritage re-evaluated it and decided it merited the change, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) reported.

Created in the 1930s by landscape architect Edward White, the attraction represents a unique example of a remembrance garden, according to English Heritage.

The body also noted that the site is "of the highest design quality" and elected to enshrine it by awarding it Grade I status.

A formal design features colonnades, rills, pergolas and rose parterres, while 140 informal family gardens surround the central site.

Members of the RHS will have seen Mr White's work before if they have visited the organisation's renowned Garden Wisley, where he created the rock garden before going on to specialise in memorial gardens.

According to the RHS, Garden Wisley is one of the greatest gardens in the world and features an extensive collection of plants.