Greenway

Greenway The Greenway Estate was given to the National Trust by the late Dame Agatha Christie's family in 2000. The gardens are open to the public and the house is currently undergoing major restoration works, prior to its being open in the future.

Greenway has a long history with references to it going back a thousand years and has been owned by some prominent West Country families. In the 17th Century, Sir John Gilbert used 160 Spanish prisoners of war captured from the Armada to landscape the garden. The present house was built around 1790 and some of the trees planted at this time still Greenway survive. By 1829 the present layout of the garden had been formed and the camellia garden, kitchen garden walls and riverside walks are from this period. During the late 19th and 20th century, extensive planting of camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias and daffodils took place.

Mrs Mallowan (Agatha Christie) and her husband, archaeologist Professor Max Mallowan, bought the house in 1938 as a holiday home. Agatha Christie's daughter, Mrs Rosalind Hicks and her husband Anthony moved into the house in 1967. Mr and Mrs Hicks have shaped the present character and style of the garden and created a remarkable plant collection in a natural and stunning setting.