We are delighted to announce that the 2025 Garden Museum Literary Festival will be held at Iford Manor, Wiltshire.
Our eleventh Literary Festival will take place at Iford Manor, Wiltshire, hosted by William and Marianne Cartwright-Hignett.
This boutique annual festival is Britain’s only traveling Literary Festival, with previous hosts including Sezincote House (2024), Parham House (2023), Chatsworth House (2022), Helmingham Hall (2021), and Houghton Hall (2019). Each venue provides a space over two summer days for us to celebrate the best in garden writing and to share what inspires us in gardens.
About Iford Manor
Set on the last hill of the Cotswolds, the Grade 1 registered garden at Iford Manor combines formality with nature and magnificent rural views across an unspoilt valley, while architectural gems and antiquities punctuate the site.
The structural design seen today was largely created by Harold Peto, who lived at Iford from 1899-1933. A man of exquisite taste, he designed gardens for royalty and aristocracy around the world. Trained as an architect, Harold Peto ‘discovered’ a real passion for plants when undertaking work at Gravetye Manor, then home to ‘the father of modern gardening’ William Robinson.
Learning much about gardening directly from Robinson, Peto subsequently travelled the world, including Japan, Canada, America, Egypt and across Europe, learning about garden design and bringing back plants from all over the world. Influenced mainly by his love of Roman, Italian and Japanese design, he was a promoter of the renaissance period and had a strong influence on the Arts and Crafts period.
During the past 60 years, today’s owners, the Cartwright-Hignett family, have lovingly restored the garden (once thought ‘lost’ after WW2) and continued to develop it, saving the buildings therein, finishing the Oriental Garden area designed by John Hignett and redesigning areas of the garden as they age, 100 years after Peto’s original plantings.
Having taken over the garden in 2018, William and Marianne Cartwright-Hignett embarked on a 10 year plan to renew the garden. They are now partway through this transformation, working closely with Head Gardener Steve Lannin and his exceptional team.
