Lamorran House Gardens: A Story of Robert & Maria-Antonietta, an Untamed Four Acres, Romantic Italian Inspiration and Magical Ocean Views
As we’re discovering, each of the Great Gardens of Cornwall is unique in every way. These gardens deserve to be recognised as independent green spaces, and celebrated for their individuality. The next origin story we’re poised to explore as part of our Behind The Gardens Campaign is that of Lamorran House Gardens in St Mawes on the Roseland, and boy is it a fascinating one.
A day trip to St Mawes
Even for those of us who are lucky enough to live in Cornwall, the journey to Lamorran House Gardens transports you to a totally different landscape and way of life. As Truro fades into the rearview mirror, the greenery outside the car window becomes more pronounced, and the short hop on the King Harry Ferry whisks you over the River Fal to arrive on ‘the island’.
An even more magical way to arrive in St Mawes is by ferry from Falmouth; feel the sea breeze in your hair and fill your lungs with fresh ocean air as you cross the historic Carrick Roads. The Roseland is a peninsula rather than an island, but don’t let a technicality like that get in the way of your island hopping experience. Prepare yourself to be touched by the intimacy and personal charm of Lamorran House Gardens – this is a truly independent garden.
Meet Robert and Maria-Antonietta Dudley-Cooke
Let’s start by introducing Robert and Maria-Antonietta Dudley-Cooke, the couple who have created Lamorran with their bare hands over the last 42 years. Robert has always loved sailing and the ocean, and as a child used to sit on the Dawlish wall and watch the trains shuttle along that stretch of track – so close to the ocean it seemed they might glide straight over the water’s surface. In contrast, Maria-Antonietta is Italian and grew up in the buzz and bright lights of Rome. They met while Robert was travelling in Europe, drawn over the channel by the warmth, sunnier climate and rich culture.
Discovering Lamorran
In 1982, Robert was busy running a law firm in central London Monday-Friday, but dreaming of a family retreat somewhere more akin to their time spent together in Europe. On a visit to St Mawes, the feeling of reaching the end of the line, surrounded by rivers, the ocean and far reaching views captured Robert and Maria-Antonietta’s imagination. Soon after, the family settled in a house in the village of St Mawes in Cornwall. It came with two acres of rough land dense with blackthorn and fallen trees – a far cry from the garden you see today.
Wholesome family weekends in the garden
Every Friday afternoon Robert, Maria-Antonietta and – in time – their four children, used to take the train down from London to spend their weekends working outside in the garden at Lamorran; and very gradually they reclaimed this space from the wilderness it had become. Robert acquired a further 2 acres, and like ripples on a pond he worked slowly and methodically outwards from the house, down towards the water, tackling one section of the garden at a time. Once a section was cleared, the first thing Robert did was plant shelter to protect the garden from the prevailing winds; the eastern edge of the garden still has a line of pine trees for that specific reason.
So wild was the garden that Robert was often unsure of the actual topography of the land underneath the brambles that dominated the garden. At times he had to put a hose pipe on the ground and just watch which way the water flowed to understand how the shape of the garden should develop.
It took 15 years for Robert to reach the boundary, and clear the ground at the far end of the garden. Robert kept a plan of the garden in the drawer of his office desk in London, and he used to take it out during the week and meticulously make notes on it. He also used the lengthy train journeys to study and read everything he could to equip himself with the knowledge to help the garden progress.
At its heart Lamorran is a family garden
Although an ambitious project from the start, Lamorran was not created for visitors, it was initially intended as a garden for the family to enjoy. Robert was a keen plantsman and had been eagerly awaiting a project of this scale for quite some time. When Robert and Maria-Antonietta moved into Lamorran they came down from London with 3 articulated lorries, an event which is still talked about in the quaint village of St Mawes. One of these lorries contained their possessions and furniture, the other 2 were dedicated to the garden and full of potted plants that Robert had propagated over the years – it’s staggering but Robert brought down 500 potted evergreen azaleas alone! First things first Robert had to create a nursery for his burgeoning plant collection, and it took an incredible 6 years for him to plant all of what he had brought down from London into the Cornish soil at Lamorran.
A walk through the garden is an intimate journey of discovery
The suggested route follows a network of painstakingly maintained gravel paths that curve and dance amongst areas of evergreen planting, linking the different areas of the garden and planting schemes together very naturally. The garden is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and from here you can see St Mawes, St Anthony’s Head and across to the Lizard and the mouth of the Helford River.
The top half of the garden is on a gentle incline down towards the sea, the path meanders around a rose garden, walled garden, Japanese garden and many other intimate spaces. The middle of the garden is the most sheltered part of the garden and contains terraces where weddings can take place, the ocean view here is incredible!
The bottom section of the garden is on a much steeper slope, with steps that take you right down into the experimental planting areas in the underbelly of Lamorran. The sea view comes up to meet you here, as does the breeze, and as you reach the bottom of the garden you are almost surprised to see signs of other habitation; so immersive is the experience at Lamorran you almost forget that the bustling tourist hotspot of St Mawes lies just beyond the garden wall.
Palm Trees, Tree Ferns and Bamboo
The garden is known for its spectacular collection of palm trees, the four acre garden has over 40 varieties and around 200 individual palm trees! Tree ferns, some of which originate from the Solomon Islands and Fiji, also play a big part in the visual identity of the garden. The thick solid trunks add a sense of substance to the garden, and the black ferns seem otherworldly which befits their heritage that harks from the era of dinosaurs. There are also different varieties of bamboo to discover, which add a pleasing texture to the garden and an incredible illusion of height.
The last frost
The last real frost at Lamorran was in 1987, about five years after the family bought the land; the three consecutive nights of -8°C devastated the adolescent plants which at that early stage had little shelter. Since then, Lamorran has hit 0°C only four or five times in over fourty years but has never had another significant frost. It’s a combination of factors, such as being surrounded by water on three sides and the dense planting of trees and vegetation, which creates a microclimate of its own. Lamorran is warmer than most of St Mawes, and according to Robert at times 7 or 8°C warmer than the landing stage at The King Harry Ferry.
Lamorran House Gardens is defined by interesting shapes, sights and sounds
Maria-Antonietta’s Italian heritage and Robert’s passion for Europe can be felt across the gardens through the various exotic influences on display. Mounds of foliage and statue plants soar skywards, streams gurgle and water splashes into koi carp-filled ponds that look as though they have been there for centuries. It’s a romantic garden with curved paths that provide you occasional and spectacular reveals of the ocean. Moss-covered seats invite you to rest a while in a secluded spot, you feel as though intimate conversations can happen here. You can enjoy a secret corner of the garden by yourself when you visit, and you’ll likely not have to share the view with anyone.
There are no patches of bare earth, unless it’s a bed Head Gardener Danny Konik is currently working on; Lamorran is an evergreen garden that looks interesting year round. It’s also a very sustainable garden, with pretty much everything that is taken out of the garden being mulched and returned into the carbon cycle. Robert takes a walk around Lamorran twice a day and has a sharp eye that has been fine tuned from over 40 years of gardening in the same space. He says “ the quality you need most as a gardener is patience, patience that the garden will develop and evolve over time, you cannot rush it. My silver palm tree took over 20 years to decide that it was happy in the soil at Lamorran, but now for the last 5 years it has become at one with the landscape and looks to have always been here”.
Lamorran doesn’t have a carpark – just imagine that for a second! They have a bark covered verge out on the road which is usually ample parking for their average of 70 visitors a day. This is not a garden where you’ll be trailing around the flower beds in a long line of visitors, having to fight to take a photograph without someone’s brightly coloured backpack ruining the scene. Far from it, this garden is an extension of Robert and Maria-Antonietta’s family home. The lemon and orange trees on the terrace are used by the family in their home baking, marmalade is a speciality here, and Maria-Antonietta makes the scones and cakes that are served in the garden’s small cafe herself. To visit Lamorran is to be a guest at Robert and Maria-Antonietta’s home, so the visitor numbers are lower than most, it suits the nature of the garden that way.
This is a very personal garden, with a completely magical origin story. It is almost impossible to imagine Lamorran as it was before Robert and Maria-Antonietta made their mark. They have brought so much change to this site as to render it unrecognisable, and Lamorran is truly deserving of its place amongst The Great Gardens of Cornwall.
