Potting Shed at Heligan

Visiting the old potting shed at The Lost Gardens of Heligan at St Austell I saw two young gardeners at work.

On the wall was a photo of a gardener who left the 200 acre estate to go to the Great War to fight in the trenches.

So many of these lads never came back that the gardens could no longer be maintained, and they fell into ruin until discovered and restored in 1990 by Tim Smit.

“And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.”

– Rupert Brooke 1914