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In about 1769, Thomas Bolitho - one of a family of Penryn tanners - came to live in Penzance. The family became important merchants, involved in many businesses in the area, from pilchards, to tanning, tin-smelting and banking. Thomas' eldest grandson bought the land at Trewidden in around 1830, building a house there soon after.
Trewidden Garden sits on the site of a very ancient tin mine. Known as 'Trewidden Bal', the old opencast mine may have been one of the earliest in the County, dating back to Roman times or even before. Evidence of it can be seen today in the Tree Fern Pit and the Burrows, where spoil dug out of the mine was dumped.
Edward Bolitho (1804 - 1890) started the Garden in the second half of the 19th Century, planting woodland cover and then filling it with plants recently introduced from Asia and the Southern Hemisphere. He was fortunate to have working for him an outstanding head gardener, one George Maddern (1828 - 1894) who even merited an obituary in the Gardener's Chronicle, having been a gardener at Trewidden for 45 years. By the time owner and head gardener had died, the garden is believed to have been roughly the size it is now and in fine shape.
Edward's son, Thomas Bedford Bolitho (1835 - 1915) succeeded his father and he continued to enhance the Garden. In particular, he filled the old opencast mine with tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica), newly imported from Australia by Treseder's Nursery and bought for £1-2 for 2-3 foot ferns. They have been described as the best stand of tree ferns in the Northern Hemisphere.
| T.B. Bolitho, for many years MP for St Ives and great benefactor in the area, also bought Greenway, by the River Dart in South Devon in 1882 and developed the Garden there. His daughter Mary married Charles Williams (son of the famous gardener J C Williams of Caerhays, another wonderful Cornish garden) and they moved to Greenway, as Charles was MP for nearby Tavistock. In 1937, they sold the house (bought a year later by Agatha Christie and now in the possession of the National Trust) and moved to Caerhays, where they lived until Charles' death in 1955. |
 T.B. Bolitho |
Mary Williams moved back to Trewidden, on her husband's death in 1955 where she stayed, gardening with enormous enthusiasm and joy until her death in 1977. Being an exceptionally knowledgeable gardener in her own right, Mary became greatly influential in the continued development of the garden. Mary was also responsible for the re-founding of the Cornwall Garden Society. She had been brought up at Trewidden and had planted the Magnolia hypoleuca on the North Walk in 1897; it is now the largest in the UK.
Trewidden House was used as a Red Cross convalescent home during the Second World War.
Many Cornish Gardens are linear, running down a stream or drive. Trewidden is very different, being a maze of paths in a roughly square garden, with ponds dotted here and there along with reminders of the industrial heritage of the site. Each part of the Garden is intimate and different, whether it be the newly restored walled garden, the rock garden with its collection of erythroniums, the tree fern pit or the pond garden.
Trewidden has been lucky in its head gardeners and the length of their stay here throughout its history. After George Maddern, and John Crapp, Harry Tully was here for 37 years (after having started his career at Greenway). Michael Snellgrove followed and was head gardener for 24 years, developing a successful camellia business - one of the prime reasons the garden is filled with over 300 varieties.
Trewidden has been lucky in its head gardeners and the length of their stay here throughout its history. After George Maddern, and John Crapp, Harry Tully was here for 37 years (after having started his career at Greenway). Michael Snellgrove followed and was head gardener for 24 years, developing a successful camellia business - one of the prime reasons the garden is filled with over 300 varieties.
 John Crapp Head Gardener 1930-1939 |
 Harry Tully Head Gardener 1939 - 1974 |
 Michael Snellgrove Head Gardener 1974 - 2000 |
 Alison Clough Head Gardener 2000 - 2007 |
 Richard Morton Head Gardener from August 2007 |
Alverne Bolitho, son of Simon Bolitho of Trengwainton and a cousin of Mary Williams, inherited the property when she died. He continues to develop the Garden, with the help of head gardener Richard Morton and his small team. They aim to keep the garden a place of peace and beauty, of constant surprise and delight.
