Step inside one of Suffolk’s most extraordinary hidden gardens as Benton End opens its newly restored walled garden to visitors for the very first time since 1983.

Once the creative heart of artist and horticulturalist Cedric Morris, who established Britain’s first naturalistic garden here in the 1950s, the walled garden fell into abandonment for over four decades. Now, following three years of sensitive restoration in collaboration with Sarah Price Landscapes, it is coming back to life.

New accessible paths, handcrafted furniture, waste-cast pots and a refreshed pond sit alongside Cedric’s legendary rare plant collection, which has miraculously survived underground all these years. Early visitors may even catch the famous Cedric Morris irises in bloom, a fleeting spectacle reminiscent of the celebrated ‘Iris Days’ Cedric himself used to host.

Benton End was also home to the East Anglian School of Painting & Drawing, co-founded by Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, and was gifted to the Garden Museum in 2021 to be restored as a place of learning and inspiration once more.

Dates: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 4 June – 19 July 2026
Location: Benton End, Hadleigh, Suffolk, IP7 5JR
Admission: £12 standard adult | Free for Garden Museum Friends

Booking is required — places are limited.