As part of the 2024 Heritage Open Days, the Reading Civic Society arranged with the building owner Lloyd Turner to open the newly created gardens at Hillside House in Allcroft Road on the morning of 14 September.
Hillside House was built for William Isaac Palmer of Huntley & Palmers fame in 1880, and later bought by Leonard Goodhart Sutton of Sutton Seeds.
The new garden was created in 2020-21, and during the visit Lloyd spoke about how the loss of the four of Sutton’s five sons in the First World War inspired the garden’s creation, and then the garden designer Gaila Adair explained the planting themes which are linked to the Sutton children.