Sir Roy retreats from his love garden after fall in paradise

When he ‘retired’ from his role at Westminster Abbey last year, national treasure Sir Roy Strong looked forward to spending more time at his beloved jewel-box house in herefordshire, The Laskett, which boasts one of england’s most glorious gardens.

now, however, I can disclose that the best-selling historian has been forced to leave The Laskett after suffering a fall.

he has handed it over to a charity, which will open the house to the public. Most of his treasure trove of antiques will be sold in what will be a spectacular auction at Christie’s next March. ‘I had a very bad fall on my thigh last year, and my driving licence was suspended,’ Sir Roy tells me.

‘And I can tell you that living in the country and being unable to get in your car is very isolating. Also the house has 23 rooms and three staircases — it’s a bit too much.’

The working-class former grammar-school boy, who first hit the headlines in the Swinging Sixties as the democratising director of the national Portrait Gallery, where he proposed serving ‘martinis with the Bellinis’, is downsizing to a much smaller house in nearby

Ledbury. ‘I don’t want to do another garden,’ says Sir Roy, who laid The Laskett’s out with his late wife, stage designer

Julia Trevelyan Oman. ‘I’ve spent half a century on this one.’ The legendary dandy, who is also a former boss of the Victoria

& Albert Museum, has generously donated The Laskett to Perennial, the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society.

he had offered the estate to the national Trust, but it turned it down in 2014.

he accuses its then directorgeneral, Dame helen Ghosh, of wanting to take the house but not the garden.

his spirit will live on at The Laskett, however. ‘The garden is a monument to mine and Julia’s marriage and it’s been agreed that my ashes will be mingled with hers in the garden.’