Clear-felled East Combe (Hestercombe Landscape Garden) with the Temple Arbour evident on the skyline, 1963.

Among the measures taken by the Commissioners of Crown Lands after they took full control of the Hestercombe estate on the passing of the Hon. Mrs. Portman in May 1951 (it actually came into their hands in 1944 to satisfy death duties incurred by the Portmans) was the clear-felling of the East Combe for the value of its timber (mainly oak, beech, & ash). The Crown later received a grant from the Forestry Commission to replant the former 35-acre Landscape Garden as commercial woodland (larch, beech, ash, sycamore, Scot’s pine).