Layout plan with sections: Hestercombe – Taunton – Garden.

By August of 1903 the Portman family was in serious negotiations with the London-based architect, Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), for the design of a new flower garden to be built below their Victorian Terrace garden (est. c. 1877) on the south-facing side of Hestercombe House. ‘I want £10,000 to start my garden on’, declared Lutyens.