When the former home of gardening broadcaster Geoffrey Smith went on the market in 2011 for over £700,000, the family offered a glimpse into Mount Pleasant, a stone-built four-bedroom house in High Birstwith, near Harrogate – with five acres of grounds created and tended by the late Gardeners’ Question Time panellist.
Smith, who died in 2009 aged 80, was one of the best-known gardening voices of his generation. He presented a number of BBC series including Mr Smith’s Vegetable Garden and Geoffrey Smith’s World of Flowers, and joined the long-running Gardeners’ Question Time panel in 1983.
Born in Swaledale in 1928, the son of a head gardener, Smith trained at Askham Bryan College of Agriculture and Horticulture before becoming superintendent at Harlow Carr in Harrogate at the age of 26. He stayed there until his late 40s, helping to establish it as one of the country’s leading gardens.
It was after leaving Harlow Carr that Smith and his wife Marjorie bought Mount Pleasant. According to his daughter Caroline, the decision was made on the strength of the land and the south-facing view rather than the house itself. “He didn’t even look at the house,” she said. “He looked at the land and the view and said: ‘We’ll have it’.”
At the time the plot contained only a handful of trees. Over the following three decades Smith developed it into a series of gardens and spaces that often reflected the projects he was working on for television. Vegetable plots appeared in different corners of the grounds, and where there was once a purpose-built pond, there is now a rock garden planted with alpines.
“He spent thousands of pounds on soil and the quality is amazing. It’s so good you could eat it and you could grow anything in it,” said Caroline, who maintained the property after her father’s death. She added: “He was always planting for the next generation. He planted a lot of oak trees. The garden matured alongside its creator and he made it easier to maintain as he got older.”
Smith’s reputation for hard work extended to his home life. Even in later years he continued planting, digging and chopping trees around Mount Pleasant. He worked seven days a week and rarely took holidays, preferring instead to spend his time outdoors. Caroline recalled how he would patrol the grounds at night with their German shepherd and a shotgun after thieves began stealing lead plant labels.
The house itself provides four bedrooms, while the five acres of south-facing gardens offer a mixture of lawns, rock gardens and mature planting. A summer house was Smith’s favourite retreat, where he would sit with a cup of tea and look across the landscape.
It was also at Mount Pleasant that he was first spotted by a BBC producer, leading to his move into broadcasting. While pruning a tree in the garden, he was approached to appear on television alongside Percy Thrower – an encounter that led to a series of programmes that established him as one of Britain’s most recognisable gardening experts.
Smith died in February 2009, leaving behind his wife, son and daughter. When Mount Pleasant went on sale in 2011, his family said they hoped someone else would continue to enjoy the house and gardens.
Caroline said: “My father was very proud of it but now it’s time for someone else to enjoy this beautiful spot.”
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