WITH its 240 acres of breathtaking scenery maintained by the Loder family for more than 100 years, Leonardslee is one of the last great private gardens in the country.

After a quarter of a century dedicated to its management, Robin Loder has handed over the running of the business to his twins Tom and Mary. Adrian Kwintner visited the country estate to find out about their plans.

Sir Edmund Loder acquired the Leonardslee estate in 1889. Since then it has been passed down the family line and each generation has made its own contribution to the outstanding landscape.

The 240-acre valley, which contains woodland, gardens, a nursery with more than 1,000 varieties of rhododendrons, seven lakes, deer, wallabies and wild fowl, has been run by Sir Edmund's grandson Robin Loder for 25 years.

Since the great storm of October 1987 uprooted huge swathes of old trees, Robin has transformed the garden in Lower Beeding, near Horsham, with all the vision and guile of a modern-day Capability Brown.

The estate has now been handed to his twins Tom Loder and Mary Davies, 33, in time for the new season on April 1.

The changing seasons of Leonardslee have been part of their lives since early childhood when they were brought up on the estate.

Business management graduate Mary has helped her mother Jane run the Leonardslee restaurant and gift shop for several years and now she will take charge. Mary and her husband Steve live on the estate with their three children.

Tom trained as a mechanical engineer and gained a master of business administration degree while enjoying a successful career in IT. He lives with his wife Ceci and their baby daughter in the Loder family home in the gardens. He will look after the overall running of the gardens.

Tom confessed he had been nervous about leaving his high-flying career to run the estate.

He said: "Quite a few times I thought of running like hell. But my MBA was largely about managing people and I've always wanted to be one of the people pulling the strings.

"My father built this place up into a profit-making business but there is still scope for a considerable amount more. It came down really to a choice of seeing the place go up for sale or us stepping in. If this place is to survive long-term it has to change with the times because the tourism industry has changed.

"My grandfather didn't have to do anything and would sometimes get 50 coaches full of tourists in a day in May. Getting people through the gate is becoming more and more difficult.

"We have to look at new ways of making money by having functions and increasing people's happiness with the place so they spend more time and money here."

They will be hard-pressed to improve the garden, which attracts 50,000 visitors a year, almost half of them in May when the rhododendrons are an internationally-renowned blaze of colour. It is also famous for azaleas, camellias and magnolias.

Tom said: "My father has certainly put his mark on the estate. We are not in much rush to change the gardens. Some of the stuff he had done, such as planting oaks and maples, will not be visible for 20 years."

Instead the twins hope to expand the massive Dolls' House, improve the estate entrance, complete a pergola and install some fun features.

Mary said: "Generally, we appeal to retired people. Walking around the garden is boring for a ten-year-old so we hope to give children more to do through features like stepping stones across the stream or a zig-zag path that is fun but won't destroy the natural environment. The bottom line is that Leonardslee is a garden, not an amusement park."

The twins fondly remember their childhoods at Leonardslee. They were given free rein to cycle around the gardens, build camps in the undergrowth, row canoes in one of the lakes and picnic in the deer park.

It was a time of great freedom. They recall eating a picnic on a jetty covered in moss and goose droppings with older siblings Christopher and Catherine.

Surrounded by a dozen bouncing wallabies, the four would listen to music blaring from Christopher's red Fiesta, which they parked by the jetty when their father was not looking.

The twins also remember climbing over the biggest and oldest rhododendrons, thought to be more than 100-years-old.

Tom's daughter is too young to explore the grounds. Mary lives on the estate edge and the gardens, a mile away, hardly feature in her youngsters' world yet. But they hope their children will take over one day and Leonardslee will remain in the family.

Next year will be the 100th it has been open to the public. For more details, call 01403 891212.