One of the world’s most powerful press barons had a secret country getaway set in 400 acres of park and woodlands.

After an extensive refurbishment, Cherkley Court’s grounds are now open to the public. Chris Wood looks at the history of the famous stately home.

The house hidden almost secretively in the folds of the Surrey Hills, has given it a justifiable tag as one of Surrey’s best kept secrets.

Approaching it along the long driveway from Headley village and the north the house only reveals itself at the last minute.

This seclusion is all the more remarkable when you consider the breathtaking views from the house and the terrace to the south, towards Ranmore Common, Norbury Park and the Mole Valley.

Cherkley Court was, for many years, the home of press baron Lord Beaverbrook and his highly influential friends and guests were frequent visitors at the house.

Indeed, Beaverbrook – William Maxwell Aitken, as he was when he arrived in Britain - was driving with one of his closest friends, Rudyard Kipling, and their wives in 1911, when he first set eyes on the house and gardens. With typical decisiveness he immediately bought the 400 acre estate.

Cherkley Court’s is a remarkable story of setbacks and regeneration.

The house was built by Birmingham businessman Abraham Dixon in 1866 when it was known as Cherkley Yews. The gardens were laid out by Dixon, a keen botanist, and have changed very little in the past 100 years.

In 1893 a fire caused by lightning reduced the house to a shell, but Dixon re-built it in its original French Renaissance style, with unusual mansard roofs. After Dixon’s death it was put up for sale and discovered, quite by chance, by the future Lord Beaverbrook.

It remained Beaverbrook’s home for the rest of his life. He entertained the eminent politicians, writers and artists of his day there, with many weekend parties and film shows in his purpose built cinema in the house. Winston Churchill was a regular visitor at Cherkley, as were Kipling, Harold Macmillan, Asquith, Bonar Law and writers Jean Cocteau and Somerset Maughan. The piano at which the darling of 30s society, Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson sat and played for the illustrious company still stands in the Kipling Room.

Cherkley was very much at the hub of the popular British press from the end of the Great War, Beaverbrook surrounding himself with banks of telephones, ticker tape and soundscribing machines, as he ran the Daily and Sunday Express newspapers with an iron hand and a shrewd political nous.

Cherkley was no less a focus for the War Effort from 1939 to 1945. Churchill made him Minister of Aircraft Production in the War Cabinet, a move that saw an immediate increase in fighter and bomber production.

Lord Beaverbrook donated large sums of money to worthy causes. One of his greatest legacies was the creation of the Beaverbrook Foundation, a grant making organisation set up under his direction in 1954. Following his death in 1964 and the hurricane of 1987 in which more than 21,000 trees were lost, the estate fell into a state of disrepair. So, after the death of the Dowager, Lady Beaverbrook the Foundation stepped in to restore both the house and the gardens to their former glories, starting in 1999.

The famed interior designer David Mlinaric, whose commissions have included Aspreys and the Royal Opera House, was tasked with bringing back the house’s 1930s grandeur and award-winning garden designer Simon Johnson was commissioned to restore and update the 16 acres of formal gardens.

The gardens were opened to the public for the first time in the spring of 2007. Growing numbers of visitors are now discovering afresh the gardens and views enjoyed by Beaverbrook and his contemporaries.

At its heart lies a series of grand terraces descending southwards from the house, punctuated and flanked by stone stairs and enclosed by balustrade walls.

The original garden pavilions were restored and re-sited and a stunning Italianate garden has been created around the original pool.

An indoor swimming pool was covered over to create a tranquil Orangery, a fascinating shell grotto was created by Belinda Eade and wild flower meadows, Mediterranean planting, a walnut grove and a new potager and vegetable garden have all been added.

The house itself is now available for corporate hire as a conference and training venue and for private hire for weddings and other social occasions.

The rooms, including the Kipling Room – the original cinema – and Beaverbrook’s study, have been restored to pristine 1930s condition. Occasional indoor concerts and events allow the opportunity to take a closer look inside the house and guided tours of the interior can be pre-booked by groups, subject to availability.

The gardens at Cherkley Court, Reigate Road, Leatherhead are open to the public from Sundays to Thursdays, from 1 April until 30 September (10.30am until 5.00pm; last entry 4.30pm). Fridays and Saturdays: open by appointment only. Teas and light lunches are served in the Orangery.

Call 01372 380 980 for information ; email enquiries@cherkleycourt.com or visit www.cherkleycourt.com.

• Do you know more? Let us know by email here, phone the newsdesk on 020 8330 9555 or leave a comment below.