Head Gardener

This is an exciting new opportunity to join us at Sizergh, leading a team of brilliant, engaged, and talented gardeners who work to deliver horticultural excellence and incredible public benefit. Sizergh has a 16-acre garden that surrounds the beautiful grade I listed house and consists of ornamental lawns, a productive kitchen garden and orchard, a grade II listed rock garden, stumpery and national fern collection, topiary yews, ponds, and so much more.

Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week, includes weekends

Salary: £32,955pa

Contract: Permanent 

Interviews: 30th April

If you have any questions about this role please contact either our Operations Manager: sean.fletcher@nationaltrust.org.uk or our Gardens and Parkland Consultant: rachel.ryvar@nationaltrust.org.uk

We would welcome applications from both internal and external applicants. 

Sizergh is a beautiful 1600-acre lake district estate with an 800-year-old house, garden, woodland, three tenant farms and wetland. This fantastic property welcomes 220,000 visitors a year, of which 125,000 come to the gardens. We have a team of nearly 60 members of staff and 184 volunteers, all of whom make up the 'one Sizergh family'. We all work to support each other each day, looking after each other's well-being and caring for this special place that visitors come to enjoy. You'll join this fantastic team and play an integral part in telling the story of Sizergh and conserving it for years to come.

The garden team work collaboratively with all property teams to ensure visitors have an enjoyable visit – we all play our parts in catering for our visitor's needs. Horticultural excellence is at the heart of everything we do in the gardens; improving presentation standards is key to this, from dead-heading to border design and larger scale projects. You'll ensure we maintain our Bronze plant health award and strive for silver. 

You'll be responsible for strategising, organising and prioritising the team’s tasks, as well as your own. You’ll also be a key and effective member of the property leadership team as a head of department. You'll work to develop a robust Garden Management Plan, using the conservation management plan, to ensure a clear strategy for the garden at Sizergh.

Ideally you'll have experience in a similar role and knowledge of managing a historic or public garden site, in all its complexity. 

We'd love to hear from you if you are:

• horticulturally experienced, preferably in a similar role and visitor-facing setting, along with RHS level 3 in horticulture, or equivalent vocational experience
• a leader of people, empathetic and willing to motivate and inspire your team of 3 staff and 60+ volunteers. 
• able to carry out physically demanding tasks outdoors in all weathers, on a site with mixed topography and be a proficient computer user
• competent in operating typical garden machinery and equipment
• highly organised and focused, to deliver the departmental planning, budget management and compliance, as well as support for garden events and programming.