Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story of the gardens of Villa Frere in Pietà, Malta.

The gardens at Villa Frere as pictured in Country Life in 1930, showing one of the stone well heads that was removed during the Second World War for safekeeping. Credit: Country Life Picture Archive
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story of the gardens of Villa Frere in Pietà, Malta.