In 2015 Grange Park Opera approached Bamber and Christina Gascoigne about the possibility of creating a new home for their charity at West Horsley Place. They were delighted at the idea, believing that opera would complement and enhance their vision of West Horsley Place as a home for performing arts of all kinds. 

West Horsley Place Trust duly leased a plot of land to Grange Park Opera to build and use a theatre. The Theatre in the Woods was built between 2016-17 and we welcomed Grange Park Opera for their first summer opera festival 2017. West Horsley Place Trust and Grange Park Opera are separate charities. West Horsley Place Trust has also granted Grange Park Opera a licence to use the manor house and gardens for dining during their summer opera season. 

The collaboration with Grange Park Opera was an important first step in the West Horsley Place Trust's mission in establishing a home for the performing arts at West Horsley Place. Grange Park Opera's tenancy also provides a significant financial contribution to West Horsley Place Trust's care of our buildings and estate. 

The Theatre in the Woods is hidden behind the ancient orchard wall and set in a woodland glade. The cross-gartered red brick drum design echoes the beautiful brickwork of the manor house's south façade as well as the 18th-century garden walls. The theatre auditorium is modelled on La Scala, Milan and seats 750 people. More than 30,000 people visited the Theatre in the Woods during the opera's first two summer seasons. 

We hope that in the future the Theatre in the Woods may also be used by the West Horsley Place Trust for other artistic and educational purposes and events, providing a wonderful facility for the local community and beyond for years to come and are working with Grange Park Opera to bring this to fruition.

“I have had two very great surprises in recent years. The first was the unexpected news that I had been left, by a 99-year-old aunt Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, a beautiful house in the Surrey countryside. The other great surprise was provided by Grange Park Opera, who described their proposal to move to West Horsley Place and asked Christina and me if this might be acceptable. It didn’t take us long to say ‘Yes, indeed’. It isn’t every day that you are invited to have an opera house in your garden.” Bamber Gascoigne