Gardens that can be visited in Britain – on their own or as part of a house, estate, stately home, or castle.
Holker Hall (say ‘Hoaker’ or ‘Hooker’) is one of those places you could easily miss if you didn’t already know about it – which now you do. To those in the know, Holker is a renowned grand estate, house and home; but it is stuck on the fringe of south Cumbria in north-west England, well away from
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North West England
London’s Bunhill Fields is known as a place for dissenters. Not living ones – though I daresay there are plenty of those too – but dead ones, non-conformist Protestants opposed to the practices of the established Church of England, who were able to be laid to rest here without having the form of service prescribed
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London
Yorkshire’s Castle Howard has no dastardly legends to keep you awake at night; there is no obvious sign of blood seeping out of its mellow stonework. It sits, in innocent splendour, a stately home in English Baroque and Palladian style, created for the vanity of its owners, a palatial celebrity famous for – well, being
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Yorkshire and the Humber
You don’t need great plants to have an attractive garden. But having lovely views, a romantic ruin and, in the first place, loads of money, helps no end. Fortunately, Nymans has benefited from all three of the latter. To be fair, it probably has some great plants too; however, my knowledge of horticulture is only
Some years ago, I was fortunate to be invited to do some work for the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in London. The days I spent there were almost like being in a time capsule; all around were ghostly whispers from our past, of crusader knights, Magna Carta, the Wars of the Roses, the
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London
Christ Church Greyfriars is one of those places you stumble across in London without meaning to. That’s exactly what I did a few years ago, anyway, drifting in search of somewhere to eat a sandwich after a tedious business meeting. Close to the Stock Exchange, I found myself in a peaceful garden planted inside the
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London
The wind and rain blow arrogantly through the empty shell of Witley Court. There are puddles in the earth-floored entrance hall, where the Prince of Wales had been among many rich and powerful Victorian house guests. The hand-woven Persian silk carpet and exquisite statuary have long gone; there is no trace of the brass-railed balcony
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West Midlands
Royal Osborne House is unlike most palaces and stately homes you will ever visit. There is no lengthy history, no convoluted ownership; Osborne House was the creation of Queen Victoria and her beloved husband the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They designed it as their personal seaside retreat and family home on the
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South East
The water flows red from a natural spring at the foot of Chalice Hill in Glastonbury. It is said to be infused with, or at the very least represent, the blood of Christ: or maybe it was rusty nails from the Cross; you decide. It was here, at the Chalice Well, so the stories tell,
The British like to see themselves as keen gardeners. Indeed, some consider gardening to be a national pastime and would be mildly surprised to discover that people in other countries do it too. Of course, as an island race, we often prefer well-ordered borders; for some, it is a perennial fixation. According to the Horticultural
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All Events Yorkshire and the Humber
From the moment we stepped into its kitchen garden, everything about Barrington Court made me want to linger. But don’t visit to savour the great moments that took place at this beguiling Somerset estate, because, so far as I know, none did. Nor should you go to take a peek at the sumptuous interiors and
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South West
This little tale provides a heady mix of rural nostalgia, history, one of London’s best views, a mysterious bump in the ground and a touch of culture, before ending up in a haunted pub. In the event, the stroll was more of a stumble. The last time I’d visited Hampstead Heath, a vast open space,
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London