Finest Gardens

Please click on the underlined titles below for more information on each specific garden.

cotswold garden par excellence

Made famous by the 'Naked Gardeners' TV series, this five acre garden includes monastic ponds, thousands of bulbs, roses and herbs, herbaceous borders, a Celtic knot garden and a laburnum walk.

Visiting these gardens in the historic Malmsbury gives you the opportunity to explore this lovely Cotswold town, in particular the abbey. Click here and here.

An early supper can then be devoured at the highly thought of and, after a day in the garden, the very appropriately named Potting Shed pub. This is 3 miles beyond Malmsbury in the village of Crudwell, which is on the way back to Bradford on Avon. Click here. Princes Harry and William have been known to sup here so you might find yourselves rubbing shoulders with them! .

The Courts

Just two miles down the road from Quince Cottage and you come to Holt, and 'The Courts' gardens. This is a very colourful, English country garden, with peaceful water gardens and an arboretum. There are also kitchen gardens, an orchard and unusual topiary.

Just a walk away across country is the Medieval and moated Great Chalfield Manor and gardens. Click here and here.

Local eating can be found near this manor and at Holt, although recommended eating is at the Fox at Broughton Gifford, just beyond Holt. Click here.

Iford Manor

cotswold manor near bath

The best time to go to Iford Manor is in early May, when the wysteria is spilling over walls and releasing its wonderful perfume. It is also best to visit in the afternoon, so you can round off your tour with a delicious cream tea.

You must try and approach Iford Manor from the A36, down a narrow lane, to enjoy the most magical views of the house with the river flowing in front of it. This is very, very romantic and their are gorgeous views from the Italianate summer house and terraces. There are cloisters in which classical ornaments are housed and one wide pathway is edged by sarcophagi.

A perfectly good lunch can be enjoyed at nearby Freshford's The Inn (See 'really useful stuff/pubs' on this site). At Freshford you can build up your garden viewing skills by peering over many a cottage wall at the delightful gardens in that stunning village.

You can also enjoy the garden through the annual jazz and opera programme, details of which are included on the above Iford link.

Prior Park Landscape Garden

This is sweeping 18th century Capability Brown landscape, with a huge lake and one of four of the world's Palladian bridges. It's lovely. Pack a picnic and a good camera and head off on the 'Bath Skyline Walk', which can be accessed from these gardens. There are no cars up here, so you will have to pick up a bus in Bath, details of which should be in the above link.

Stourhead

a garden between bath and bradford and avon

Stourhead is particularly pretty in spring, with a profusion of daffodils. It's great for marriage proposals! More park than garden, it was the setting for one of the more famous marriage proposals in the most recent film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, so you can walk in the footsteps of Elizabeth and Darcy here! It's said to be one of the world's finest landscape gardens, and includes ornate classical temples.

Your day here can also include a visit to the house. Also, on my visit I recall a good pub lunch very close at hand, but this would be another ideal setting for a picnic.

Stourton Garden

I have no experience of Stourton Garden. It's described as a 4.5 acre plants man's garden that includes lots of camellias and rhododendrons and magnolias. The profusion of wysteria, roses and delphiniums must be gorgeous. Hopefully, the link above will lead you to all you need to know to enable you to decide on whether to visit or not.

Westonbirt Arboretum

The national treasure of Westonbirt Arboretum is but 30-40 minutes distance from Bradford on Avon by car. If you love trees you will be very at home among this collection of some 16,000 trees, some of them the UK's rarest. With 16 acres and over 17 miles of paths, you will need sturdy footwear. Spring is wonderful for the blossom and bluebells, summer great to retreat into the shade of the trees, when you can also enjoy hydrangeas. However, autumn is when Westonbirt is at its most spectacular, with the breathtaking colour of the maple leaves.

There is a good restaurant at the arboretum, but the queues can get a bit long around key events and seasons. If this is so you can easily trip to the very pretty town of Sherston, where I have enjoyed very good meals at the Rattlebone Inn, where I hope they still sell English fruit wines, like rhubarb wine and damson wine, as they were delicious. Click here.

Westwood Manor

manor house close to quince cottage bed and breakfast

This topiary garden at the small and reputedly beautiful Westwood Manor, in the nearby village of Westwood is so close by it can be reached on foot or by cycle. The Manor has fine furniture, antique musical instruments and tapestries to provide further interest while visiting.

This beautiful small manor house, built over three centuries, has late Gothic and Jacobean windows, decorative plasterwork and two important keyboard instruments. There is some fine period furniture, 17th- and 18th-century tapestries and a modern topiary garden.

Intimate Gardens

a typical herbaceous border of the cotswold mould

a beautiful garden border

For more information on Bradford on Avon's secret gardens, click here.

The big gardens are impressive in their scale and variety, but smaller gardens that have been created with love and passion can also be a joy. This is particularly evident for those gardens that participate in the National Garden Scheme fundraiser, where private gardens are opened to the public in aid of charity. Bradford does this in its 'Secret Gardens' event, which is on the last Sunday of May, June and July. The above pictures are of Horton House garden in Bradford on Avon was one of the highlights of this.

For more information on the National Gardens Scheme, click here. Look at Wiltshire, the country of Bradford on Avon. Look also at Dorset and Somerset for gardens close to the Wiltshire border, and these will also be highly accessible.

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