Anglesey Abbey
A passion for tradition and impressing guests inspired one man to transform a run-down country house and desolate landscape. At the age of 30, the future Lord Fairhaven began to create his first home. Wanting to inspire and surprise visitors, he created a spectacular garden with planting for all seasons and a cosy house in which to entertain. Life revolved around horse racing and shooting, and guests enjoyed 1930s luxury.
Inside: fine furnishings, books, paintings, silver, and rare clocks give a feeling of opulence.
Outside: 46 hectares (114 acres) offer vibrant colour, delicious scents, and the simple pleasures of nature.
Audley End House & Gardens
Enjoy a day out exploring the spacious grounds and estate of one of England’s grandest mansions, Audley End. Whether you’re exploring the servant’s wing, state rooms, stables, kitchen garden or beautiful grounds, you’ll discover what life was like above and below stairs at a Victorian country house.
There’s plenty for families to do, with a playground, working stables, hands-on fun in the Victorian nursery and action-packed special events held throughout the year.
- Experience life as a Victorian servant in the historic kitchens, dairy, and laundry rooms
- Relax or run around in the award-winning gardens and Capability Brown parkland.
- Find the memorial to the Polish Resistance soldiers who trained here during the Second World War
Botanic Gardens
Cambridge University Botanic Garden holds a collection of over 8,000 plant species from all over the world to facilitate teaching and research. The Garden provides resources including plant material, horticultural expertise and facilities to research workers and lecturers. Since its foundation, however, the Garden has also provided a beautiful place for everybody to enjoy and benefit from – a series of wonderful landscapes through which to discover the drama of plant diversity.
Chippenham Park Gardens
Chippenham Park is a thriving family estate. The house, gardens, and park were created at the very end of the 17th century by Admiral Lord Russell with permission from William III.
The gardens have been awarded the highest two-star rating by the Good Gardens Guide and are notable for their vast swathes of snowdrops and aconites in late winter followed by a superb spring show of daffodils, hellebores, spring bulbs and blossoms.
Clare College Gardens
The present Fellows’ Garden was designed in 1947 by Professor Nevill Willmer, a physiologist and Fellow of Clare from 1936 to his death in 2001.
In dividing the Garden into separate sections (some almost like ‘rooms’), Willmer was inspired by the great garden of the Arts and Crafts period at Hidcote in Gloucestershire. But his goal was by no means simply imitation; it was also experiment. The Garden brings together two of Willmer’s interests: the landscape painting that he practised as an amateur and the principles of colour vision that he studied as a physiologist.
Thinking pictorially, Willmer conceived of a number of landscape pictures to be seen from different vantage points, such as the west front of the college and the Master’s Lodge, the bridge over the Cam, or the view from the Avenue through the gate to the Sunken Garden beyond.
Eton Hall and Gardens
An extraordinary, romantic, part-Gothic historic house near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, that has been in the Proby family for 400 years
Elton Hall is nestled in the beautiful countryside on the Cambridgeshire/Northamptonshire border, lying eight miles southwest of Peterborough. It stands proud in unspoilt landscaped parkland where a house has stood since the 12th century.
The gardens you see today are the work of Meredyth Proby, who spent the last forty years re-designing and re-planting them. They provide a stunning backdrop to the house and contain many unusual plants and shrubs.
Prints on display in the house show how Sir Thomas Proby first laid out his garden in the 1670’s and how it developed during the 18th and 19th century. The present gardens are based on a design made in 1911 by A.H. Hallam Murray, father-in-law to Sir Richard Proby (d.1979). They were originally designed for fourteen gardeners and included the large Walled Garden which is now a Plant Centre. When Sir William & Lady Proby lived at the Hall from 1980 – 2021 the gardens had to be greatly reduced and restored. Although the garden is smaller, the new extensive hedging and topiary have created different areas and structure throughout the year which provide a perfect backdrop for the more intensive planting.
Netherhall Manor
Walled garden around a recently restored manor house with a collection of rare plants nurtured by the owner and saved from extinction. One-acre walled garden filled with old-fashioned flowers. Tours by the expert owner and garden writer.
‘Elegant with a touch of antiquity… a positive delight’ Good Gardens Guide. Two antique poultry houses. Tour concludes with eighteenth century music played on an early family square piano.
Featured on Gardeners’ World three times.
Tour includes a talk by the owner, Timothy Clark, a guided tour of garden, a recital on the early family square piano, followed by tea and cakes. The tour does not include the house, but the piano recital takes place indoors and tea is served inside, so visitors see two of the ground floor rooms.
Wandlebury Country Park
On the Gog Magog Hills, just south of Cambridge, this beautiful countryside estate offers miles of wonderful walks through woodland and wildflower meadows grazed by Highland Cattle.
A fantastic setting for a picnic or a BBQ, to watch wildlife, run around and build a den, a gentle stroll or a strenuous hike. Enjoy refreshments at one of our pop-up cafes which are open every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and most days in the school holidays. Please check social media for the latest updates.
If it is a special occasion, you can hire our atmospheric, fully equipped stables rooms and paddock and bring your own catering and entertainment.
On the remains of a circular Iron Age Hillfort, steeped in myth and legend, and an 18th century house, stables, and gardens.
