Snowshill Manor near Broadway, Gloucestershire, is probably visited mainly for the eclectic collections of the architect, artist and woodworker Charles Paget Wade who purchased the house in 1919. The beautiful honey-coloured stone Cotswold house is set within the fresh green countryside and situated on a steeply sloping plot. To reach the garden from the National Trust car park you walk along a country lane with hedgerows of wild flowers, which in late spring are full of ransoms (wild garlic) and bluebells, before heading uphill through a blossom filled orchard. Areas of rough grass and native trees, hedgerows and shrubbery create a relationship with the garden.
Here you find a series of courtyards, narrow corridors, terraces and ponds among rustic outbuildings.
In spring and summer it is a colourful mix of cottage flowers: columbine, poppies, hardy geraniums, phlox, lupins. White doves in the dovecotes, roses and peonies and tubs of wallflowers; all with a glimpse of the Cotswold landscape beyond. This is quintessential England at its postcard best.
The colours in the garden are mostly blue, mauve and purple-toned which complement the stone, secondary colours are salmon and cream, sparingly used are reds and yellows. Orange is banned. (though I found some distinctly orange looking wallflowers).
“A garden is an extension of the house, a series of outdoor rooms”
wrote Wade following the philosophy of the time.
It is an architect’s garden.
Each room has rustic details and crafted ornaments: gate piers, troughs and cisterns, a sundial, an armillary sundial, a dovecote, a Venetian well-head, a bellcote with the figures of St George and the Dragon, a shrine for a Madonna on the byre roof, a wall-mounted astrological dial.
Many painted in Wade’s preferred colour of turquoise-flushed French blue which he found the best foil to the stone and grass.
It is an organic garden nestling into the surrounding countryside with ease.
Size: 2 acres (0.8 hectare)
- Street:Â Â Â Â Snowshill Manor
- Postcode:Â Â WR12 7JU
- City:Â Â Â Â Â Â Broadway
- County:Â Â Â Gloucestershire
- Country:Â Â Â United Kingdom
- Website:Â Â Â Snowshill Manor Garden
Another gorgeous garden! We may have to go on a road trip! 🙂
There are several marvellous gardens in the Cotswolds. Hidcote, Kiftsgate, Sezincot. Bouton House, Batsford Aboretum and this one. I have to confess to planning garden visits wherever I go in the UK. 🙂
Lovely images of a wonderful-looking garden.
Thanks Su. As I mentioned the garden is just the hors d’oeuvres to the house, but it is a lovely cottage garden. Friendly and intriguing.
This so interesting, Jude, as well as a lovely place to visit, and not beyond our excursion zone either if we shaped ourselves. What a house, and caught so perfectly here.
An easy day trip especially in the summer. Less than two hours from you. Though we actually decided to B&B for a few days in the Cotswolds so we could explore several gardens in the region in leisure.
B & B-ing sounds a good idea. There’s so much to see in the area.
That’s what we thought and some lovely pub/restaurants too.
OI! Stop it you two, I’m itching to tag along. Beautiful gardens, pubs, and some nice company. Who could ask for more?
Sunshine!
Hey, three out of four isn’t too bad, right?
Right!
I daren’t even ask for an invitation 🙂 🙂
Oh, come along, the more the merrier 🙂
Actually the Cotswolds wouldn’t be a bad place for us to meet up along with Gilly, but it is not Devon OR Cornwall…
Hmmm…. 😦 😦
Hmm, interesting place
Fascinating collections inside too. Even I was impressed 🙂
Sounds good!
I’ve never heard of French Blue before, but now that I’ve looked it up, that’s EXACTLY the colour I love, love, love. If my colouring would allow it, my closet would be full of it!
Great photos, Jude … as always. English gardens are just a delight.
Like a summer sky! I love blues of all shades.
Thank you for the garden tour – that’s another one I need to add to my ‘one day I must visit there’ list. 🙂
I have given up with lists. What happens, happens!
I couldn’t give up completely with lists… the shopping would never be done without them! 😉
As for travel lists – they are in my mind, but something else usually crops up to make me change my priorities. 🙂
Ah, yes, I was of course talking about TRAVEL lists. I’m afraid otherwise I am a bit of a list obsessive. Scraps of paper everywhere with lists / notes / plant names / blog post titles… and the shopping list and the meal list. I think I shall stop now.
I think that was in danger of being a list… 😀 😀
I, too, have lists all over the place – it’s the only way forward these days. 😉
I’m so envious of all the beautiful gardens within visiting distance for you Jude. If I win the lotto I am straight on a plane. There’s a Qantas now with a non-stop flight to the UK from Perth I think.
There is indeed and now my son has to move back to the other side!! Typical!
“such is life” Jude….
I’ve been there. Long time ago though. It is just as beautiful as I remember.
This garden really would be beautiful in summer.
Bit far away for me to find out now.