Garden Portrait: Snowshill Manor

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:       Snowshill Manor
• Postcode:  WR12 7JU
• City:           Broadway
• County:     Gloucestershire
• Country:    United Kingdom
• Website:    Snowshill Manor Garden

Friday Fountain Challenge: December

Snowshill Manor is a Cotswold manor house packed with extraordinary treasures collected over a life time by Charles Wade

In addition there is a lovely garden with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. And in one courtyard is this delightful huffing and puffing Green Man fountain.

I think he’d look rather splendid in my garden – I have a stone wall and I have the lichens to go with it!

If you’d like to join in with the fountain challenge then please pop over to Polianthus for the rules

This month is a free for all so if you have a fountain to share I’m sure she would love to see you.

Garden Portrait: Bourton House

Bourton House Garden is one of the best kept secrets of the Cotswolds. The most famous garden in this region is Hidcote which attracts coach loads of visitors from London so can often be a little overcrowded. No problems here. This 3 acre garden surrounding an 18C Manor House is much quieter. Located only a short distance out of Moreton-in-Marsh it is also close to the Batsford Arboretum and Sezincote and a very decent pub.

Manor House

The entrance to the gardens is through a magnificent Grade I listed 16C Tithe Barn where you will find merchandise for the home and garden and a pretty decent tea-room.

My visit to this garden was in early June in a year when spring was late in arriving, so there were lots of spring flowers in bloom. It is a plantsman’s garden with unusual, rare and exotic delights. Deep herbaceous borders highlight textures and colour combinations and there are terraces and topiary to provide interest. The Topiary Walk leads into the White Garden, attractively designed around a shallow square pond.

The White Garden

Heron by Michael Lythgoe

white clematis

white flowers

White Lilac

The White Garden

Deep herbaceous borders

Pathways  lead you through to the lawn behind the early 18th century house facing the beautiful raised walk which in turn provides panoramic vistas over the Cotswold countryside. Deep herbaceous borders surround the lawn area.

18th Century Raised Walk

wallflowers

yellow flowers

Alliums

Bergenia purpurascens

Allium giganteum

Persicaria

White daisies

Knapweed

pink geranium

Lilac

Vista

Orchard

From here you wander past a Shade House and splendid Knot Garden complete with 19th century statues.

The Knot Garden

Basket Pond

In the centre of the Knot Garden is a pretty basket-weave pond from the 1851 Great Exhibition, complete with two more elegant herons by Michael Lythgoe. A pretty Fountain Garden brings you to the front of the house and a parterre.

Parterre with Gazebo by Richard Overs

With lots of interesting plants and features to explore your visit can be much longer than you might expect for a small garden. And in addition to the gardens themselves there is a small glasshouse containing succulents and a Brewhouse with containers and more topiary outside.

Aeonium

aeoniums

a living cotswolds wall

geranium cranesbill

drinks in the shade

salmon pelargonium

orange geum

orange flowers

The shrubbery

Late summer is supposed to be a good time to visit as the garden flourishes when many have run their course, but spring certainly has its own beauties to enjoy.

More lovely walks can be found over at my friend Jo’s place.

Garden Portrait: Sezincote

Sezincote is a British estate, located in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, England. It was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell in 1805, and is a notable example of Neo-Mughal architecture, a 19th-century reinterpretation … Wikipedia
and was the inspiration for the Brighton Pavilion.

Down the drive,
Under the early yellow leaves of oaks;
One lodge is Tudor, one in Indian style.
The bridge, the waterfall, the Temple Pool
And there they burst on us, the onion domes,
Chajjahs and chattris made of amber stone:
‘Home of the Oaks’, exotic Sezincote.
~ from “Summoned by Bells”, by John Betjeman

This extraordinary Indian house set in the Cotswolds hills has a central dome, minarets, peacock-tail windows, jali-work railings and pavilions. The main photo above shows the curving Orangery which frames the Persian Garden of Paradise with a fountain and canals and a pair of friendly elephants.

Return through the grounds that are bypassed when heading up the walkway to the house from the ticket booth to another garden where a number of spring-fed pools lead to the Island Pool. It is a lush, green and woodland garden which is probably at its best in spring and autumn. There are touches of the exotic Mughal garden everywhere, with the Brahmin cattle on the steps and on the bridge, and a coiled 3-headed snake.

The columned bridge with little stepping stones taking you from lower to upper garden is quite a fascinating focal point.

Cherry Blossom

Maple

Lush green meadows

Weeping tree

Maple

Island Pond

Island Pond

Surya (Hindu Sun God)

Primula

Hindu inspired dome

Lilac

The Serpent Pool

Indian Bridge

Stepping stones

Bog garden

Indian Temple

The Temple Pool

It is an unusual place to find in the English countryside and not that easy to find (entrance opposite the Batsford Arboretum) and it is best to check the website for details of opening times. The grounds are undulating and some paths are gravel so not suitable for wheelchairs. Entrance fee to the house and grounds includes a guided tour (every half an hour) of a few rooms in the house. It is a worth while experience, though you can buy a ticket for the grounds only.

• Street:        Sezincote
• Postcode:   GL56 9AW
• City:            Moreton in Marsh
• County:      Gloucestershire
• Country:    United Kingdom
• Website:    Sezincote House Gardens

More lovely walks can be found over at my friend Jo’s place.