Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens

I paid a quick visit to Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens again last week. These gardens were the first local gardens to open after the winter break and I first visited in February as I wanted to try out the camera I had had for Christmas. I was so impressed with the gardens that I decided I would try and visit once a month and make a photographic record of the changes in the gardens through the seasons.

The scaffolding has now been removed from the front of Castle Bromwich Hall. The first Hall was built by a Sir Edward Devereux towards the end of the sixteenth century. In 1657 the Hall and estate were bought by Sir John Bridgeman and his family made alterations between 1660 and 1719 resulting in the Hall you can see in the photograph below. As mentioned in a previous posting the Hall is privately owned and it is not possible to view the interior.



I only had an hour to spare so I only had time for a quick walk through the Walled Gardens.






Lady Bridgeman's Garden is still full of colour








Agapanthus flowering in the Melon Ground.





Border near the North Orchard





The North Orchard contains apples and pear trees full of fruit









Grapes growing along one of the walls surrounding the garden



Rose Hips are forming



View towards the Green House built in 1729









Lower Wilderness



Several beds full of Sunflowers in the South Kitchen Garden





I would love some of these large thistle type plants in my garden. The flowers were covered in bees and hoverflies.















One of the flower beds in the Upper Wilderness





This was a most unusual shrub with flowers (or seedheads - not sure which!) looking like tiny chinese lanterns.

Edit - Many thanks to Dean who has identified this shrub as Bladder Senna (the "lanterns" are seed pods!).




I didn't see many birds and there were few butterflies around on this visit - just a couple of small whites.

Again the Gardens were very quiet - I only saw three sets of visitors. Although I love the peacefulness there I do worry about the future of these Gardens. I must admit I haven't visited at the weekend so they may get many more visitors then and they do hold special events - the few I have been to have been well attended. This year is the 25th Anniversary of the establishment of the Castle Bromwich Hall Garden Trust and they are holding a Celebration Day on 18th September so hopefully that will raise funds.