I recently saw a blog post on a website I visit called "Cherie's Place" (please see My Blog List on the right) on Hampton Court Castle gardens and it reminded me it was on my list of places to visit in Herefordshire as it is only 20 minutes from the caravan. I checked the website and found you didn't have to pre-book so on the Thursday afternoon we went along to take a look. Thankfully it wasn't busy and there was no queue we just waited for the person in front of us to buy tickets before doing the same ourselves.
The castle itself is a castellated country house with the oldest parts including the chapel dating back to 1427. Royal permission was given by Henry VI to crenellate it in 1434. There have been various alterations and additions since then and the castle is now fully restored. The Hampton Court Estate was originally formed by the merging of the manors of Hampton Richard and Hampton Mappenor. Henry IV began a building on the site and then gave it to Sir Rowland Lenthall and he built a quadrangular manor house there in 1427. In 1510 it was sold to Sir Humphrey Coningsby and his descendants remained there until the early 19th century when the estate was bought by Richard Arkwright, son of the famous inventor. The house was remodelled in the 1830's and 1840's work was carried by Charles Hanbury Lacey later Lord Sudeley. The Arkwrights lived there until 1912.
During the 20th century several owners bought the house and much of the furniture was sold until it was bought by Robert Van Kampen, an Americal millionnaire in the 1990's. He has refurnished the interior in accordance with his idea of how an English castle should look.
The house was open for self guided one way tours but B and E are not really keen on country houses and as you know I am still not keen on going inside buildings so we spent all our time in the gardens and parkland.
The present gardens sit within two walled gardens and were designed by Simon Dorrell and David Wheeler in 1996/8 with Chadburn Ltd of Bath. The South Garden has canals with bridges to a pair of octagonal pavilions. For the creation of the landscaped park some centuries ago Humphrey Repton was consulted in 1795 and 1810.
The Walled Gardens were operating a one way system to help maintain social distancing. The gardens were really lovely and full of perennials.
Be warned there are a lot of photos!
A peek at the orchard - we will return here later.
Because I kept stopping to look at flowers and take photos B and E were already zooming ahead.
A rather scary metal figure.
By this stage and with the path splitting in two directions I had completely lost sight of B and E and because of the one way system I couldn't go back to look for them so in the end I left the walled garden and entered the parkland thinking they would spot me there when they came out of the walled gardens. As usual I didn't have my phone all I had was a small back pack stuffed with mask, hand sanitiser, dettol spray and disposable gloves! There are times when I really do get a trifle fed up with the times we are living in as life seems so surreal!
Isn't this tree with a door wonderful?!
B and E had by now re-appeared thankfully. The Orangery cafe had many precautions in place - staff were wearing masks and/or visors, you went in through one door and out through another and tables AND chairs were sanitised after use! Against my better judgement I did have a wrapped icecream!
We went on the River walk.
B and E shooting ahead again!
Himalayan Balsam
Hedge Woundwort
We decided to enter the Sunken Garden even though you had to walk across the back of the waterfall to maintain the one way system!
With hindsight I probably wouldn't have bothered as, although walking past the back of the waterfall was fun, the passage each side was dark, very narrow with an uneven floor and I was petrified! especially as you guessed it B and E had disappeared well ahead of me.
So back into the Walled Garden - we did visit some of the areas seen earlier although we didn't see anyone else while doing so.
A dragon or wolf? guarding the entrance to the orchard.
Rather frightening Pied Piper of Hamelin and children!
The gardens and parkland were lovely and there was the chance to extend the river walk by a 45 minute circular path which we didn't do this time. I will certainly be visiting again although will probably steer clear of weekends in case it is busier.
Sorry for vast amount of photos! There will be less in Part 3 as we just relaxed at the caravan site. I am still using the old blogger as I reverted back but I am hearing horror stories of the new one with problems uploading photos and photo quality :( I fear I will eventually be lumbered with new blogger so may well be posting a lot less pictures if it is as horrendous as I fear.
All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330
15 comments:
Don't apologise for all the lovely flower photos! I have really enjoyed them, especially as my garden is going over now, and will be back for another look. My laptop has a foible in that it doesn't always show me all the photos in a blog first time. Of course, I read Hampton Court Palace, not Castle, so mild confusion for a coffee-less moment there. Tut Tut. I wonder why this is Hampton Court too, so I will shortly go Google it. So sad not to see Timothy having some fun, but fully understand why he is not putting in an appearance these days. It looks as if there were not many visitors, which is good for you, not so for them. The thought of losing our Legacy Blogger is daunting.
Rustic Pumpkin - Thanks so much and I am so pleased you are enjoying the photos. It is the first garden I have been to in months and I know many others will be missing their visits to such places too! Yes the name is confusing especially when you google it to find out more information.
It is a pain about Timothy but hopefully one day he will be coming on jaunts more again. It was thankfully fairly quiet - especially the gardens. Parkland there were more people by the cafe and eating picnics and some children by the play area. It may give me courage to pre-book a visit to one of my favourite local NT places nearer home. It was certainly easy to social distance apart from one young girl who came rushing past us in the Sunken Garden!!!!!
What a super place to have so close to your caravan, I'm sure many more visits will be made and to the inside too once it feels safer to do so. There are so many things to see, the flowers, the sculptures, the different areas of the garden and the building itself. I know that feeling of dropping behind to take a photo or two and then wondering where everyone has gone. I expect the garden would be busier at the weekends. New blogger is a bit of a pain isn't it?. Take care:)
Rosie - Thank you. I think you may be able to get a season ticket but that is something to consider next year perhaps. I know my son having seen the photos is keen to visit too!
I am always losing the others due to photo taking! Its not so bad when with my son as he takes photos too and takes ages composing them so we rarely lose each other! I will have to remember to take my phone with me in future!
Not really tried new blogger yet. I saw comments about people having problem with photo upload and quality and immediately reverted back to old blogger without trying the new one! But I am sure I read everyone will have to have it soon and reverting back will cease!!! :(
Take care too.
What a wonderful expedition, RR, despite losing your family, mercifully only for a while! When we lived in Wales, friends used to recommend HC to us, but it was just too far for an easy day visit. It does look wonderful though, with the history, the different planting areas and general ambience. Like you, I'm dreading the Blogger change, and also reverted back as soon as my blog was changed... In the past I have found we usually have about a month's grace. Oh dear...
We are longing to see our first Painted Lady. A good number of Red Admirals here at last, but Small Torties are still conspicuous by their absence.
Stunning set of photos, what a lovely place. Would love to grow some of the "Large Thistles" some of the statues are a bit scary, they would look good lit up at night on a Halloween walk through the garden.
Amanda x
Caroline Gill - Thanks so much. If ever you get chance HC gardens well worth a visit - so many perennials.
I was glad I got that post with all the photos done under the old blogger!!
I haven't seen a Painted Lady this year. At the moment lots of whites and holly blues in the garden and we were getting Peacock, Red Admirals and the occasional Small Tortoiseshell.
Amanda Peter - thanks so much. I planted one of those large thistles (mine I think is called a Cardoon) but again they haven't flowered this year :( Think they are meant to be annuals too. Scary statues are reason why my son wants to visit!! They may well do Halloween walks - well at least in normal times!
Thank you for sharing. I really liked being able to see all the wooden and metal sculptures. So different and unique.
Midmarsh John - Thanks so much - so pleased you enjoyed the wooden and metal sculptures.
At first I thought you meant Hampton Court near London and wondered why you had gone so far.... lol. This place looks absolutely amazing. I could spend all day there easily! I enjoyed the photos but wish you would post them in a larger format as they are a tad on the small side. On my big computer I can't read the text so well either, though I'm sure there is a way to make it bigger (for me, not you). I have just posted a blog using the new layout and found that the photo caption function seems to have disappeared. I'm sure it was there when I did my last post!
MillyMollyMandy - Thanks so much - I couldn't believe how good it was either. When you google it keeps giving you Hampton Court (London!) May be easier to post a larger format in new blogger? Also for now if you click on one of the photos it should show them as a gallery in a much larger format. Although one post recently (can't remember which one) didn't do that properly!
Will check out your new blog post after tea or later. I am not sure how to make text bigger - I use a very antiquated blogger version at the moment which doesn't give you much choice. Yes, I think there is a way on a desktop at least that you can make the text bigger but can't remember how to do it!!!
I am so glad that you got to visit more of the garden on your visit.
The sunken garden was closed on our recent visit, as was the house.
It is a shame your family were not up for the house visit. It is really interesting and worth it.
CherryPie - thank you. I think the house and sunken garden have only just re-opened. I wouldn't be in a rush to walk the pathway at the back of the waterfall again though! Will visit the house in the future :)
We recently visited the garden with my mum. The maze was open so we were up to the challenge. We were slower to find the correct pathway than on our previous visit.
On our previous visit, sunny light shone through the tunnel as we exited the maze, an exiting treat. On this occasion there was no sun, the tunnel was dark and not so inviting as on our previous visit.
CherryPie - Thanks so much for letting me know the maze is now open! Glad you solved it even if it took longer.
My son would love it and he hasn't visited the gardens so perhaps when he is next on holiday.........
Post a Comment