The day after Bank Holiday Monday B wanted to go into Tenbury Wells for bird food and a new saucepan so we returned to the beautiful Burford House Gardens. They always look lovely and the volunteers are to be congratulated and on this visit the gardens seemed to surpass themselves.
Mallard ducklings on one of the pools.
Rosie from Corners of My Mind blog has very kindly done some research for me into my paternal grandmother's parents who lived in Burford. Censuses reveal the names of several cottages where they resided which I suspect may be difficult to find as there are no street names given. In addition some older areas of Burford seem to have been demolished to make way for 1950's/60's housing and recent new builds :( But one day I will go a walk round the village and see if I can find any of the cottages. The census also revealed that my great grandfather was a coachman and my grandmother for a time laundress for Burford House. So going there has become even more special for me. Thanks so much again Rosie.
I talked about the history of the house in my last blog post on the gardens so I won't repeat it all again. But when my great grandmother (and possibly great grandfather if he was their coachman) worked for them the owner (from 1860) was George Rushout, 3rd Baron Northwick, a descendent of the Bowles family who bought the estate in 1720. The estate was bought in 1954 by John Treasure who changed the gardens and opened them to the public in 1958.
This is a bed for pollinators and will look lovely in a few weeks.
We looked for Kingfishers on the river without success but we did later see a Dipper on the Ledwyche Brook.
A very record shot of a Beautiful Demoiselle - it was just perched too high to get a decent photo.
As we were leaving I went back into the first part of the garden to see the alliums again and spotted that the gate leading over the bridge which crosses the brook which is usually locked was actually open. So who can resist a Meadow - I certainly can't!!!! I'll show you the lovely meadow and its flowers in the next post.
All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).
8 comments:
Thank goodness for a photo of Timothy. Perhaps Treasure will get off my case now! He had his tiny suitcase packed and ready to come to see if Timothy was all right.
What a lovely day out! I especially like the first photo and the one of the pale purple clematis, and the shimmery damselfly.
Rustic Pumpkin - Thanks so much Debbie. So sorry if Treasure has been so upset and worried - makes mental note to include more pictures of Timothy! So many species of plant in that lovely garden. Lots of varieties of clematis - I seem to remember they once held the country's clematis collection??? Must check!
Beautiful photos. Burford House and Garden looks such a lovely place. Glad I was able to help a little with your family history. It would be lovely if the cottages were still there. Great to have access to the meadow and I look forward to seeing more of that too:)
Rosie - Thanks so much. I am so glad we discovered the gardens there such a source of delight :( I am really grateful Rosie for your research as you have filled in so many gaps in the information I had. Will let you know when I get chance to have a look for the cottages.
How lovely that you have family links with the Big House and the village. I suspect that they just lived in an unnamed cottage in the village - it's association was with the family. Like "Old Bill's cottage". Lovely gardens and plantings.
Bovey Belle - Thanks so much. I think the cottages will be hard to find as mentioned I suspect many have been demolished for newer housing. Dad had a photo of my great grandparents standing outside cottage but I've been through all the photos I brought back from mum and dad's and have failed to find it :(
On my visits I seem to have missed these gardens. Are they behind the house? If so, how do I find them?
CherryPie - Thanks - it took us several visits to discover them. You can eithe park in nursery car park or if you continue along one way system between the house and church as you leave there is another car park. If you go and stand in front of the house looking over the ponds towards it on the right there is a listed garden house just past the nursery cafe. In front of that there is a path going downhill on right hand side of house which leads you to the gardens. Hope you find next time.
Post a Comment