On the Saturday B was happy gardening again so I suggested a visit to Burford House Gardens Centre to D.
Burford House
We didn't look round the gardens at Burford House as you now have to buy a yearly or daily pass which I do plan to do this year when B is with us. I must admit I have really missed visiting these gardens. My great grandparents and paternal grandmother before she married lived at Burford and the former and their son are buried in Burford churchyard. Rosie from Corners of My Mind very kindly did some family history research for me on a website and found out my great grandmother was laundress for Burford House and my great grandfather was a coachman and I suspect he also worked there. So for me there is a real family connection to Burford.
We used to visit the church around Easter time with my grandparents so that nana could put flowers on her family graves. I would love to see the house/cottage(s) where they lived but details on the census seem a bit vague on the actual address. Although I do know for a time they lived at Redgate Cottage or House which I haven't been able to track down although there is a Redgate Avenue but in Tenbury Wells rather than Burford. Much of Burford these days consists of new build houses and I do wonder if some of the older houses/cottages were demolished to provide land. I do remember a photo my father had of nana's parents taken outside their house but, although I brought many photos home when I cleared my parents house, you might know I can't find that particular picture!
The rather lovely dragon sculpture.
There were mallard ducklings on the pool at the front of the house - sorry rubbish photo!
Trees by the car park were full of blossom :)
We had a look round the shop at the garden centre then looked at the plants in the nursery area. I could have spent a fortune but B had bought plants from home for the caravan garden and borders and we have seeds to plant there too.
D and I are thinking of doing a bigger herb pot - D has his eye on a half barrel container. So we may return to buy some herbs or else go to the National Herb Centre.
I'd like to plant a pot at the caravan with succulents but these were really too big for my purpose. I'd like to put about four smaller ones in a pot.
Timothy feeling brave!!
We had lunch before we left - a toasted ciabatta with smoked applewood cheddar and chutney.
We came home the following day. Hopefully, we will be returning soon and one of these days I hope we can start stopping for a week. Three or four nights is not a long enough break.
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 of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).
13 comments:
When you say Burford I seem to thing the one in Oxfordshire which also has a garden centre. Why they have those sculptures of animals which are far too big and heavy for most peoples gardens let alone pockets I will never know but your right that dragon was worth looking at
Billy Blue Eyes - Thank you - its easy to get confused between Burfords and I think there is a Hatfield in another county too! Not sure why they have the animal sculptures - perhaps for ornament in the nursery and sometimes they move them to Burford House Gardens or outside the tea room. It is probably a bonus if someone actually buys one! The dragon is superb :)
What a lovely garden centre - lots there to tempt you. A BIG planter for either the 4 succulents you fancy, and/or for herbs would be great. The herbs often like having warm feet a la Mediterranean. Emma bought several pots of herbs this past week and has some front-of-house and others in the herb plot.
Lovely photos it's nice when you can visit a place that has a special connection to ancestors. I hope you can eventually find where they lived but as you mention with a lot of new building the older houses may have been pulled down. I wonder if the house itself have records of former staff and tenants of their cottages? They may be in the nearest archives office. Burford House Garden centre looks a great place to walk around with tasty refreshments too. I hope you can go back to your caravan for a longer stay next time:)
Bovey Belle - Thanks so much. It is a good garden centre for a browse. We have a large herb pot at home as well as a pot at the caravan as we use them a lot in cooking. There are also herbs planted in the patio wall and scattered around in other pots :)
Rosie - Thanks so much and thank you so much again too for help with my family history. I wondered too if the house might have records of former staff so thanks for tip re the nearest archive office.
There's always room for one more plant until one more plant necessitates buying a house with a bigger garden. I think a larger herb barrel sounds like an excellent idea. It will give you room to grow bigger plants or a wider variety of smaller ones. It will also free up the current barrel for some of the plants. I think I'd better shut up now before I've reorganised your garden for you. Timothy is very brave indeed. Smoked Applewood cheese is really rather delicious isn't it?
Rustic Pumpkin - Thank so much. I find plants hard to resist when it comes to buying!!! Good idea re present herb pot - I could grow another lavender!! :) Taken now to having smoked applewood cheese and chutney toasted sandwiches at home - found out you can fry to toast them!!! You just butter the outside of a sandwich and fry! Not very healthy but very tasty!
there are two Hampton Courts as well LOL
LOVE the ducklings!!
The Quacks of Life - Thanks. I know it could get confusing!:)
Usually see ducklings on that pool :)
Interesting about your family history and I can understand why you are drawn to visit the house. Look forward to your post when you do get there!
I need to get some summer plants to fill in a few gaps in pots but our weather is so atrocious I don't even want to go outside, let alone visit a garden centre. Putting the plants outside they would probably curl up and die! Honestly, it was 11C yesterday and this is the south of France!! We had 29C a few weeks ago, but that was a bit of a freak couple of days. I still have a few things to do in the garden as part of my spring weed/fertilise/mulch regime but it will have to wait. :-)
Millymollymandy - Thanks so much. I do wish I had more time to spend on family history research although my cousin who was a genealogist did all the hard work with a family tree on my paternal grandfather's side and when we once had a free trial on ancestry I found out quite a bit on my paternal grandmother's side. I just wish I had asked more questions when they were all still with us! One day if I ever have more time I will join Ancestry or Find my Past for a while but I do know it is addictive and expensive and time consuming!! But it is nice to visit areas connected with my family in the past and I remember going to Herefordshire so much when I was a child.
Its very cold and wet here too although today was drier and warmer! Not easy weather to cope with when you want to garden. Although my son has planted some seeds and vegetables but he even brought some seeds into the house from the greenhouse this week as it has been so cold. Hope weather improves for you soon and you can get out there.
I 'did' my paternal family tree about 20-odd years ago and met some third and fourth cousins online. A lot of research I did with a third cousin (our greatgrandfathers were brothers) and I also met a fourth cousin, an elderly lady who I corresponded with (by snail mail) after that.
One year she and her husband came to Brittany with their nephew who brought them over for a DDay anniversary and they came to visit us. She passed all her manual paperwork over to me (she had done all her research pre computerised records). Not long after that she and her husband died and the nephew kindly wrote to let me know. I was so sad about that but happy to have met her.
Most of the research I did was not on the internet but we had to buy CDs with things like the census and many other things. I later did some research into my Scottish relatives through a Scottish official site but I had to pay. Also I joined Ancestry USA for a year to research a brother of my paternal grandfather who settled in the States. Found I couldn't get any further. Two decades later my brother somehow came across a lady on facebook who was a direct descendant of that brother and we have become FB friends and swapped info! It's a small world sometimes.
Still have puzzles/mysteries in the paternal line which will never be solved, but it was such fun doing the research at the time, and the excitement finding out new info and filling in gaps is amazing! Good luck with your further research!
Millymollymandy - Thanks Mandy for such an interesting comment - loved reading about your research. I am sad your 4th cousin died but so pleased you met her and she gave you all her paperwork which must have helped you a lot. I had a cousin of Dad's who I corresponded with over family history (sadly she has now passed away and I have no idea who has her papers now but I know she has a son and daughter). She did have a few far too fanciful ideas though and no evidence from what I could see to back it up. I do know another cousin of Dad's who lived in Herefordshire and who my cousin was in contact with had with her husband done a lot of work too but they have both passed away. I do know where her daughter is she is on Twitter and is a wildlife friendly farmer in Herefordshire apparently but I am loathe to contact her out of the blue.
I know its expensive even though some stuff is available online - I found some parish registers online which helped me confirm details. Its time consuming too but totally fascinating :)
I supposed I am lucky having the family tree another cousin did going back to late 1500's on my father's side. I just potter really trying to find out more details of information on there and finding out more on my grandmother's family who lived in Burford.
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