England: Highgrove and the Cotswolds 796

We depart from our designated pick-ups points in London, Reading, Swindon and Bristol and head for our first visit, the house and gardens of Rodmarton Manor, between Tetbury and Cirencester. This is an ‘Arts and Crafts’ house with a fine eight-acre garden comprising a series of ‘outdoor rooms’ each with its own distinctive character. The architect Ernest Barnsley started Rodmarton in 1909 and it became a shrine to the Cotswolds crafts movement. The grey gabled house has an intricate garden of lively atmosphere, formal in spirit but with a cottage-garden feel to it.  The eight-acre Cotswold garden was originally designed as a series of outdoor rooms and is still the same today, which each part of the garden having different characters ranging from alpines in troughs, bigger plants in the rockery, lawns, a large kitchen garden and white borders, to the magnificent herbaceous borders which are constantly being re-planted and improved. There are superb vistas throughout and plenty of places to sit and admire the surroundings.

This morning, following breakfast, we visit the gardens of Hidcote Manor, near Chipping Campden. Although among the best-known gardens in Britain, Hidcote Manor still has the power to startle. It was begun before World War I by an American, Major Lawrence Johnston, who devised a type of garden that many think of as quintessentially English. It is a garden built up of separate rooms, each connected to the rest but often with blazing contrasts, laid out in a disciplined setting. Everywhere something enticing is glimpsed through an opening, across a pool or framed by a gate.
This afternoon we continue to Kiftsgate Court, which offers an admirable selection of plants and flowers, not least of which is the well-known rambling rose R. filipes ‘Kiftsgate’. The house, in a splendid setting with views to the Vale of Evesham, is surrounded by a series of enclosed gardens, whose formality is blurred by generous planting.

After breakfast this morning we will transfer to Highgrove, the country home of His Majesty The King. This will be a rare opportunity to see these fascinating gardens which of course are cultivated using wholly organic methods. Since buying the property in 1980 His Majesty sought the advice of a friend, Lady Salisbury, who was an experienced organic gardener well-known for her work at Cranbourne and at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. She and the King laid out parts of the garden with scented plants: wisteria, honeysuckle, jasmine, holboellia, lillies and thyme were chosen to surround the house. On the advice of Miriam Rothschild, another gardening expert, the King created an experimental wild flower meadow which already boasts around 32 different varieties of endangered native plants including ox-eye daisies, yellow rattle, common spotted orchid, meadow crane’s bill and ragged robin. Every year the King takes on a new project to take his garden in new directions, such as his walled kitchen garden or the arboretum. Vegetable varieties loved by the King are grown such as Charlotte potatoes and Happil strawberries, leeks, spring cabbage, brussel sprouts and carrots. A wide variety of apples are grown from trees next to the Orchard Room, along with others gathered from the Walled Garden, including Formosa Nonpareil, Golden Knot, Cornish Aromatic and Lady’s Delight. After our visit we will enjoy a delightful lunch at Highgrove making this a truly memorable, once in a lifetime visit.
In the afternoon, we will enjoy a visit to Painswick Rococo Garden. This is a pleasure ground created in the decadent and fun-loving early 18th century, where follies nestle in a hidden valley surrounded by magnificent Cotswolds views. Using a painting, by Thomas Robins in 1748, the garden is being fully restored to its eighteenth-century character. Its main features are rococo buildings, woodland walks and well-planned vistas.

This morning after breakfast we check out of the hotel. Our final visit is to Westonbirt, the National Arboretum which is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom. It is managed by the Forestry Commission and was established in 1829 by Robert Stayner Holford. It comprises some 18,000 trees and shrubs, over an area of approximately 600 acres. We will see numerous ‘champion’ trees including rare magnolias, tree rhododendrons and maples as well as a wide variety of smaller trees and shrubs.
Following our visit, we will return to our original pick-up points.