• Mill Hay  (starting point)
• The Court

The tour will start at Mill Hay, a Queen Anne country house set in 3 acres of landscaped grounds with a trout lake and ancient rose gardens. The grounds are adjacent to the site of a water mill dating from the 12th century.

After finishing the tour at Tower Close, there is a short 5 minute walk to The Court (next to St Eadburgha’s Church, which is also worth a visit).

The beautiful gardens at The Court were designed by landscape designer, horticulturist and writer, Dan Pearson, and are set in 6 acres behind a high stone wall and bounded on one side by a very impressive topiary yew tunnel. The formal gardens include herbaceous borders, a kitchen garden with raised beds and fruit cages, a parterre and a large lawn leading down to the brook and the fields and wildlife lake beyond. Other areas are planted with ornamental willows and wild flowers.

Marion Mako will be leading the tours and is a freelance garden historian and designer who has worked in both the UK and USA.

Her design work focuses on planting, taking inspiration from various historical styles, a subject she also lectures on at The London College of Garden Design. As part of the series of The Historic Gardens of England, she co-authored two books about the counties of Cheshire and Somerset. She has written books on the history of the late Duke of Westminster’s gardens at Eaton Hall and University of Bristol’s gardens, as well as contributing to the gardening website Gardenista. In addition Marion is researching the gardens of two large private estates, creating legacy books for their owners, as well as leading a wide variety of bespoke garden tours. She is also a Trustee for the Painswick Rococo Garden in Gloucestershire.

Tickets £25

Due to the intense interest in this event, and to make it fair for all, we are limiting the number of tickets any person can buy to two. If you buy more than two tickets for this event they will be refunded (less the booking fees) and put back up for sale.

Tickets go on sale through the website at 10am on Monday 26th January and 1 week earlier for benefactors who benefit from priority booking.

Mill Hay Gardens & Lake

Gardens at The Court in Broadway