Outings 2010
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Outings 2010 |
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Departing from Peopleton with pick-up points in Worcester and Kidderminster, if needed. Two private gardens normally only open on Charity/NGS Days and for private groups. Ours will be private visits with entrance fees and refreshment profits donated to charity.
| 8.45 am | Coach leaves Peopleton Hall
Please park, with caution, near the gate. (May be young families about!) |
| 9.15 am | Worcester pick-up and quick comfort stop
Kidderminster pick-up, if necessary, to be arranged |
| 10.30 am | Arrive Windy Ridge, Little Wenlock
Introductory talk. Coffee available |
| 12.30 pm | Depart |
| 1.00 pm | Lunch stop Percy Thrower’s Garden Centre, Shrewsbury
Good café and also picnicking facilities on site |
| 2.00 pm | Depart |
| 2.30 pm | Arrive Cruckfield House, Ford
Introductory talk. Afternoon tea and cake included in entrance fee |
| 4.30 pm | Depart |
| 6.30 pm | Arrive Peopleton via Kidderminster and Worcester |
The first visit on this day will be to WINDY RIDGE, Little Wenlock. Lying half way up the Wrekin this garden is the masterful creation of Fiona and George Chancellor who moved here 25 years ago. From inhospitable beginnings and often hostile weather conditions they have transformed their 2/3rds of an acre plot encircling the house into a spectacular garden. With over 1000 plants, many unusual, George and Fiona, whose original training was in Horticulture, have made a fascinating garden for all seasons with clever design, using strong shapes, different vistas and interesting and amusing hidden corners. Informal planting with good texture and colour enhances the more formal landscaping of the garden, which is often based on circular forms.
The house also has an interesting history. Built in the '30s, it has some unique features. Fiona has researched and discovered that many of the older wooden and stone structures included in the house had been reclaimed from a much older mansion that the builder was demolishing. And Fiona has reflected some of these design features in the shapes of the garden planting by the house.
This garden has won several awards in recent years including Garden of the Year in the Over 2/3rds of an Acre category in 2005, South and West Country Garden of the Year in 2006 and the Daily Mail National Garden Competition in 2008. And I understand that an HPS Group touring the area last year voted Windy Ridge the best of their trip! It also has recommendations from Roy Lancaster!
Fiona is hoping that she may have some plants for sale, but our visit will be a few days after an NGS opening. However there is a garden plan and plant identification list available to guide visitors round the garden.
Then on to a chance for some gardening retail therapy…..if you’re quick!
We stop at PERCY THROWER’S GARDEN CENTRE, now managed by his daughters, for lunch. The café has a fair selection, hopefully to suit all appetites and tastes, and there are also picnicking facilities.
Next CRUCKFIELD HOUSE, Ford, 5 miles west of Shrewsbury, owned by Mr and Mrs Geoff Cobley.
By contrast this larger, 4 acre garden encompasses wide spaces and vistas. The south facing garden is also quite formal in design but with informal and intensive planting, and many unusual herbaceous plants. A small lake with bog and moisture loving plants is surrounded by shrubs and species trees; this area is named “Nick’s Garden”. There is an ornamental kitchen garden with some interesting outbuildings, a rose and peony walk, a courtyard fountain garden where we shall probably have our afternoon tea and cake (supplied by the League of Friends), and an extensive shrubbery, as well as a large rockery and lily pond. The wide variety of planting also includes quite a large collection of clematis.
Neither of these gardens is open to the public, other than for a few charity openings, and both our visits will be private.
So we hope we shall be as fortunate with the weather as we were for most of our garden visits last year and look forward to what should be an enjoyable, stimulating and relaxing day in Shropshire.
Come and join us! COST £25 to be paid by SATURDAY JUNE 12 please. Cheques preferred payable to HPS WORCS GROUP.
A booking list will be at our meetings, or contact me direct.
As we have speakers at our September and October meetings whose topics are Trees for the Garden and The Fascination of Foliage, we thought an autumn visit to an arboretum appropriate. So I have booked a coach for Sunday October 17 to Thenford House Gardens and Arboretum, with a leisurely lunch stop at the National Herb Centre.
| 10.30 am | Coach pickup King George's Way alongside Pershore town car park (by the market). Free on Sundays. |
| 11.00 am | Pickup in Croft Road, Worcester. |
| 11.30 am | Pickup Hopwood Park Services, Junction 2 on the M42. (But there is an £8 daily charge if cars left for more than two hours.) |
| 12.00 - 1.30 pm | THE NATIONAL HERB CENTRE, Deddington Hill Farm, Warmington nr Banbury, where there is a very pleasant bistro serving a good selection of snacks and lunches, made from their own-grown or locally sourced produce. There are gardens to wander in, some lovely views, plants to buy and a garden/gift/book shop. Entry is free. |
| 2.00 - 5.30 pm | THENFORD GARDENS AND ARBORETUM. (We are free to arrive/depart any time during these times, but I’m aiming for a 2 o’clock arrival.) |
THENFORD HOUSE, Middleton Cheney, nr Banbury is the home of Lord and Lady Michael Heseltine. Four times a year this garden and arboretum are open for specialist groups, such as ours, with all entrance fees (£10 pp) going to a nominated charity. (Details of this at a later date.)
The arboretum and ornamental gardens cover 65 acres. The arboretum, created in 1977, contains over 4000 different and some rare species of trees and shrubs. Many of the rarities were wild-collected by well known plantsmen including Roy Lancaster.
The many features of the Estate include lakes and water features, some fairly recent; mediaeval stew ponds, an ancient yew avenue, ornamental gardens and borders, sculpture, some by modern artists; a walled kitchen garden, herb garden, an aviary, and heated glasshouses, as well as a knot garden and a rill which passes through formal ponds and eventually into woodland pools.
In fact with so much to see it is reckoned to take about two and a half hours to tour the gardens, but it is apparently easy enough to return to the starting point at any time!
But it is not all easy walking and stout shoes or boots are recommended!
Tea and cakes are served in the Church Barn in the grounds, at a modest cost, by the village ladies and those profits go to Thenford Church funds. There are toilet facilities in various locations. On arrival we will each be given an illustrated map of the Arboretum and Gardens.
I have to submit a list of names a few weeks before this event and will be given individual named tickets, which I will distribute beforehand. If you would like to join us please sign up a.s.a.p. as I shall open it to non HPS contacts if it is likely to be undersubscribed.
But I would like to have NAMES AND PAYMENT by the SEPTEMBER MEETING, at the very latest, i.e. Sept 4 please. Cheques (£20 pp) payable to HPS Worcs Group.
We need 40 to keep the cost at £20 (includes coach) but can accommodate a few more! As with the summer outing I have booked a coach with more leg room!