Teachers Travel                 HF Holidays

Glorious Garden Tours


  Somerset and North Devon

June 9 - 16, 2012

Our Somerset garden tour is based in a verdant country setting near the picturesque village of Selworthy, 
reputed to be one of the prettiest villages in England. We stay at the same hotel for seven nights and each 
day travel by private mini-coach to visit marvelous gardens of the region along with great estates. Gardens 
on the tour are a mix of public and private.  June is the most wonderful time of year for English gardens - 
roses are dewy perfection and many perennials are at their peak. Our guide for this tour is Christine 
Walkden. Christine is a British TV personality with her own gardening show and author of books on
 gardening. She is a wonderful tour guide who shares her love of gardening with tour participants. 

ITINERARY:

Sat: Arrive at Holnicote House in time for afternoon tea (travel to Somerset not included) and to meet the 
tour leader.

Sun: We start with a visit to Forde Abbey.  This is a former Cistercian abbey has been inhabited as a 
house since 1649 and is set in a varied and pleasing garden.  A lake is overlooked by a curious 
summerhouse of pleached beech beyond which is a fine bog garden.  The kitchen garden is impressive 
and there is a nursery selling unusual plants.  In the afternoon we move to Greencombe, a completely 
organic garden set on a hillside overlooking the Bristol Channel and containing National Collections of 
Erythroniums, Gaultherias and Vacciniums. Formal lawns and borders surround a charming private 
house to contrast with an interesting woodland walk.

Mon: Westwards this time to Heddon Hall in Parracombe where a notable garden has been created 
over the last 20 years. Then on to Marwood Hill. This is a valley garden created by its late owner, 
Dr Jimmy Smart.

Tues: Eastwards towards Barrington Court. A dreamy, gabled 16th century house, originally moated,
but today the moat pops up (or down!) here and there through the garden.  This has developed and 
changed over the years and still shows the influence of one of its designers, Gertrude Jekyll.  Not too 
far away is East Lambrook Manor, the epitome of cottage gardens created by Margery Fish. Here 
we find another National Collection - of hardy geraniums - and a nursery.

Wed: Free day for you to explore the area by yourself or relax at the hotel..

Thurs: Rosemoor Garden. This RHS garden merits a full day of exploration.

Fri: Eastwards once more to Hestercombe, the great estate of the Bampfylde family, who laid out 
the “Pleasure Grounds” in Georgian times. A subsequent owner, Lord Portman, commissioned 
Lutyens and Jekyll to create a quite separate and new garden close to the house. The result is 
considered to be one of the finest of their partnership. Next to Cothay Manor, said to be “Sissinghurst 
of the West”.  It is a small mediaeval manor with a delightful garden.