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Spencers Gardens

Spencers' gorgeous gardens are set in a small traditional English country estate. Lady Anne Spencer, granddaughter of the first Duke of Marlborough, built the house in the mid-18th century. It is surrounded by 90 acres of parkland, grounds and woodland with fine, mature trees and romantic gardens - "a glorious celebration of the summer season" - which were renovated by top garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith.

The one-acre walled garden retains Lady Anne's ca 1760 layout with its grid structure and elegant timber-framed greenhouse, said to be the oldest in Essex. In spring and summer the garden overflows with spectacle - huge tumbling wisteria, startling armies of "true-blue" Lord Butler delphiniums ("Rab" lived at Spencers in the 1970s-80s), lavender walks, a dazzling herbaceous border and a vibrant green clover garden enclosed by espaliered pears. Roses love Spencers and appear in many guises - an avenue of standard Icebergs, a climbing "bonnet" of Albertine, a huge Kiftsgate arch, Graham Thomas massed around the central sundial, a pergola of fragrant climbers ...

The woodland gardens are just below in the little valley formed by the young river Colne. They are Victorian in origin and full of mystery as the paths curl away into the distance and over the stream.

Tour 2-3 hours, £20 including two-course lunch with wine and guided tour of garden. Plants for sale.

www.spencersgarden.net

To book, call the Mercury Theatre on 01206 573948
or book on-line at www.mercurytheatre.co.uk. 

Other nearby properties:

Bardfield Vineyard
The Abbey, Coggeshall
Hoses Hall

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