Views with a room, or two

I really don't know what to say about Hidcote that hasn't been said already. And I definitely don't have pictures to rival those I've seen in books, talks and Facebook pages.


The day I visited (yesterday) was rainy with glimpses of summer. This meant most of my pictures are rather dull, except when the sunlight hit the house and garden in front of a thunderous black sky.

Still there must be a few people on Earth who haven't been to Hidcote or flicked through someone's glorious pictures of the garden. For them, I provide these images and a few words.

Hidcote garden is a product of the 1930s, and the Arts and Crafts era, or should I say movement? In any case the garden was owned and created by an American, Lawrence Johnston. He bequeathed the estate to the English National Trust in 1948 and it's been gradually restored back to its colourful origins since then. 

Hidcote is often and aptly described as a ‘garden of rooms’, although it's when you break free of these rooms and look out across the grazing sheep or wheat fields, that you really feel the garden is working. Or perhaps that's an Australian perspective.

Back to the confined spaces. Each room has its own feel and look and in the brochure they are given self-explanatory titles: the white garden, the circle, the winter border, the bathing pool garden, the theatre lawn, Hydrangea corner, and so on. 

But it's the long walk, the Beech Alley and the long paddock - sorry the sheep in the field just beyond the ha-ha - that are are my lasting memory. Well, and the pretty flowers, and hedges, and ponds, and rock walls, and the whole damn lot. It was a lovely spot.

PS: if the font or layout are weird, it's because I'm doing this on an old decommissioned PC while I wait to get my trusty newer machine back from where I last left it...