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The Cotswolds is a beautiful and distinct area in the southern part of the English Midlands with its own climate and soil type, which produce some particularly unique gardens. Along with the famous ones, we will visit some other lovely and less well-known ones.
This is a proposed tour. Register your interest now and we will contact you as soon as the date, itinerary, price and booking arrangements are confirmed.
The Cotswolds is another distinct area in the southern part of the English Midlands affected by soil type and climate, which produce some particularly unique gardens. Along with the famous ones, we will visit some other lovely and less well-known ones.
Garden Centres in Kent & Sussex between 6:30 and 7:30am
Garden Centres in Surrey & Hants between 7:00 and 8:00am
Date to be confirmed.
Our aim at Pennywood Tours is to give you a relaxing and carefree time where we do all the work so you can sit back and enjoy the trip.
To this end, all tours are escorted by a group leader who will check you on board and make sure you can find your allocated seat. We’ll seat you with the person/people you are booked with but if you know of anyone else on the trip who has booked separately please let us know in advance and we’ll try to seat you all together. The coach will be a super deluxe vehicle with a toilet and is incredibly comfortable.
Our Group Leader will advise you of all the details of travel times, stops, when to return to the coach etc. so you will be in no doubt about what and when. He or she will be available for any additional questions you may have.
We will do our best to stick to our itinerary but you will understand that when there are traffic jams or adverse weather conditions, we may struggle to do everything as planned but we will let you know what information we have in these situations when we have it.
We look forward to seeing you and welcome any questions you may have by contacting us at info@pennywoodtours.com or on 01622 434 981.
Our first visit of the day is to Upton House and Gardens near Banbury. The family home of Lord and Lady Bearsted, the house boasts an art gallery showcasing a fine collection of Old Master and British pictures including Bosch, El Greco and Canaletto.
One of the first female garden designers, Kitty Lloyd-Jones, was employed to improve the gardens and has made good use of the land as it falls away into an ice age valley. A really beautiful garden.
Moving on, we will visit Upton Wold, billed as ‘the hidden garden of the Cotswolds’.
Set in a beautiful Cotswold landscape, this hidden private garden has been created over forty years, originally with the help of landscape architects Hal Moggridge and the late Brenda Colvin.
Upton Wold Garden has an exceptional collection of trees, shrubs and plants, and also holds a National Collection of Juglans (Walnut) and of Pterocarya.
We then continue on to our hotel, the Queens Hotel in Central Cheltenham, a beautiful and traditional old building in the centre of a beautiful Georgian town.
Our first visit today is to Sudeley Castle, a Grade II-listed castle, which has 15 acres of gardens to peruse!
Whilst construction began in 1443 the property was seized by the Crown and became the property of Edward IV, the banqueting hall being built by Richard III.
Other royal visitors were Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, and Catherine Parr (Henry VIII’s sixth wife) was later buried here. Elizabeth I even had a 3-day party here to celebrate the defeat of the Armada. Charles I used it as a military base during the Civil War, when it was largely ruined during a siege by Parliamentarians.
In 1837 the Dent family purchased it and restored it to what we see today.
From Sudeley, we move south to Cerney Gardens, a romantic and secret place. Set around a walled garden, Country Living Magazine describe them as ‘what most people aspire to in their gardens – and few people achieve’.
We start the day with a visit to Brockworth Court which is an intense, informal tapestry- style garden which beautifully complements the period manor house which it surrounds.
It has a naturalistic look, with informal cottage-style planted areas that seamlessly blend together. A natural fishpond, with Monet bridge leading to small island, with thatched Fiji house, no less!
We will enjoy a short tour of the historic manor house which was visited by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1535 before moving to Rodmarton Manor in the afternoon.
Built between 1909 and 1929 it is a supreme example of a house built and furniture made according to Arts and Crafts Ideals. The surrounding eight-acre gardens are quite stunning in the spring and summer.
On our final day we will visit Broughton Grange Gardens.
Broughton Grange is set overlooking a beautiful Oxfordshire valley. Its history dates back to 1620 initially as a small farm cottage associated with the Saye and Sele estate at neighbouring Broughton Castle. The site was developed over time into an estate in its own right.
The Morrell family owned it for some 200 years until purchased by the present owners in 1992. In the early 20th century, and under the ownership of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell, figures such as Bertrand Russell and Lytton Strachey were entertained on the estate.
The gardens’ development accelerated in 2001, when leading landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith was commissioned to transform a six-acre south-facing field into a walled garden. This impressive new garden, walled on two sides only, features three individually themed terraces and has been designed in strong relation to the surrounding rural landscape. It is now seen as amongst Tom’s best work and is widely featured in books and magazines.
Since the late 1990s, many other parts of the gardens have been beautifully developed and, from 2003 onwards, a substantial arboretum has been planted and continues to be developed. The tree collection at Broughton includes a wide range of interesting species and cultivars, covering an area of approximately 80 acres.
In 2019 the gardens won the European Garden Heritage Network’s ‘best development of a historic park or garden 2018/2019’ award.
Please note that all destinations will require walking, possibly with steps and slopes, which may be slippery. Sensible shoes are a requirement, and you should dress for the weather.