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1st March - 31st Oct; Daily except Sats; 11am - 5pm
Group Tours available.
House open 1 Apr – 31 Oct, Sun - Thurs (closed Fri & Sat), 12pm – 4pm (guided tours only, at noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm)
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Adult garden only: £9
Under 16 house & garden: £5
Under 16 garden only: £
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Beaminster Bridport and West Bay
Mapperton Gardens is a unique valley garden in West Dorset, in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The gardens surround the Jacobean manor house, stable blocks, dovecote and All Saints Church.
Below the Orangery and croquet lawn is an Italianate formal garden with fountains, topiary, grottoes, ponds and stone statuary, laid out in the 1920s. Beyond this is a summer house overlooking two fish ponds, leading to the Wild Garden.
Mapperton is one of the oldest Dorset manors and dates back to Saxon times. At the time of the Domesday Book it belonged to William de Moion, Sheriff of Somerset, and earned him an income of 70 shillings a year. After him the manor passed by descent to four families - Bretts, Morgans, Brodrepps and Comptons - until it was sold in 1919 to Mrs Labouchere, who built the formal garden in her husband's memory. After her death in 1955, Mapperton was bought by Victor Montagu, then MP for South Dorset, whose family has had ties with Dorset for over 200 years. When he died in 1995, it passed to his son and is now the family home of the Earl and Countess of Sandwich.
The Tudor house was built by Robert Morgan, but was restyled in the 1660s by Richard Brodrepp who also added the stable blocks and pigeoncote. It was a later Richard Brodrepp, a county magistrate, who gave the north wing a classical front, added balustrades and put in a Georgian staircase hall.