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Garden Name: Hodnet Hall Gardens
Last Modified: 13/01/2010
Garden ID: 0231

pic: 0231_HodnetHall.jpg

Owner: A.E.H. Heber-Percy
Address:
Hodnet
Market Drayton

Postcode: TF9 3NN
County: Shropshire

tel: 01630 685786
fax: 01630 685 853
website: www.hodnethallgardens.org
email: Secretary {at} heber-percy.freeserve.co.uk

Features: 
Completely walled working kitchen garden
Daisy chain of pools and water gardens.

English Heritage Grade:
II

Opening Times:
12 noon to 5 p.m.
April 4th & 5th - Easter
May 2nd & 3rd (BH), 16th, 23rd, 30th & 31st (BH)
June 6th (NGS), 13th & 27th 
July 11th & 25th
August 1st, 15th, 29th & 30th (BH)
September - Sundays 12th & 26th

Best Times of Year to Visit: 
Spring & Autumn

To see: 
Rhododendrons, Magnolias, Azaleas, Camellias.
Autumn colour

National Collection: 


National Garden Scheme days: Yes
Comments: 6th June; 12noon - 5pm

Parties / Coaches: Yes 
Comments: Yes pre-booking with minimum number of 25

Viewing by Appointment: Yes
Comments: Call 01630 685786 

House Open for Viewing: no
Comments: 

Admission Prices:
Adult £4.50; Child £2

Parking: Yes
Lavatories: Yes
Disabled Access: Yes
Shop: No
Plants for Sale: No
Lunches: Yes
Teas: Yes
Refreshments: Yes
Picnics: Yes
Dogs allowed: Yes
Only on Lead: Yes
Events: Yes

Other Facilities:
Disabled access possible for around 60% of the garden.


Designer: 
Description of Garden:
The daisy-chain of water on different levels provides the central axis of the garden as it is seen today. As the soil is lime-free, there is scope for rhododendrons, camellias and other ericaceous plants, which flourish in the acid soil. The 26 inches (660 mm) of rain each year and moist position resulting from the presence of pools and streams are ideal for candelabra primulas, irises and bog plants, which are a feature. It is supposed that the pools, which are fed by numerous underwater springs, greatly moderate the temperature as they seldom freeze over, and there is often a blanket of warm mist which keeps off severe frosts. Be that as it may, the range of plants grown is certainly a surprising one for Northern Shropshire, and many more tender shrubs have been introduced experimentally. The favourable soil and temperate climate also produce conditions that allow trees such as beeches, oaks, sycamores and limes to attain great size here.

Hodnet Hall is of great interest as an example of a garden which has been carefully planted to provide a show of colour throughout the seasons. The daffodils and blossom in early spring are followed by a burst of rhododendrons, Exbury azaleas, laburnums and lilacs, and then by paeonies and roses, astilbes and primulas. The summer borders, the masses of hydrangeas and the late summer shrubs follow on, and in the autumn there is brilliant foliage and berries.

Since 1966 the gardens and house have been developed and cared for by Mr and Mrs Algernon Heber-Percy with a small team of dedicated gardeners. The Victorian house, whose condition had severely deteriorated, was reduced in size in 1967 by removing the original roof, tower and top floor to make it more manageable to live in. Each month there are plants and trees in colour, and visitors retum to see the gardens throughout the season, knowing that there is always something new and interesting to admire.


History: 
There has been a park and gardens at Hodnet for many hundreds of years, and its design and size has been adapted to the three different sites of the houses in which the Heber Percy family and their ancestors have lived.

The oldest landscape plantings of park trees can still be seen surrounding the earthworks of the Norman castle near the visitors' car park. The Beech Avenue led down to the second house, a large sixteenth-century half timbered building complete with a terraced walk and circular garden. Many of the fine oak and beech trees and specimen yew trees date from this period when the house was occupied. Of this house and buildings only the stables, now used as tearooms, remain. In the mid-nineteenth century the family, tired of living in such a low-lying and damp position, built the red-brick and stone house in the Elizabethan style on the plateau overlooking the valley. This new site gave them the magnificent south-facing views which on a clear day include the outlines of the Shropshire Hills near Church Stretton in South Shropshire.

In the 1920s Brigadier A.G.W. Heber-Percy as a young man and already a dedicated gardener embarked on building a series of pools and terraces, and in so doing joined the formal gardens, enclosed in a yew hedge around the house, with those already existing around the old family house in the valley.

Local Inns: 
Bear Hotel, Hodnet

Accomodation: 
Tern Hill Hall Hotel

Restaurants: 


Village/Town/Sightseeing: 
Market Drayton - 5 miles