Out of my potting shed to visit – Holme Pierrepont Hall

/ karen

I’ve spent too much time online looking at snowdrop gardens – and wishing I had a helicopter to whizz me from Scotland to Cornwall.
They are all so tempting. But work, family commitments and lack of funds mean the grand tour will have to wait. 

When a friend told me about a garden that’s practically on my doorstep- Holme Pierrepont Hall, in Nottingham- I hardly had time to grab my coat. I was out of my  pottingshed  like a rocket.

 


Walls and a gazebo in the formal East Garden were built in the 17th century.

The south wall was demolished in the Georgian period to create parkland around the side of the house. The East Garden was abandoned after the First World War, and reclaimed  in the 1970s.


There are some glorious planting combinations. Silver stems of Rubus Golden Vale stand out against the dark yew background, with snowdrops as  groundcover. Everywhere there’s yew and box hedges and topiary.


My favourite view of the house. Dating back to the 1500s, the brickwork is some of the earliest in the county.


There’s some wonderfully gnarled trees in the garden. It’s still very much a family home- as well as a wedding and conference venue. We smiled at the evidence of children everywhere. There were swings in many trees and a home made zip wire in the woods. 


We followed direction arrows through the walled gardens and found these old espalier fruit trees. I love the way they refuse to die. Each one sports  a single vigorous branch.


I can spend any amount of time admiring old garden walls. We mulled over the different courses of bricks. Layers of history with a tale to tell.


The arrows took us to a recently cleared wood.  I decided that following a snowdrop-edged woodland path makes me very happy indeed. 


I took about 100 photos in the wood. It has such a peaceful  atmosphere. Almost like a secret garden. 


We followed the arrows back to the house and wandered through this  doorway, which leads to a pretty enclosed walled courtyard. We bought  tickets for a tour around the house which meant we could look through the windows down onto the parterre. Photos  can’t be taken in the house, which is understandable. It is a family home, after all. But I asked permission to take photos through the windows, which was allowed.


Looking down on the box parterre which is filled with lavender, pulmonaria and spring bulbs. The  boundary wall of the garden, and the house wall have a sort of unusual covered cloister walkway which contained potted camellia plants. 


There’s a good view of the church from the first floor windows.

This stonework being used as a bench looks like it came from the top of a Roman pillar. I wonder…..


We had  another walk round the East Garden before heading for home. This Prunus mume Beni-chidori was looking spectacular underplanted with snowdrops. The scent, reminiscent of fruit salad,  wafts around the whole garden. Quite strong for such a tiny flower.

Holme Pierrepont Hall  is open Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays in February and March 2-5pm. Also Sundays in April -apart from Easter Sunday. There’s a special Shakespeare in the Garden performance  on Thursday 15th June. 
I’m glad I’ve found Holme Pierrepont Hall -especially as it’s only 25 minutes drive from home. It makes me wonder how many other places are right on my doorstep, just waiting to be discovered. Perhaps I don’t need that helicopter after all. 

Have you “found” any gardens right on your doorstep? 

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24 thoughts on “Out of my potting shed to visit – Holme Pierrepont Hall”

  1. How wonderful to be starting off a new snowdrop patch. I have a little corner of Hodsock Priory snowdrops which were only planted a year ago- and they are really bulking up nicely this year. They do give a lift in the middle of winter- just when we need something cheerful. Good luck with your snowdrops. Send me your address and I’ll pop some in the post. It’s nice to have snowdrops from all different places. They are all slightly different. Hodsock has had a garden for 500 years so it’s lovely to think the snowdrops have a little bit of history too.

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  3. Thank you Cathy. I’ll have a look at the Gardeners World booklet. Mum and I have used the 2 form1 tickets before and really enjoyed our money-saving days out. We are firm fans of NGS too and make a bee line for any new gardens on our patch. Thanks for getting in touch. Karen x

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  4. This looks a wonderful place to visit, Karen – and what a surprise to discover it so close at hand. When planning places to visit when we go away I have found several lesser known gardens by looking in the NGS book and finding gardens that are also open to the public at other times. The Gardeners World 2 for 1 booklet also tends to have a few less well known gardens in it

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  7. Oh, that’s a wonderful place and the garden looks stunning. Love those old yews. The wall in the garden is fascinating too. You can see how old it is from the narrower bricks at the bottom. And as you point out, it’s obviously been added to at various times.. the bricks at the top being the more modern, wider ones.

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    • Thank you Jessica. I took lots of photos of that brick wall. There’s an expert at the Leicestershire gardens trust who knows all about the history of walled gardens. I’m hoping she will tell me more. Certainly there’s a lot of stories to be told in those walls. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment. It’s much appreciated. Karen x

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    • Thank you Mike. We thought that too. The whole place has that kind of straight-out of a book type of feel. Indoors there were lots of family paintings from the 1920s to 1950s and they looked like they were straight out of an Enid Blyton story. Extraordinary place. I’ve never been anywhere like it before. Thanks for reading and commenting. Hope you are enjoying your plot again now. x

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    • Thank you Christina. I’m looking forward to catching up with what’s going on in your garden later. I’ve got the afternoon off, and will settle down in the pottingshed to read and catch up. Love Karen x

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