Given the problems on the railways at present, Mary’s train from London was only 15 minutes late. I had a coffee over the road from Bath Spa station to wait for her. We retrieved my car from the expensive car park there, and I was relieved that I hadn’t been ‘done’ for parking – I think and accidentally anyway – in a disabled space. We drove – more hold-ups, this time for traffic – to this National Trust property in south Gloucestershire. I had visited Dyrham Park several years previously, but could remember nothing of it, except that there was a long walk down to the main house.
There and at another refreshment place Mary and I spent a long time just sitting and talking, over lunch and two beverage breaks. At at one stage went for what was noted as the shortest of the suggested walks around the grounds, though we weren’t sure where it started despite the plan given us, and seem to have taken a long way round at one stage because one path had been blocked off. Beautiful views all around, in weather which was kind, given that the forecast had been for potential heavy showers. We ran out of time to visit the house. I didn’t take many pictures.
Once home, I thought I would remind myself of my previous visit. What a contrast – you’d scarcely have thought it was the same place! (The house is yet to be done – another seven years?)
Once refreshed, we just wandered around taking in the general picture.
We did think this rather spoiled things,
until we saw that why it was there. We learned later that Tim, head gardener, would spend his entire life cutting these hedges if he could get away with it.
We continued to wander and saw animate creatures as well as plants.
At noon we joined a small group led by an excellent volunteer for a guided tour round the gardens. We also learned about the development of the property by William Brathwayt at the turn of the 18th century. It has been very little altered since then, apart from some Victorian improvements to domestic offices. When the National Trust took it over in 1956 it was in a very deliapidated state. The Trust has been restoring the gardens and grounds to the spirit of their original conception ever since.
and very near, with…
and without insects on them.
After lunch, we discovered nooks and crannies, and learned that Henry, the cat we had seen earlier and saw again now, lived in a flat on the first floor of this courtyard, climbing up the vine to get in his window.
We visited the church,
Then Sue decided to take it easy while I went on another guided tour, of the woodland terraces. Less photogenic this time, but it was interesting to hear, from the same volunteer as had led the morning tour, the story of their development, decline, and current restoration.
There was no time to visit the house. That must be for another time, at perhaps a different time of year, in order to enjoy the gardens at another season.
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