Friday, April 19, 2013

Within these Walls

It felt a couple of degrees warmer inside the mellow red brick walls of the kitchen garden belonging to Sugnall Hall. The garden can be found just off the road which runs between Eccleshall and Loggerheads in Staffordshire.  We used to travel along this road quite often when we first moved to this part of the country back in the mid 1990s because we rented a house in a village nearby until we bought our house up here in the city. 


For the last three years the present owners have been trying to reinstate the garden by following its original layout from when it was first established in 1738 by Lord Glenorchy the then owner of the estate

Apparently in 1737 local brick makers set up a brick making site in a field close to the old hall and made over 250,000 bricks to build the walls.

The walls are now home to many espaliered fruits trees of amazing variety and as you walk around you get a sense of what a hive of industry it must have been in its heyday producing food for the estate.

I was amazed at the huge variety of apple and pear trees around the garden some of them with lovely old names, long forgotten, but now growing here again.  Everywhere inside you get a sense of  a very special work in progress
 Of course with Spring being tardy this year the garden was waiting for the warmer weather so it could burst into action, soon there will be blossom on the fruit trees

Followed by signs of the first fruits and the purple of the lavender edging all the central beds.  We are going to return to see it then as it's going to look wonderful.
We had a cup of coffee in the little tea shop which uses produce from the garden and estate and browsed the lovely things the shop has on sale.  You can call in there without going into the garden and there is an honesty box for donations of £2 per person which is money well spent.  There is a car park at the business park across the road.   After our visit we set off to a nearby nature reserve for another walk.  I'll  post about that later.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

19 comments:

  1. Really looking forward to going along later on in the Spring. Thanks for the tour x Jane

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    1. Yes, it will look quite splendid in a few weeks time:)

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  2. It's good that old varieties of fruit trees are being cultivated again. The old walled garden will look lovely when the blossom is out, as well as when the lavender is in flower, attracting the bees.

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    1. I'm glad I've seen it now to get the feel of it but I'm so looking forward to returning in late Spring early Summer to see what is heppening there:)

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  3. I've got a thing about old walled gardens. There's a lovely one at Croxteth Park in Liverpool, full o veggies and fruit, and a very grand flower filled one at Alnick.
    Kathy xxx

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    1. I know what you mean, Kathy - there is something special about old walled gardens - so much history within of the people who worked there and the type of things that were grown:)

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  4. I enjoyed this post, it looks like a good place to visit. It's funny, I'd never heard of this place at all until 3 or 4 weeks ago and then I've seen in in various places on the net quite a few times lately!

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    1. It is nice and there are several walks nearby too - I'm going to post about one later next week. I think perhaps it has come to the fore recently because of the farmer's markets held therre:)

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  5. I do love a walled garden. The place will look lovely when you return and the plants are in flower. x

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    1. I'm going to go back again and take more photos when the plants and flowers are in full bloom:)

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  6. I love walled gardens too. And oh, to have the space!

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    1. The space seemed huge but also warm and enclosed - very special:)

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  7. I do like the look of that - thanks for the leaflet. I'll let you know when we can head down xxxx

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  8. So good to see the bits of green and little plants and trees greening up!

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    1. Isn't it? Spring is taking a long time to get here this year:)

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  9. I've never heard of Sugnall Hall before - the walled garden looks well worth a visit. How good that the owners are restoring it.

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    1. It is worth a visit and quite close to other interesting places nearby:)

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  10. The restoration of the garden looks to be going well, what an interesting place.Mx

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