Friday, August 27, 2021

In a Walled Garden

Yesterday we went on a bit of a nostalgia trip whilst on our way to Creswell in Derbyshire.  We were visiting Creswell Crags Museum and Prehistoric Gorge to donate Paul's rather large (it filled the back of the car with the back seats down) collection of Stone Age tools and other artefacts, he's written about it - here.  

We stopped in the little village I grew up in, just a few miles from Creswell and went into the churchyard to check my Mum's grave.  This was the first time we'd been there since December 2019 when we discovered that cows from nearby fields had got into the churchyard and made quite a mess of the graves.  My mum and step dad's stone is still badly tilted so it looks as if we need to go back and sort it ourselves.  

We spent over an hour at Creswell and after lunch we drove the short distance to Clumber Park where we had both, as children,  spent many hours with our families, playing ball games, walking, picnicking and watching cricket.  On the way back we drove though the small town that Paul grew up in before heading towards home.

At Clumber Park we walked to find the walled garden.  It was as delightful as I remembered it from our visit a few years ago.  Apologies in advance for the photo overload.

The walk to the gate of the garden, we thought the trees might be Larch trees.
 
The gates into the garden
 


Clumber holds the national rhubarb collection but at this time of year it was all about apples.  The ones above are called Dewdney's Seedling.

 

There were lots of tantalising views through into the next parts of the garden.

A theatre of pelargoniums
Some of the rhubarb collection.

There were lots of delightful corners.

The Palm House - above and below.

It was closed on this visit but we were able to peer inside through the open doors.



I was drawn to this lovely, tranquil scene in the apple orchard, it sums up a warm summer afternoon, I wonder who had been sitting there?


A place to purchase vegetables from the garden with an honesty box.

There are three walled areas within the whole garden.

Dahlias
Other flowers too
As well as being apple and dahlia season it was also time for squashes, pumpkins and hops.

 

20 comments:

  1. Oh Cumber Park looks like a beautiful place to visit, I especially love walled gardens. I remember seeing a programme about their rhubarb collection not so long ago. Lovely that your childhood haunts are not so far away. B x

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    1. Thank you Barbara. It is lovely, around the lake and all the parkland too. Walled gardens are special aren't they? It takes us about an hour and a half to drive to that area from here but lovely to see places we knew again:)

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  2. I am so sorry to hear about the damage to your mum and step dad's gravestone. What a thoughtful gesture of Paul's and I really enjoyed reading his blog post. Thanks so much for the link.

    A wonderful selection of photos - the walled gardens look really lovely. I always think there is something very special about a walled garden.

    Have a good weekend and take care.

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    1. When we found the damage in December 2019 we had intended to go back in the Spring to see what if anything had been done but of course Covid and lockdown happened and this is the first chance we'd had to go back. It seemed the best place to take Paul's collection to especially as some of the casts had been done there in the 1980s/90s. They were thrilled to have so much they could use for education purposes. I love walled gardens, there is something timeless about them:)

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  3. I love walled gardens.Our local nursery (plants) is in one.What a nostalgic trip for you and what an interesting hobby Paul has.
    Barbara

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    1. Walled gardens are lovely and this one is quite a large one. It was a nostalgic trip to visit childhood haunts. Paul still has a huge collection of fossils, trilobites being one of his interests as well as pterosaurs:)

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  4. That was a lovely day out & I appreciated the "photo heavy" post. We just don't have the pleasure of such beautiful gardens here with glasshouses, walled gardens etc. Thank you & as it is already 28th here, Happy Birthday for today. Take care & hugs.

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    1. Thank you Susan, we had a quiet day as it is bank holiday here and I didn't fancy going anywhere there might be crowds of people, we will have a special day out later in Septmber, hope you had a lovely birthday too:)

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  5. That's an impressive larch arch, Clumber Park is looking colourful and full of fruit. Good job those naughty Cows are nowhere near it. I hope you can get the gravestone more upright again, it might be quite difficult to do. I visited Paul's blog, he must be pleased that his collection is in an excellent place. 😊

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    1. The larch arch was quite spectacular. We may have to ask if someone can dig out and straighten the stone. He was pleased that the collection will be of use for education at the Crags:)

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  6. Well, I never knew there was a National Rhubarb Collection but it's good to learn that such a thing exists. I like a nice walled garden and there's one at Wimpole Hall near me but last time I went there they were charging £17.50 - which is fine if you want to visit everything on site but is ridiculous if you just want to walk through the gardens.

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    1. I think we have the national collection of couch grass in our garden:) Gosh £17.50 does seem a lot, everything seems to be more expensive now, I hadn't noticed what Clumber were charging as we have still have a few months on our membership cards left:)

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  7. Nothing beats an avenue of trees or a copse, so I love your first photograph. The words which come to mind for your post are ‘a grand tour’. Robert xx

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    1. Then, of course, there is also Lime Tree Avenue in Clumber Park which is wonderful. We used to be able to run and play underneath it as children and park nearby all for free. It was a bit of a tour. Scarcliffe is so close to Creswell and we had half an hour to spare and on the way back it was easy to drive through Warsop, Mansfield Woodhouse and back towards Pleasley to head home through Clay Cross and Matlock. It was a 'round' trip:)

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  8. What a day! I didn't really understand why people wanted to visit gardens until I visited Chatsworth when I was twenty and fell in love with the gardens there. Clumber Park looks like a lovely place to visit. I hopped over to Paul's blog and got a bit wonderfully lost wandering through there. I do hope the matter of the headstone can be resolved, it must be upsetting. x

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    1. Thank you Mrs T. I think I was a simmilar age when I started to like gardens although I have happy memories of playing in them both at home and at grand parents' homes too. Glad you found and enjoyed Paul's blog:)

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  9. Such a lovely day out Rosie with so many happy memories for you old and new. x

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