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Felley Priory today presents an enchanting picture, a long low
Elizabethan house sitting on a gently sloping hillside overlooking D.H.
Lawrence's’ “country of my heart”. Little survives of the monastic
buildings founded by Augustinian Canons in 1156. But the present home of
the Honourable Mrs. Chaworth Musters provides a superb backdrop to one
of Nottinghamshire’s oases of tranquillity. The garden of today occupies
the site of the priory church and is comparatively new. It was not until
the 1990’s that the ground was terraced. The present layout dates from
1976. Felley Priory is 600 feet above sea level and very exposed. Yew
hedges were planted to afford shelter for herbaceous borders kept in
flower from May to October. Old walls, pergolas and arches break the
sight line to create surprises across the hillside. A rose garden hosts
old fashioned varieties, whilst a medieval garden reflects the history
of the house. Each part of the Felley garden is like a different chapter
within a book. The south and east facing borders have tender plantings,
the pergolas are covered in roses, vines, clematis and lonicera. The
boundary wall shelters small trees and shrubs under-planted with
geraniums, hellebores, hostas, digitalis and meconopsis.
For directions click on
Hodsock priory
Snowdrop garden , at Blythe, Worksop. Beyond the imposing medieval
red brick gatehouse of Hodsock Priory, stretches the most beautiful
winter garden in England. At a time of year when many gardens are
dormant, this five acre corner of Nottinghamshire shows off its
flowering and fragrant trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs.
Hodsock Priory is very much the home of Sir Andrew Buchanan and his wife
Belinda who, for the month of February, are proud to welcome thousands
of visitors.
Common single and double snowdrops carpet the woodland floor and amongst
them grow many rarer varieties. Beautiful, dark blue and plum coloured
iris reticulata and fragrant blue iris stylosa provide contrast.
Alongside the stream, a narrow border of winter aconites provide a
golden ribbon. The shady banks are home to many species of hellebores,
whilst the multicoloured stems of cornus, willows and betula are
reflected in the small lake.
Surprise and fragrance are everywhere, from speckled clematis to
perfumed sarcococca flowers and winter honeysuckle.
Japanese Garden at Pureland meditation centre.
The work of Buddhist
monk Maitreya.
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Sir
Reresby and Lady Sitwell's remarkable restoration of the garden
has enhanced the geometric design, retaining yew hedges,
pyramids and antique statues, whilst adding ebullient (and ever
widening) mixed borders, rose and clematis gardens and a host of
exotic plants, many rarely hardy in this part of the country. On
either side of the formal gardens are more naturalistic
plantings with specimen trees, unusual shrubs and towering
rambling roses.
A
traditional country house garden, with inner gardens sheltered by yew
hedges. They contain a Rose Garden with a good collection of old and new
roses, a White Garden, Herbaceous Borders and a Purple Border. The
central garden leads to two large pools with spring bulbs, primulas,
ferns and willows growing around them, and to woodland walks.
The arboretum contains interesting trees and shrubs and leads from the
Clock House to the Front Drive. A well designed Vegetable Garden and
Orchard leads from the main garden through a Hornbeam Tunnel with
hellebores, hostas and Alliun. Geometric border patterns for vegetables
and with arches of Roses and Clematis. The Orchard centre has a large
Arbour planted with red vines and red climbing roses.
For directions click on
See also Elvaston Castle garden