Littlebredy Walled Gardens
GARDENS TO VISIT IN DORSET
brought back to life by Vivienne Lewis
Everything is bursting open in the gardens around Dorset this month, and here is a selection of the best to visit.
We do our best to ensure that details are correct at time of going to press, but we advise readers to check before making a journey. Gardens open for the National Gardens Scheme can be seen on their website:
www.ngs.org.uk
Littlebredy Walled Gardens
One of the best outcomes of the dilapidation of old walled gardens in some places is the way that local communities have worked together to bring the garden back to life. That’s certainly true of Littlebredy Walled Gardens, a few miles from Dorchester.
The one acre garden within the old walls lies in the village of Littlebredy, with its traditional thatched cottages in its tranquil valley by the Bride River, and forms the ‘lost’ Victorian kitchen and cutting flower gardens of the village’s estate.
It still has the original Victorian glasshouses, with one being renovated by the organising group, the Walled Garden Workshop. Where there was dereliction there are now herbaceous borders, a rose walk by the Bride River, a lavender parterre, vegetable production and flowers grown for cutting just as in the old days of kitchen gardens.
The restoration includes the ‘lost’ Victorian kitchen and cutting flower gardens
There is even a young vineyard on the south-sloping site, reached by walking through an old damson orchard. It is a small test vineyard, planted just two years ago, and is in the Wessex Vineyards Association. The warm sheltered micro-climate of the
Bride valley makes it just the right place for this venture.
The Workshop is a ‘not-for-profit’ community interest company that has restored the land from a scrubby overgrown wilderness to an orderly and attractive garden, ornamental but also functional.
The one acre garden within the old walls lies in the village of Littlebredy, with its traditional thatched cottages in its tranquil valley by the Bride River
New shrubberies have been created, paths, brick and stone walls have been restored, the formal areas replanted and pruned. The clear-running stream provides water for the vegetables and flowers.
The Workshop also offers a few volunteer placements each year to those
wanting to be actively engaged in gardening activities but at their own pace. The volunteers vary; they can be a person in an indoor job who wants to get outside work in the fresh air, a change of lifestyle or even career, or a young person thinking of going into horticulture and looking for practical experience.
The gardens are now open regularly to the public, and to school visits from time to time, but this is the first year that the gardens have been open for the NGS, showing how far the project has come.
Location: Littlebredy Walled Gardens, Littlebredy, Dorset DT2 9HL. Eight miles west of Dorchester, and ten miles east of Bridport. One and a half miles south of the A35. Park on Littlebredy village green by the round bus shelter. The garden is 400 yards away, but there is closer parking in the garden car park for less mobile visitors.
Opening times: Wednesdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays from Easter Sunday to the end of September, 1pm – 6pm.
Open for NGS: Tuesdays 22nd and 29th June, 2pm – 7.30pm.
Admission: £4, children free. Home-made teas and plants for sale. Partial wheelchair access, steep grass slopes. Website:
www.littlebredy.com
Manor House, Blandford ADBLK123_02 Ilminster 170x25:ADBLK123_02 Ilminster 170x25 19/02/2010 16:02 Page 1
A mid-summer evening saunter around a traditional walled garden with a glass of wine, with the smells and colour of roses and herbaceous borders, sounds idyllic.
Odd, but not everyone knows we do home insurance
We do. Call 01460 57901 for a quote or pop into the office to talk to Angela Joy at NFU Mutual Office, Park View, Eaglewood Park, Ilminster TA19 9DQ
Agent of The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited. Country Gardener We do right by you 15
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