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English Country Gardens
offered by supplier M18955 (view this supplier profile)
Key Information:
Tour Duration: 8
day(s)
Group Size: 2
- 10
people
Destination(s):
England
Specialty Categories:
Garden Tours
Season: May
Airfare Included: No
Tour Customizable: No
Minimum Per Person Price: 1450 Pound Sterling (GBP)
Maximum Per Person Price: 1450 Pound Sterling (GBP)
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Join Caroline and her parents, Richard and Jan Kenyon, for a week visiting some of Central England's finest private and public gardens. Enjoy a slice of that well-loved‚ Englishness, which has been so beautifully expressed in our gardens. Join other enthusiasts or bring your own group.
Enjoy a joyous display of spring colours; rhododendrons, azaleas, bluebells, magnolias and other flowering trees & shrubs in the gardens and walks in the surrounding countryside. We have chosen some of the best and most representative gardens and historic houses of our area.
Before or after the tour you might plan to extend your visit and spend time in London with a trip to the theatre. Why not include a day at the Chelsea flower show, a floral wonderland with imaginative garden designs exhibited at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea? We can help you obtain tickets.
For most of the week we stay in Kenilworth at an old Coaching Inn not far from the ruins of Kenilworth Castle‚ favourite residence of Queen Elisabeth I. We take you to visit‚ Four Winds‚ my mother's family home since 1940. After the Coventry Blitz my grandparents gave refuge to several families and concentrated on kitchen gardens, raising chickens, geese and goats. After WW2 they began landscaping and exchanging plants with other local enthusiasts and the garden began to take shape. Four generations of our family are still enjoying the gardens at Four Winds!
This is a very enriching tour which everyone can enjoy, from those with a passion for gardening, to those who enjoy historic monuments and those who enjoy walking and being outdoors. We look forward to being your hosts.
Tour Itinerary:
Day 1: Pick up at London Heathrow airport
We meet between 1400-15.00 at Heathrow airport and travel to our hotel in London. If you are arriving early you may meet us directly at our hotel.
Day 2: Hampton Court Palace & gardens
Take a boat on the Thames and visit Hampton Court Palace & its majestically laid out formal gardens, recently restored by Queen Elisabeth II after the fire of 1986 - a real insight into the lives of British royal families of the past (Henry VIII, William III and George II).
Day 3: Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew
Stroll around the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew; a magical garden at any time of year with extensive landscaping, monuments, glasshouses and plant collections built up over centuries under the influence of master gardeners and enthusiastic royal patrons.
Day 4: Hidcote & Kiftsgate gardens
Visit two great gardens, Hidcote with a spectacular series of outdoor rooms separated by walls or hedges with outstanding herbaceous borders and unusual plant species from all over the world; Kiftsgate with upper gardens planted to give harmonious colour schemes and sheltered lower gardens providing a home for plants from warmer climes and an atmosphere of the Mediterranean.
Day 5: Baddersley Clinton, Packwood House
Explore Baddersley Clinton dating from the 15th century, an atmospheric house with priest holes, a moat, delightful garden, stew ponds and a nature walk around the lake. From here we walk across the fields to Packwood House with Tudor architecture and an extensive garden with herbaceous borders, ponds and a famous collection of Yews.
Day 6: Charlecote Park or Coughton Court
Charlecote Park is a Tudor house and home of the Lucy family for 700 years. The house and outbuildings, kitchen and brewery can be visited and walks made in creative formal gardens, deer park and woodland. Coughton Court, belonging to the Throckmorton family who were involved in the gunpowder plot, has a simple courtyard, walled garden and labyrinth, rose and bog gardens.
Day 7: Kenilworth Castle & Four Winds
Free morning, with time to visit Kenilworth Castle or do some shopping. Walk across open farmland to Four Winds to enjoy the family garden. After an aperitif, join us for a traditional family supper and farewell party.
Day 8: Drop off at London Heathrow airport
Departure from our hotel at 9.00 to travel to Heathrow airport (approx 2 hour drive). If you wish we can help you to extend your stay or make other independent departure arrangements.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Also see tour packages in:
Europe
England
Local Culture
Garden Tours
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, ext: 18955
