A special weekend, with dinners and lunches and tours of Julian and Isabel Bannerman's own private garden at Ashington, Louise Dowding's extraordinary secret garden and a visit and picnic at the gardens created by our co-founder, curently featured in House & Garden magazine.
A benign climate, breath-taking scenery and fertile soil have made west Dorset and neighbouring Somerset home to some of England’s most wonderful gardens (and gardeners).
As well as formal gardens you will experience the wild landscapes of ancient woodlands and flower-rich meadows, at their Spring best.
The price of the tour includes your 2 night stay at Symondsbury Manor, an eclectic and comfortable private manor house with a distinguished history, as well as delicious teas and dinners prepared by Caroline and Clare, with help from Dorset’s best cake baker, Haley. On Saturday we will be lunching at Holm, one of our favourite restaurants in this beautiful corner of south-west England; on Sunday, a marvellous al fresco lunch in the grounds of Manor Farm. It’s all included.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL PRICES ARE PER PERSON.
Not a hotel, but a private house perfectly designed to host our ‘country house weekend’ tours, Symondsbury Manor is a rambling 17th century house with Georgian and Victorian additions.
Delicious breakfasts, restaurant lunches and dinners prepared by our chefs Caroline and Clare, with Hayley's cakes for tea
Your favourite tipple, plus wines selected for us by Johnnie Boden.
You'll travel in the luxury minibus to the gardens and restaurants
Simon and Jason welcome you to enjoy a weekend of good company, good food, and wonderful garden visits, meeting the great gardeners of the West Country
You'll arrange your own flights and trains etc
We recommend you arrange your own insurance to cover delays and cancellations
Alcoholic drinks in restaurants
You are collected at Dorchester station, to arrive at Symondsbury Manor in time for tea. We have time to unwind and enjoy the garden before dinner.
Simon Tiffin and Jason Goodwin will set the scene with an introductory talk on the history and gardens of west Dorset.
After breakfast we leave for Ashington, the 16th-century home of Julian and Isabel Bannerman, garden designers by appointment to the Prince of Wales.
In his introduction to their book Landscape of Dreams, the King described the pair as “worthy heirs of William Kent, one of the greatest and most creative of early eighteenth century designers”.
As well as the King’s gardens at Highgrove, the dynamic duo have created the famous gardens at Trematon Castle and Houghton Hall. With towering yews echoing the old church, Ashington’s inspiring gardens are in fact brand new, created from rough turf during lockdown as ‘a joyous cross between a Kate Greenaway illustration and a medieval Book of Hours, with a nod to Alice in Wonderland’.
After lunch at the Barrington Boar, a Somerset pub featured in the Michelin Guide 2023, we head to the handsome village of Martock. Here we visit Fergus and Louise Dowding’s secret garden at Yews Farm, described in Gardens Illustrated as ‘a theatrical paradise’. This is a playful garden packed with a menagerie of topiary beasts, swathes of self-sown umbellifers and a layout that entices you to explore a horticultural Wonderland.
In the morning we leave Symondsbury to visit the nearby village of Stoke Abbott, one of the most magical and secluded villages in Dorset. We’ll see the gardens at Manor Farm, currently featured in House & Garden magazine. We'll picnic in the orchard, to enjoy a talk by James Crowden, the poet and author of Cider Country: How an Ancient Craft Became a Way of Life.
In the afternoon you are free to explore further this wonderful corner of west Dorset. A walk along the nearby hollow way of Hell Lane or a trip to Lyme Regis are excellent options. We end the day back in Symondsbury, at the specialist plant nursery of Charles Chesshire. As well as curating this spectacular nursery, Charles has designed gardens at Burford House, consulted at Sudeley Castle gardens and is restoring the park and gardens at Lydney Park. The nursery is also home to Charles’s extensive collection of herbaceous and itoh peonies.
After a splendid tea at the manor, you'll be returned to Dorchester station for the 18.00 to London Waterloo.
