Gardens-Guide.com is the premiere open gardens directory in Britain today.
Please check with garden owners or their website to confirm current dates open
Gardens: 1st Sunday in April - 30th September;
Tues, Weds, Thurs, Suns & Bank Holidays Mondays; 11am - 5.00pm, last entry
4.30pm.
Groups: every day of the week during the season; flexible timings not
limited to those above.
See website for special Saturday openings.
Yes Must approach via GREENHAM
All groups by appointment, throughout the year
Groups usually 20+ by appointment,
every day of the year except Christmas week. Not limited by usual opening
times. On most Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays, two groups from the general
public are taken around the house at 11.45am and 2.15pm, at £6.75 per
person. Requires Garden Admission. Sorry, no children on House Tours
27th July
May - end July
Adult, Gardens £7.50; Child (under 12) £3.50;
House pre-booked in groups of 20+ only. Please contact for info pack and
discounts
Season tickets: Single: £21, Joint Membership: £38. Includes a free hot
drink per card holder, per visit.
Limited disabled access on House Tours
Picnics not in the garden
Lunches, supper or light refreshments can be arranged for groups, similarly
picnics. Please request info pack.
Corporate Entertainment, Conferences, Events and Private Hire
Calendar of Events - Please go to our website for full details of
forthcoming events
23th - 25th May 2014. Cothay's 8th Fine Art, Decorative and Antiques Fair.
Timings (Summer) Fri 11am - 5pm; Sat 10am-5pm/Sun 10am-5 pm. Stands inside
the Manor and within marquees on the Cothay lawn(s). Food and refreshments
in the Tea Room all day. Entry £5.50 (Includes full access to the gardens
(normally £7.50)).
7th June 2014. The Festival Players perform Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Box office (01823) 672283 or cothaymanor@btinternet.com. Tickets £15.
Doors open 6pm; curtain up at 7pm. Bring a picnic and rugs.
www.thefestivalplayers.co.uk
14th June 2014. Cothay's 5th 'Garden, Plant & Food Fair' in support of a
Charity TBC
10.30am - 5.00pm. Adults £5 Children £2.50
24th-26th Oct 2014 Cothay's 10th 'Fine Art, Decorative and Antiques Fair'
Garden Courses. Six every year. See website for details.
Romantic plantsman's garden laid out in the 1920s, now restored and enhanced. 12 acres around classical medieval Manor Featured on national TV programme at the end of 2008 and again in 2009
Greenham Hall, Thorne Manor, Thorne St. Margaret
The Globe, Appley
Wellington, Somerset
Five miles West of Wellington, hidden in the high-banked lanes of Somerset, lies Cothay, built at the end of the Wars of the Roses in 1485. Virtually unchanged in 500 years, this sleeping beauty sits on the banks of the river Tone within its twelve acres of magical Gardens. Privately owned, it has been painstakingly restored and re-planted over the last 20 years by well-known plants woman Mary-Anne Robb and her husband Alastair. In the height of summer Cothay's gardens are a delight to the eye; the terrace is adrift with Dierama and the Unicorn Walk abuzz with bees on the Napeta. The Gardens, laid out in the 1920s, have been re-designed and replanted within the original structure. Many garden rooms, each a garden in itself, are set off a 200 yard yew walk. The fabulous back-drop to the gardens is the arboretum, where specimen trees have been planted in the last 20 years surrounding a small lake which holds many different types of insects and
supply food and water to over 40 species of birds.
A truly romantic plantsman's paradise. Two stars in the Good Garden Guide.
The gardens at Cothay were laid out in the 1920's by Colonel Reginald Cooper. Reggie Cooper was Harold Nicholson's (Sissinghurst) oldest friend. They were at school together, in the Diplomatic Corps, and were friends of Laurence Johnson (Hidcote), and Lutyens. This band of gardeners exchanged ideas and in Harold Nicholson's diaries there is mention that Reggie came to stay and advised me on the length of the bowling green. It is interesting that Cothay was laid out in the 1920's and Sissinghurst in 1932. A garden writer recently described Cothay as the Sissinghurst of the West Country.
In 1993 the present owners, Alastair & Mary-Anne Robb found the gardens in need of total restoration. The gardens were gutted but the original Reggie Cooper structure was retained. The yew hedges were restored and the garden rooms, off the 200yd yew walk, have all been re-designed. New gardens have been created including a bog garden in the Oxbow, formed when Reggie Cooper moved the River Tone to save his favourite Pine trees from erosion. An Arboretum has been planted, a small lake dug, a mound created, and a wild flower meadow sown. The restoration, which is on-going, is now in its nineteenth year.