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1st May - 17th Sept; Tues, Wed, Thurs & Sun + Bank Holiday Mondays; 12noon - 5pm. Groups welcome - booking required.
Parties of 30+ £6 pp.
June
Roses
Adult £7; Child £3.50. Concessions & Group bookings of 30+ £6 pp (£7pp for under 30 visitors)
Coach House available for hire for events and conferences and weddings.
Tudor mansion with double moat and two main gardens. Beautiful Deer Park
with Red and Fallow deer.
28th May 2017 - 10:00am - 16:00 - Plant Heritage Spring Plant Fair & Artisan Market
18th June 2017 - Music in the Gardens - 12:00 - 19:00
9th July 2017 - Music in the Gardens - 12:00 - 20:00
30th July 2017 - 10:00am - 17:00 - Suffolk Dog Day
6th August 2017 - 10:00am - 17:00 - Festival of Classic & Sports Cars
13th August 2017 - Music in the Gardens - 12:00 - 20:00
17th September 2017 - 10:00am - 16:00 - Plant Heritage Autumn Plant Fair & Artisan Market
Moon & Mushroom Inn, Swilland Sorrel Horse, Barham
Helmingham Church is within the grounds of the park, a short walk from the gardens.
It would be hard to exaggerate the effect this beautiful park, with its red deer, spectacular moated house in mellowed patterned red brick with its marvellous walled garden and rose gardens, will have on the visitor. The whole combines to give an extraordinary impression of beauty and tranquillity. It looks as if it has been like this for generations and in many ways it has, though there have been several interludes in its history, after which a major effort was required to refurbish and re-establish the house and garden, most recently from 1953 up to the present date. Two rose gardens, a parterre, a knot garden are situated on one side of the house and on the other lies a stunning walled garden with beds of vegetables fronted by a trellis of sweet peas, rambling roses and herbaceous borders on either side of the central path.
The colour combinations in all of these are in immaculate taste and are both subtle and very beautiful.
The Tollemache family, who came over at the Norman Conquest, have lived at Helmingham since 1487 and had rebuilt the Hall by 1510. The garden moat predates the house and is probably of Saxon origin. The hybrid musk rose garden was redesigned in 1965 by Dinah, Lady Tollemache. The influence of the well-known garden designer, Lady Xa Tollemache, wife of the present owner, is apparent - the Parterre was redesigned in 1978 and a new second rose garden to the east of the house was created in 1982, together with the Knot Garden. The raising of the house's two drawbridges still takes place every evening.