Well, we had a great day out on Sunday visiting this garden near Fakenham, Norfolk. A Tudor Hall with some fantastic chimneys and gables plus a superbly crafted and well-kept garden. Not normally open to the public, on Sunday the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade were the beneficiaries of the garden day.

Thorpland Hall is a sixteenth century hall set in 6 acres of quintessentially English country gardens.  It is a gem of a place with some very nice touches:

  • grass cut to varying heights to create informal paths and visual interest
  • subtle shrub and plant combinations
  • well stocked, traditional kitchen garden with Broad Beans as well as peas held up by brushwood and interesting intermingling of herbaceous and other perennials
  • A stone flag path with side planting pockets from which various ‘low growers’ soften the edges
  • Use of ‘saved’ architectural features from local churches as well as its own ‘ruined chapel’
  • a vast variety of trees and shrubs all looking mature and well cared for
  • a lily covered lake excavated by the owners, Nigel and Annabel Savory, with a ‘nod to Monet’ in its wooden bridge
  • a delightful ‘shepherds hut’ summer house and ‘his and hers’ rustic chairs.

Well worth a visit, if and when you get the chance!