What are some of the favourite outings that the British public love to do on a Bank Holiday Weekend?
Heading for the beach,
exploring a castle,
visiting a garden.
These are all popular.
So I thought a garden visit blog for one of those ‘hidden gardens’ would be a good idea for this August Bank Holiday. And suggestions for gardens to visit if you’re not in Surrey are made below.
Coombe Wood Gardens is situated on the outskirts of Croydon, near the better known open spaces of Addington Hills and Lloyd Park. If you’re local to the Croydon and Surrey area, you may well have driven past without even realising that Coombe Wood Gardens was actually worth a visit.
Which is one of those odd things, really, as the gardens have been owned by Croydon council since the mid-20th century and were opened to the public just after the Second World War in 1948.
The park café serves tasty lunches and teas. As you will know, I do consider a good slice of cake to be one of the essentials when visiting a garden! It’s a fun location, in an old gravel pit, with ornaments on natural shelves in the walls.
This used to be the stable yard, and the brick archway leading you through is a locally listed structure of historical importance. When we visited in September, it was covered with a riot of climbing plants. These included a flowering hop (Humulus) a blue Ipomoea, or morning glory, and a bright pink clematis, which I think was Clematis x ‘Ernest Markham’.
There is another locally listed structure in the garden, the old Pond Cottage, which is now the regional office for the British Trust for Conservation (BTCV). The BTCV help with volunteers for the nature
Set alongside the original pond and water garden, the rock garden is built not of real / natural stone, but of Pulhamite. This is an artificial stone created by James Pulham and Son in the mid to late nineteenth century. The Pulham family were landscape gardeners who specialised the rock gardens constructed with Pulhamite.
Coombe Wood House was built in the late 19th century for Arthur Lloyd, brother to Frank Lloyd who lived at the nearby Coombe House and after whom Lloyd Park is named.
Since 1948, the house has been a convalescent home for Croydon Hospital and a children’s home. It is currently a restaurant and can be seen from Coombe Wood Gardens. This is a different vista of the garden and house than Arthur Lloyd would have enjoyed. The lushly planted herbaceous borders are a more recent addition; created within the old vegetable garden.
Could I have filmed the summer house rotating to catch the sun – yes it really used to! – that would have been cool. As it was, Hari sat down on an ornamental concrete seat near the archway through the yew hedge. Distracted by the centaur plaque on the back, and the need for refreshment we didn’t straight away realise the story behind this garden seat.
The concrete seat is not original to Coombe Wood Gardens but comes from Wettern Tree Garden in nearby Sanderstead. More on this interesting garden another time. This ornamental garden seat is interesting as it was sculpted by Arthur Gill complete with centaur, and, according to most sources, made by Mono Concrete Ltd.
Probably created as a memorial bench, the Gill bench was moved here following vandalism and subsequent restoration. Mono was later taken over by Marshalls paving. Many of you will have heard of Marshalls paving and may even have a driveway made of their bricks. Don’t you just love these little connections?
If you’re off to a garden centre, having been inspired by our portfolio or one of our garden design planting scheme blogs, you may find How not to buy Garden Plants helpful.
Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy your Bank Holiday Weekend!
Related Gardening articles you may enjoy from our Award Winning Blog – Garden Visits
These are just a taster, and I’ve given a selection that hopefully have interest for the non-gardeners in your party too. Check out Plews Potting Shed for more.
Scotland
Garden Visits – Dunvegan Castle Gardens
Garden Visits – Cawdor Castle Garden
South west England
Garden Visits – Trengwainton
Garden visits – Antony House Garden
Northwest England
Garden Visits – Acorn Bank Garden
Garden Visits – Topiary Garden at Levens Hall
Midlands
Garden Visits – Hardwick Hall Gardens
Garden Visits – Romantic Kenilworth Castle
South east England and London
Garden Visits – Ightham Mote
Garden Visits – Winkworth Arboretum
Garden Visits – Historic Gardens of Hampton Court
North east England
Garden Visits – Howick gardens, home of Earl Grey
Garden Visits – Washington, Peanuts and Independence Day
And yes, I realise that Wales isn’t mentioned – which puzzled me, until I realised that most of my time there is spent in private rather than public gardens!
