Hestercombe Gardens


Set near the gorgeous Quantock Hills AONB, Hestercombe Gardens grew from a Georgian landscape garden to the world-renowned garden you can visit today.
It is one of our favourite gardens in Somerset and we have visited this beautiful place numerous times.


History
Hestercombe is home to three distinct gardens. An eighteenth-century landscape garden, a nineteenth century Victorian garden and the formal garden designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll.
In the 18th century Coplestone Warre Bampfylde built a landscape garden into the combe behind his house.
It was famous throughout the country for its winding walks through nature, its four man-made lakes and its magnificent man-made waterfall.
Later in the 19th century additions were made on the south side of the house: a Victorian Terrace was added in the 1870s.
The views from the terrace across the Vale of Taunton towards the Blackdown Hills are uttely amazing.


Jekyll & Lutyens
But the highlight is the truly magnificent Edwardian Formal Garden. It is regarded by many as the finest surviving work of Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, the premier garden designers of the early twentieth century.
It was replanted in the eighties using Jekyll’s original records, remarkably discovered pinned up in the potting shed!
The centrepiece is a sunken garden of 125 square feet where shale walkways divide broad grass panels and flowerbeds full of bright and aromatic lilies, roses, peonies and delphiniums.


Walking
First, we would recommend a walk through the landscaped park behind the house, taking in ponds, a cascade, a Chinese bridge, a temple and a Gothic alcove.
We love walking along the southern edge of the Quantock Hills as it fades into the Vale of Taunton.
A 9-mile circular passes through a couple of attractive villages north of Taunton: Kingston St Mary, West Monkton, as well as Cheddon, split over the three hamlets of Upper Cheddon, Rowford and Cheddon Fitzpaine.
The outward part of the route takes in the Hestercombe Estate.
Cool Places to Explore: Walking with Coleridge | Tarr Steps | RSPB Ham Wall | Glastonbury Tor | Fyne Court | Barrington Court.