Gatcombe House stands within the ancient woodlands and historic pastoral landscape of Gatcombe Park, laid out during the eighteenth century in the English Landscape Garden tradition.
What Hassell saw in 1790 has, in places, been gently lost — reclaimed by sycamore, by bramble, by the patient indifference of the woodland. We are returning it. Slowly, deliberately, year by year. The lake is being dredged and replanted; the stone bridge stabilised; the pleasure canal traced again on the ground; specimen trees that died in the last century replaced with their successors.
Among the surviving features: a great ice house, the bones of an eighteenth-century folly, two historic Oriental Planes that flank the main lawn, and a quiet secret garden tucked behind the kitchen wall.
The estate is set on an east-facing slope above the Medina, sheltered by a hanging wood that climbs the ridge behind the house. The lawns surround the house on three sides; northward they give way to the great planes and the lake. Laid out by Sir Edward Meux Worsley in 1751, the prospect has, in its broad shape, scarcely altered since.
The grounds are not yet open to the public. We are taking small groups on guided walks, and in time will open more widely. For now, the gardens are at their most beautiful, and at their most quiet, when met in person.
We are opening the gardens for ticketed guided tours only, in groups of up to thirty people. The Estate Manager, the Estate Gardener and our friends and volunteers lead a walk lasting around two hours, expanding upon the masterplan, the history of the park, and the future of lake and woodland. All proceeds go directly back into the gardens.
The tour begins at 2pm and lasts approximately two hours, winding through the lake, the woodland, the lime avenue and the place where Charles I is said to have hidden during his island escape. The walk takes in St Olave's Church, Gatcombe, where Church volunteers offer cake and refreshments. Donations to the Church are most gratefully received in return.
The Estate Gardener joins for a short Q&A — and from time to time, members of the Estate Vineyard team join too, for any questions about the wider vision for viticulture at Gatcombe.