SECRET GARDEN TOUR
A journey through manor houses and cottage gardens, set against the inspiring landscapes of West Dorset and Somerset.
Monday 9th June - Sunday 15th June 2025
In a recent interview for G&T with The Financial Times, Jason spoke of the ‘enfolding secrecy’ of the region, ‘an extension of the very idea of a garden, a paradise, a refuge in a turbulent world.’ Dorset remains one of England’s hidden corners, and is the only county without a motorway.
Our Secret Garden Tour explores many gardens which are themselves hidden behind mellow walls, the grand and the small, gardens declamatory and gardens intimate, at a perfect moment in the year.
The price of the tour includes your 6 night stay at Symondsbury Manor, an eclectic and comfortable private manor house with a distinguished history, as well as delicious teas and dinners prepared by Caroline and Clare, with help from Dorset’s best cake baker, Haley. As usual we will be lunching at a variety of our favourite restaurants in this beautiful corner of south-west England. It’s all included.
Tuesday June 10th
This morning we head to a garden located in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the West Country, Devon’s Blackdown Hills.
The stunning garden, surrounding medieval South Wood Farm, was first conceived by Professor Clive Potter, with the designer Arne Maynard helping him bring the garden together into a cohesive design. The result, in its owner’s words, is ‘a garden that slowly melts into the landscape’, in perfect harmony with its surrounding landscape and the medieval building at its centre.
We will enjoy a splendid picnic lunch, prepared for us by our cooks Caroline and Claire, in the grounds at South Wood.
After lunch, a chance to explore the thirteen acre gardens at Burrow Farm, gradually created by John and Mary Benger since they came to the dairy farm in 1959, taking advantage of sweeping country views, an abandoned clay pit and their interest in unusual trees and shrubs.
Wednesday June 11th
This morning we head to the sea – specifically to a striking section of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, the largest shingle ridge in the world. It’s a breathtaking spectacle, in one of Britain truly wild places, where the shingle is host to a dazzling wildflower display, including rock sea lavender, shrubby sea blite, sea beet and yellow horned poppy.
Here we’ll be joined by Fraser Christian, a professional forager, market gardener, fisherman, and qualified chef and nutritionist.
We will have lunch at the Seaside Boarding House, overlooking Chesil Beach.
In the afternoon our destination is another of the outstanding and rarely visited private gardens of Dorset: the Old Rectory at Litton Cheney. This four-acre hillside plot features a formal garden with a pleached crab tree border designed by Arne Maynard, over 350 rose bushes, a magnificent natural swimming pond, and a walled garden with a more relaxed style of planting.
Thursday June 12th
Dorset has a tradition of tiny, informal and productive cottage gardens, whose simple beauty inspired the Edwardian painter Helen Allingham. In just ⅓ of an acre at Corner Cottage, Sue and Colin Dyer maintain a perfect example, with their beautiful kitchen garden, and a small orchard, surrounded by deep flower and shrub borders.
Our morning visit extends to a mellow old brick-walled garden hidden deep in the Bride Valley. Here the largely perennial borders are arranged in ‘rooms’, laid out in a lovely tumble of naturalised planting down the south-facing slope, together with potager vegetable areas and a large lavender border. The sheltered garden is famous for a profusion of scented roses along the edge of the River Bride, a gin-clear stream which glides through the garden.
We will enjoy a Turkish-inspired picnic in the walled garden of Jason Goodwin’s nearby home before walking the Valley of Stones, a beautiful nature reserve bearing many traces of Dorset’s earliest farmers and settlers.
Friday June 13th
Buffy Sacher planned her garden on the slopes of the hillfort at South Eggardon to incorporate its sacred springs and the magnificent 2000 year old yew tree, 24’ round at its narrowest point. With far-reaching views out over the Asker valley, threaded by chalk streams running to a landscaped lake, this is a stunning garden that takes full advantage of its ancient setting.
Lunch is at the award-winning Brassica in the peaceful little town of Beaminster.
Jim Bartos is a native New Yorker and noted garden historian, formerly Chairman of the Board of the Gardens Trust. His exquisite gardens at the Old Rectory in Corscombe unfold with a magnificent interplay of exuberance and restraint. A succession of secret ‘rooms’, including one that takes its inspiration from Islamic tradition, epitomises the nature of this tour, full of horticultural surprise. The gardens overlook three counties, and Glastonbury Tor.
Saturday June 14th
This morning we have an invitation to visit Wall, the remote and romantic home of artist Annie Roberts and her husband, Johnnie. This is the latest in a succession of beautiful gardens Annie has made, with her signature Rosa Rugosa hedging and deep herbaceous borders.
Lunch is at the much-loved Three Horseshoes, in Powerstock.
The award-winning Grade I architectural gardens at Athelhampton surround the Tudor manor house, and date from 1891. The Great Court with 12 giant yew topiary pyramids, overlooked by two terraced pavilions, offers long views with spectacular planting, ponds with fountains, and the River Piddle flowing past.
We return to Symondsbury Manor for a valedictory dinner.
