Tea and a Garden Tour at High Grove? We CAN DO that!
Big news! New NEWS! This just in from Susie Worthy, Helen Bedford and our friends at NOTEWORTHY:
FOUR DAY “GLORIOUS GARDENS” PACKAGE INCLUDING BOWOOD HOTEL & HRH PRINCE CHARLES’S GARDEN AT HIGHGROVE
Tour No 1: Monday 12th April
Tour No 2: Monday 3rd May
Tour No 3: Monday 17th May
Tour No 4: Monday 7th June
Tour No 5: Monday 12th July
Day 1 - Monday
You will be transferred by luxury transportation from Heathrow Airport or Central London to the Bowood Hotel near Bath and the Cotswolds.
This purpose built 43 bedroom hotel and spa is ideally situated between Calne & Chippenham, yet hidden in 2000 acres of rolling “Capability” Brown parkland. Four different room types are available, each decorated to the highest standard by the Marchioness of Lansdowne. Hotel residents are entitled to use the spa facilities during their stay.
All hotel rooms benefit from; complimentary Wi-Fi, Plasma televisions, individual climate control, 24 hour room service, Dab Radio, iPod dock, iron & ironing boards, bathrobes, slippers, tea & coffee making facilities plus guests receive complimentary use of the Spa during their stay. In addition, guests also receive a complimentary round of golf.
This evening you will be invited to a private welcome reception hosted by the Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne in the private apartments of their stately home, Bowood House.
Depending on the season and before enjoying your Champagne and Canapés Lord Lansdowne will escort you to take in the spectacular colours of the stunning Rhododendron Walk in the grounds of Bowood.
Dinner this evening is a private affair and guests will enjoy a sumptuous three course dinner accompanied by wine, mineral water, coffee and petits fours before retiring for the night.
O/N BOWOOD HOTEL
Day 2 - Tuesday
After enjoying a full English breakfast in the hotel, board your luxury transportation for a full day of sight-seeing in the beautiful Cotswolds accompanied by your Noteworthy Guide.
Two garden visits will be included today to two spectacular and quintessential English Gardens.
Kiftsgate Court, Gloucestershire
The name Kiftsgate means to many gardeners that beautiful and embarrassingly vigorous rambling rose R Filipes ‘Kiftsgate’, but although the garden, started in the 1920’s by Heather Muir, is certainly full of roses there is much else to admire. The house has a splendid setting, teetering on the edge of a precipitous valley across which, through the woods, are views of the Vale of Evesham. About the house is a series of enclosed gardens in which formality is blurred by generous planting. Below all this, paths wind steeply down the valley side where, under the canopy of trees, cistus, hebes, phlomis and senecio relish the dry conditions.
A pub lunch will be included at a charming country inn today.
Hidcote Manor Gardens, Gloucestershire
Although among the best-known gardens in Britain, Hidcote still has the power to startle. It was begun before World War I by and American, Major Lawrence Johnston, who devised a type of garden that many think of as quintessentially English. First, it is a garden built up of separate ‘rooms’, each connected to the next but often with dramatic contrasts. Second, the first layout provides a disciplined setting for an immense range of plants of which Johnston was a pioneer re-discoverer - especially of old roses - and which he used in a swashbuckling manner in contrast with the crisp authority of his layout. Everywhere something enticing is glimpsed through an opening, across a pool, down steps or framed by a distant gate.
Return to your hotel for rest, relaxation and a three course dinner this evening in the hotel’s restaurant.
O/N BOWOOD HOTEL
Day 3 - Wednesday
After enjoying a full English breakfast in the hotel, board your luxury transportation for a full day of sight-seeing in Bath and the surrounding countryside accompanied by your Noteworthy Guide.
Enjoy a walking tour of Bath this morning.
The Georgian city of Bath is a World Heritage Site, full of spectacular 18th century buildings designed for the high society of the day. They descended on the city to take the waters at this elegant and fashionable spa.
The neoclassical buildings were designed to be as competitively elegant as the society they housed. Ambitious mothers brought their daughters to find rich husbands here during “the season” between autumn and spring. The Master of Ceremonies controlled the social calendar of dances, suppers and extravagant entertainments. The writer, Jane Austen, was a resident of Bath for five years and closely observed the behaviour of these people who inspired her novels “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion”.
The Roman Baths and Pump Room
Bath was originally founded by the Romans, almost 2000 years ago. They discovered the natural hot springs, building their bathing complex and city around them. The natural hot springs still provide 250,000 gallons of water every day at a temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
See the water's source and walk where Romans walked on the ancient stone pavements. The extensive ruins and treasures from the spring are beautifully preserved and presented using the best of modern interpretation.
Enjoy time at leisure in Bath
Apart from the Roman Baths there are many more places of interest to visit in this lovely town such as the Fashion Museum located in the old Assembly Rooms (where Jane Austen’s heroines would have attended balls and concerts).
The Fashion Museum
The story of fashion over the last 400 years is brought alive at the Museum of Costume, the finest museum of fashionable garments in the world. The displays include 200 dressed figures to illustrate the changing styles in fashionable clothes from the late 16th century to the present day, chosen from the museum’s collection of 30,000 original items.
or
Number One Royal Crescent
Number One was designed by John Wood the Younger and was the first house to be built in the Royal Crescent, now designated a World Heritage Building. It has been redecorated and furnished to show how it might have appeared in the late 18th century.
or
Bath Abbey
Begun in 1499, Bath Abbey is the last of the great medieval churches of England. The West Front is unique as it depicts the dream that inspired the Abbey's founder, Bishop Oliver King, to pull down the ruined Norman cathedral and raise the present building on its foundations.
Bath Abbey's tower is open for guided tours every day except Sunday. You can climb the 212 steps to the top of the tower and enjoy a panoramic and unrivalled view of the city. Visitors can see the 10 bells and hear how the tower was built. You can also sit inside the Abbey's clock face.
After lunch at leisure and some time for shopping in Bath return to the hotel to freshen up for your exclusive visit.
The highlight of the day today is your exclusive visit to HRH The Prince of Wales’s garden at Highgrove in Tetbury. Highgrove is the family home of The Prince, The Duchess of Cornwall and Princes William and Harry.
You will arrive at Highgrove at 5.30 pm this afternoon and on arrival will be welcomed by Tea in the Orchard Room. Guests will be divided into intimate groups of 10 and allocated a specialist garden guide for a 1 ½ hour visit to these spectacular gardens.
The garden at Highgrove embodies The Prince's environmental philosophy: that it is better to work with Nature than against it.
When he bought the Highgrove estate in 1980, The Prince was adamant that it should be an entirely organic garden and farm. However, at that time there was no sign of a garden at all. Thirteen years later in the book ‘Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate’ The Prince wrote: “It was difficult to know where to begin and I knew nothing about the practical aspects of gardening..”
His Royal Highness sought the advice of a friend, Lady Salisbury, who was an experienced organic gardener well-known for her work at Cranbourne and at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. She and The Prince laid out parts of the garden with scented plants. Wisteria, honeysuckle, jasmine, holboellia, lilies and thyme were chosen to surround the house.
On the advice of Miriam Rothschild, another gardening expert and one of the country’s leading advocates of biodiversity, The Prince created an experimental wild flower meadow.
At its westerly end, the meadow is also home to some of the National Collection of Beeches which The Prince maintains on behalf of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG). In addition to part of the National Collection of Beeches, His Royal Highness has the National Collection of Hostas, a large-leafed plant which he loves.
Additional features of the garden are the Walled Kitchen Garden, which helps the Highgrove estate achieve self sufficiency in fruit and vegetables, and the wide variety of apples grown from trees next to the Orchard Room.
After the tour is over you will meet again in the Orchard Room and enjoy Champagne and Canapés. You will also have the chance to spend some time in the Highgrove shop which sells a unique collection of organic foods and lifestyle products for the home and garden. All Highgrove products take their inspiration from the gardens at Highgrove and reflect the wide-ranging interests and passions of HRH The Prince of Wales. The majority of products in the collection have been created by British artisan manufacturers and craftsmen and are exclusive to Highgrove.
Leave Highgrove at 7.30 pm and return to the Bowood Hotel for dinner and overnight.
O/N BOWOOD HOTEL
Day 4
After breakfast a transfer is provided today into central London or continue your program.
Contact me today for availability! This is an absolute MUST for gardeners AND it's an EXCLUSIVE!
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