Gardens of Northamptonshire Visit
Thirty seven members joined this two-day visit to Northamptonshire on June 25th and 26th 2025. We visited a a total of four gardens: Cottesbrooke Hall, Thorpe Malsor Hall, Kelmarsh Hall and Coton Manor.
The first garden we visited together on the Wednesday morning was Cottesbrooke Hall. We were shown around by Mr Alastair Macdonald-Buchanan, whose family purchased the estate in 1936. The 13-acre gardens wrap around the west side of the house in a series of ‘rooms’ divided by formal hedging and warm brick walls, with views and vistas punctuated by statuary. Beyond the gardens, the park provides a stunning backdrop with vistas towards far distant ridges and churches, notably All Saints Brixworth (680 AD), lakes and wonderful trees. Flanking a small brook on the other side of the park is the Wild Garden. Spring bulbs, gunnera, fine acers and wonderful specimen trees abound. In all, we were on our feet for nearly two hours and so the tea and cakes served afterwards were very welcome.
We then had lunch together in the charming Tollemache Arms in the village of Harrington. This historic thatched pub was named best village pub of the year in 2024 and was also recommended in the Telegraph newspaper just a few days after our visit. After lunch, we visited Thorpe Malsor Hall, which is the home of Crispin and Louise Holborow and is not normally open to the public. The Hall dates from 1609 and has been occupied by the family for over 400 years. The garden is primarily a woodland garden with some topiary as well as a water garden and a kitchen garden. After being shown around the extensive grounds by Mr Holborow and the gardener, we were invited into the house. This was a Cromwellian stronghold during the Civil War and historic portaits, memorabilia and plenty of armour and swords were on display.
Thirty members enjoyed a fine dinner together at Barton Hall Hotel that evening, which also provided a great opportunity to mingle and chat over drinks on the terrace on a beautiful long summer evening.
The first garden we visited on Thursday June 26th was Kelmarsh Hall. Refreshments were served upon arrival in the ‘Sweet Pea’ tearoom upon arrival. We were then shown around the extensive gardens by the head gardener, Oliver Forrest, who was a mine of practical information. There was also time to look around the Hall itself.
The Palladian-style hall was built in 1732 for William Hanbury, a famous antiquarian, by Francis Smith of Warwick. Pevsner described the building as, “a perfect, extremely reticent design… done in an impeccable taste”. The hall is still surrounded by a working estate which comprises both parkland and gardens. Restoration work is being undertaken to return the design to their heyday of the 1930’s when society decorator Nancy Lancaster laid out the flower gardens, with the help of garden designer Norah Lindsay and landscape architect Geoffrey Jellicoe. Nancy Lancaster’s ‘shabby chic’ style lives on in the overflowing herbaceous borders and rose gardens. The Sunken Garden is less formal now than it was in the late 1920’s, when the space was used for cocktail soirées. Embraced by box hedging, the garden is now filled with perennial white sweet peas, astrantia, phlox, white tulips, sarcococca and anemones, alongside annuals and biennials such as orlaya, nicotiana and white foxgloves. The shaded setting is a tranquil resting spot with views to the hall’s south pavilion. Across the west terrace is the restored Philadelphus Garden, interpreted from the designs proposed by Geoffrey Jellicoe in the early 1950’s.
Kelmarsh Hall
Lunch followed in the private Groom’s Cottage at Coton Manor before we gathered in a shaded corner of the garden at 2pm for a short talk by EBTS member Dr Ann Benson FSA FRHistS on the history of the garden before we wandered around.
Coton Manor has been the home of Ian and Susie Pasler-Tyler for more than thirty years. Many EBTS members will be familiar with Mrs Pasler-Tyler’s book ‘Gardening with colour at Coton’. This is a ten-acre garden set in peaceful countryside with old yew and holly hedges and extensive herbaceous borders containing many unusual plants. It was voted ‘The Nation’s Favourite Garden’ in 2019 by garden visitors in conjunction with English Garden magazine and the National Gardens Scheme. It was featured in the 2022 Channel 5 series on ‘Great British Gardens’ and described by Country Life as a “symphony of colour where flamingos mix with flowers.” The specialist nursery there sells many plant varieties propagated from the garden and many members bought plants there before heading off home after a very enjoyable two days together.
Cotton Manor
Written by Dr Paul Giangrande
Images by Charlotte Maclean
