Forthcoming 5-Day (4 night) Garden Holiday
from Monday 7th to Friday 11 June 2027
The Bidborough Gardening Association is once again organising a 5-day (4 night) garden holiday, this time to Oxford to explore some of the wonderful gardens and other sights in and around the Oxford area. The cost of the trip will be £620, with an additional supplement for single rooms (£125), and for non-NT members (£30). There is also a £5 supplement for non BGA members.
Optional travel insurance is available at £40.
The above price includes half board accommodation, transport in a luxury coach, entrance to seven properties, and tips for the driver and hotel.
If you would like to attend download the booking form by clicking on the link below and send, together with a deposit of £20 and the Travel Insurance premium if you want this option to Michael Marks on e-mail: michael.marks7@btinternet.com
Full details of the 4-Star Hotel and the 7 gardens that will be visited are shown below, but they are also available by downloading the the Information file below:
Oxford Belfry Hotel & Spa
We will be staying at the 4 Star Oxford Belfry Hotel & Spa, which is 13 miles from Oxford. It is a well appointed hotel including a swimming pool and gym. The hotel is one of the chain of hotels used for our last holiday in Cambridge.
The bedrooms are well appointed and there is a choice of Double or Twin Bedded rooms as well as a Single Room option (This is actually a twin bedded room) for an additional supplement.
Greys Court & Garden
We will be stopping at Greys Court on the outward journey and it is an intimate family home originally built in the 14th century, with alterations over the centuries, and views over the Chiltern hills. From a Tudor show house to 20th-century family home, the mansion today is a patchwork of styles that hint at the various fortunes and tastes of the occupants. It exudes a welcoming atmosphere with a well-stocked kitchen and homely living rooms.
Charming series of walled gardens on a site with over 900 years of history, with seasonal highlights of wisteria, roses and spring bulbs.
Broughton Grange
Broughton Grange is set overlooking a beautiful Oxfordshire valley. Its history dates back to 1620 initially as a small farm cottage associated with the Saye and Sele estate at neighbouring Broughton Castle. The site was developed overtime into an estate in its own right.
Over the last 25 years Broughton Grange and its gardens have been substantially transformed such that it is now recognised as one of the most significant private contemporary gardens in Britain.
The gardens’ development accelerated in 2001, when leading landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith was commissioned to transform a six acre south facing field into a walled garden. This impressive new garden, walled on two sides only, features three individually themed terraces and has been designed in strong relation to the surrounding rural landscape. It is now seen as amongst Tom’s best work and is widely featured in books and magazines. Since the late 1990s, many other parts of the gardens have been beautifully developed and from 2003 onwards, a substantial arboretum has been planted and continues to be developed. The tree collection at Broughton includes a wide range of interesting species and cultivars, covering an area of approximately 80 acres.
Thenford Arboretum & Garden – Owned by Lord & Lady Heseltine
Michael Heseltine and his wife Anne purchased Thenford house in 1976, and over the next twenty five years they set about restoring over 40 acres of woodland.
The arboretum, now spread out over seventy acres, features a collection of more than three thousand different trees and shrubs, together with extensive herbaceous borders, water gardens, an alpine trough garden, a sculpture garden, a rose garden and a rill as well as a collection of over 600 different types of snowdrops. The medieval fish ponds, their interconnecting canal and the existing lake have been restored and two new ones have been added. An eighteenth century avenue of mature yews has been cleared of self seeded shrubs and saplings, and returned to its former grandeur
Rousham House & Garden
Rousham gardens are open to the public, but the house is only open for private groups, so we will have arranged a guided tour of the house after which there will be time to explore the spectacular garden and grounds.
Rousham is completely unspoilt and uncommercialised – no tea room and no shop – just glorious gardens to explore at your leisure. Don’t miss the walled garden with its herbaceous borders, small parterre, pigeon house and espaliers.
One of England’s most important gardens, Rousham represents the first phase of English landscape design and remains almost as its designer William Kent left it. Many of the features that delighted its 18th century visitors are still there for 21st century visitors to enjoy.
A favourite of many great garden designers, in his ‘Around the World in Eighty gardens” Monty Don says “Kent is the great genius of eighteenth-century garden design and Rousham is his masterpiece, one of the greatest gardens in the world”
Monty Don describes the garden as one of the “greatest garden in the world”
The house, built in 1635 by Sir Robertt Dormer, is still in the ownership of the same family.
Buscot Park & Garden
This is the Family home of Lord Faringdon, who continues to care for the property as well as the family art collection, the Faringdon Collection, which is displayed in the house.
Consequently, despite the grandeur of their scale, both the house and grounds remain intimate and idiosyncratic and very much a family home. The extensive pleasure gardens, including the Four Seasons garden, the Peto Water garden and woodland avenues.
To enjoy Buscot Park to the full, time should be taken to explore the extensive pleasure gardens that surround the late eighteenth-century house. To the west of the house, the mellow red-brick walls of the original kitchen garden now shelter the Four Seasons garden, bright with the blooms of spring bulbs, flowering trees and drifts of multi-coloured day lilies, according to the time of year. To the east, woodland walks lead to one of Britain’s finest water gardens, an unusual marriage of Italianate formality with an English parkland landscape.
From the south front of the house, the carriage drive sweeps away to the south east, down through mature woodland. From the north front of the house, the views take in the Little Lake and the Thames plain beyond. From neither point is any clue given of the splendid water garden that lies to the east of the house, reached by following the steps from the north terrace.
Oxford University Botanic Garden
Oxford Botanic Garden is the UK’s oldest botanic garden. Founded in 1621, the Garden is committed to educating people about the importance of plants, conserving plants from around the world, and supporting research and teaching within the University and beyond. The Oxford Botanic Garden is an incredible resource for research, education, conservation and inspiration for a new generation of botanists and is a delight to explore
A half day of free time in Oxford
There will be the opportunity to spend half a day of free time exploring the wonderful University City of Oxford. You will be able to wander through the streets, take a punt on the River Cherwell, or visit the many University Colleges and gardens that are open to the public. Most are free to enter, some charge a modest fee and are well worth visiting. Note, if you choose to visit these Colleges, any entry fees are not included in the cost of this holiday.
RHS Wisley
RHS Wisley, one of the world’s great gardens, packed with horticultural inspiration, but there is so much to see and it is always changing, so there is always something different to see.
Wisley is now a large and diverse garden covering 240 acres, and it is also a major research and training establishment. In addition to numerous formal and informal decorative gardens, several glasshouses and an extensive arboretum, it includes a trials field where new cultivars are assessed.
There are numerous places to eat, a well-stocked gift shop and plant centre.