Northamptonshire
Gardens Trust
Caring for the County’s parks, gardens and designed landscapes
Welcome to Northamptonshire Gardens Trust …
… a registered charity passionate about protecting and conserving our county’s historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes.
We are an enthusiastic group of volunteers who work in partnership to raise public awareness and appreciation of our enviable landscape heritage – from the recognised treasures and curiosities, to the less well-known surprises waiting to delight. Thoughtful conservation today can ensure a richer, biodiverse environment for future generations.
We hope you will enjoy the opportunity of discovery through our website. If you are interested in being part of a welcoming group of people passionate about making a difference and having fun – JOIN US >
Our next garden visit ...
Elton Hall
Monday 29 July 2024 at 10.30 a.m
Elton Hall is sited on the Northamptonshire/Huntingdonshire border and has been the home of the Proby family since 1660, although previous generations held land at Elton during the reign of Elizabeth I. It is surrounded by 200 acres of open parkland and 26 acres of gardens.
Sir Thomas Proby built a fine Restoration house between 1665-1668, which incorporated the medieval chapel and gatehouse of the original Manor House and successive generations have embellished the house and its furnishings, the collections of paintings and volumes for the magnificent library. The gardens include formal lawns, herbaceous borders, an orangery, flower garden, water features, shrub garden, arboretum, wilderness garden, box & yew hedges and magnificent topiary. The present gardens (2021 winner of the Historic Houses Garden of the year award) have been rejuvenated and restored over the last 40 years whilst in the tenure of Sir William Proby and his wife Merry who have now passed the Hall to their daughter Alexandra and her family.
We shall have a private visit to the Hall and its lovely gardens.
Cost
Members £17 | Guests £19
Parking and lunch
Park at Bosworth Garden Centre, Elton PE8 6SH.
The Mulberry café at the Garden Centre is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please book lunch, if required, directly with the Café. Tel: 01832 343104. Indicate you are with the Gardens Trust to reserve the seating area.
Another facility for lunch in Elton is The Black Horse Tel:01832 280591.
Note The Crown Inn has no food on Mondays.
Planting a tree with the help of Capability Brown
For a flavour of what we do …
Why not watch our video of Capability Brown's work at Castle Ashby.
Financed by Heritage Lottery funding as part of the Capability Brown Festival 2016, this film was inspired by Alan Titchmarsh in the television series entitled Titchmarsh on Capability Brown (Channel 4 2015) where he celebrates the 300th anniversary of his horticultural hero by helping to create one of Brown’s lost masterpieces at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire. The final programme of three showed him standing at Belvoir Castle accompanied by the Duchess of Rutland with a lap top in hand viewing drone footage of the landscape.
For more about this great landscape gardener, see Capability Brown >
