You are soooooo lucky----I visited London many years ago and would love to go back.
Florence

Go to the David Austin website, click on the Union Jack,TRY to not get sidetracked, and I believe somewhere in there he has a list of gardens for visiting. Will check right now and be right back.

It is in their handbook of roses that lists other gardens worth visiting. Here they are:

1. David Ausin Roses, Shropshire (of course!)
2. Wollerton Old Hall, Shropshire
3. Powys Castle, Welshpool, Powys.
4. Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, Bucks
5. RHS Hyde Hall, Chelmsford, Essex
6. RHS Rosemoor, Devon
7. RHS Wisely, Surrey
8. Castle Howard, Yorks
9. RHS Harlow Carr, Yorkshire

10. Alnwick Garden, Northumberland
11. Webbs of Wychbold, Worchestershire
12. Borde Hill, West Sussex
13. The Scented Garden, Hesket, Cumbria
14. Queen Mary's Garden, Regent's Park, London
15. Hampton Court Palace, Kingston-Upon-Thames
16. Ashton Court, Bristol
17. Bodnant Garden, (National Trust) Conwy
18. Preston Park, Brighton
19. Port Sunlight Village Trust, Wirral

haha you should see all the red underlining my spellcheck did!

RHS stands for Royal Horticultural Society.

Hi,
I have a book called Rose Gardens of England. It lists the gardens by location and gives a description.

For Summerset it lists

East End Farm Pitney, 0458 250 598 Mrs Wray.
Some comments; this is a connoisseurs garden, house dates back 100s of years, long list of old roses

Watermeadows Clapton
0460 74421 Raymond and Laura Gawen
Some comments; Old roses, must be one of the longest rugosa hedges, house formally a watermill.

There are 2 neighbouring districts listed for SW England, Wiltshire with 5 gardens listed and Dorset with 2 listed. If you would like the info for them also let me know.
Deb

Don't go out on the moor at night!

Mottisfont isn't far, just south of Nether Wallop :)

Don't go out on the moor at night!
* * *
Reminds me of the horror classic
"An American Werewolf in London".

Love that movie! It even has a bit of wry English humor, like when the American Werewolf meets up with some of his now-dead victims in a dark movie theater and they are giving him this critical upbraiding. Classic. Makes me want to watch it again.

What about the Sherlock Holmes classic 'The Hound of the Baskervilles?' That is what I first thought of, LOL! If you can get to Mottisfont, that is the one you should see. You should check out any 'Jon of Wessex' posts on this forum. Often he posts pictures.

Hidcote

{{gwi:280706}}

Kiftsgate

{{gwi:280707}}

Stourhead

{{gwi:280708}}

and the jewel in the crown, Mottisfont

{{gwi:280709}}

Have a wonderful time,

Carol

What the heck is a moor, anyway? Is it the same as a heath?

I think moors and heaths are similar in that they have acidic soils and are not very fertile environments. Heaths are usually in warmer areas and moors colder with bogs and the like. I have visited Hampstead Heath and it has lots of woody type vegetation and is rather warm and dry. I have never visited any moors, so I do not know first hand, but I envision a damp, dark and rather forbidding landscape. Though, I suppose, my 'vision' is enhanced by my reading of old gothic novels.

OK, here's a citation from OED:

"In Yorkshire a moor means a high stretch of undulating heath-covered rock; whereas in Somerset it means a low flat level of former marshland, reclaimed and drained by means of numerous ÂrhinesÂ."

There are a couple of national parks on Somerset moorlands, I wonder if they are trying to restore or "un-drain" them as has been done on parts of the Kissimmee River "prairie" in Florida.

Moores are up in Scotland too, so they definitely subscribe to the colder wetter feature.

That shot of Stourhead was in Pride and Prejudice, the one recently done with Kiera Knightly. I am sure of it. A rather intense moment between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.

Triple, very astutue.

Jon of Wessex knowing how I love Jane Austin and that Paula (Rosefolly), Luanne and I watched the BBC version of P&P in one sitting, took me on about a three hour tour of this incredible garden. We wound our way up a hill at the end and he points out to me where the first proposal was made and turned down (in the Kiera Knightly version). There are, I believe, something like 9 temples on the property, but Jon can correct me if I'm wrong. Stourhead is a garden that I love for it serenity and beauty.

Here is the a view of where the refused proposal was filmed.

{{gwi:280710}}

Carol

Oooh, what a great thread!

I am going to London [briefly] and Oxford [longer] in August, and I am happy to hear that y'all have so many suggestions [I got none over on Conversations about where to visit in London or Oxford].

If you don't mind keeping those areas in mind, too, while offering suggestions, I'd appreciate it so much.

jbcarr, my dad's ancestral home is very near Exeter, but I don't suppose it's much of a tourist spot ;) Have a great trip!

I have just now had a chance to go through this thread- thanks to all who have shared their ideas with me. I will have a couple of half days to go about, so it sure sounds great!

I hope your half days are in the afternoon! It was a bit of a disappointment that so many gardens didn't open till 11 o'clock so that it was impossible to see more than one in one day. My husband and I were too late for Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, Jane Austen's last home, but it was worthwhile to just wander about in the garden late in the evening with no other tourists about.

droooldroooldroool. Green Pagan wipes water from her keyboard.

One of the things I am determined to do, whenever this settlement for the killer column of death is over, is take the Grand Tour....

There is a publication called "The Yellow Book" which tells you when private gardens are open for charity. This is run by the National Gardens Scheme which has a website at www.ngs.org.uk. I would also buy the latest edition of the Good Gardens Guide from amazon or whoever.

Somerset is a big county and Exeter is not in Somerset so it is well worth working out in advance exactly where you will be and whether the gardens people have recommended are within sensible driving distance. The roads going west from Exeter can be terrible from mid-summer onwards but there should be no problem driving north - certainly if you can get to Hidcote (and Kiftsgate nearby), you should. Mottisfont is to the east, towards London. Try if you can not to visit it at the weekend at this time of year as it gets terribly busy. But for an old-rose-lover it is the Holy Grail.

One word of warning: I don't know why, but the roses don't seem so fragrant this year. Obviously it has something to do with the weather (very hot last year, very mild autumn, very mild wet winter, very warm and dry April, very cold and wet May, normal June so far) but I can't say more than that. Maybe someone else can.

Great advice. I did look on the map, and agree about Exeter. It would be nice to see a big garden like Kiftsgate. The address is
Northmoor, Dulverton, Somerset, TA22 9QG
Link is below. Fortunately one of the business people is from England, so that should help. For example- he will do the driving. It has to be very hard to switch sides!

Here is a link that might be useful: North Moor house