Visiting the garden at Baddesley Clinton

A view of the gardens at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, dressed for Christmas — Even the gardens are dressed for Christmas | © National Trust/Shaun Fellows

Over the years the garden at Baddesley has evolved into a mix of pleasure and production, with new areas being added all the time. Explore the woodland, walk around the lake or simply find a quiet seat and relax. The formal walled garden, with flower borders and fruit trees, makes a lovely contrast to the nature trail through the woods and around the fish pools.

Winter in the garden

Winter is still a time of interest in our gardens. The flower borders may not be there, and there’s not much colour in the walled garden, but you can admire the structure of the trees and shrubs without their leaves.

In the walled garden you’ll find Euphorbias and Scabious flowering and in the vegetable garden leeks, cabbages and other crops grow in the beds adding some interest over the winter.

Winter is the perfect time to grab a cup of coffee or a hot chocolate and enjoy a stroll around the nature walk. Look out for the animals who have stayed behind for the winter months and enjoy a peaceful walk around the lake.

If you like to take stroll along the path to our neighbouring church between January and May, you’ll find that the churchyard has many beautiful flowers; first snowdrops, then daffodils and then bluebells.

A view of the walled garden at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, in the winter — Winter stillness in the walled garden at Baddesley | © National Trust/Amy Bromage

The Courtyard Garden

Created in 1889, the Courtyard Garden is home to yews, lawns and brick paths that have little changed since creation. The main charge of the Ferrers’ arms (seven mascles, or lozenges) is laid out on the lawn and is planted in its gold and red heraldic colours. During the summer months hanging wisteria fills the courtyard with its heady scent.

The vegetable garden

Originally the medieval residents of Baddesley Clinton would have used the garden to provide food, with stewponds as a source of fresh fish. Nowadays gardeners work hard year-round to grow vegetables and herbs.

Over the winter of 2017-18 the team undertook the mammoth task of moving the vegetable garden from its old position, which had problems and wasn’t in the right place, to a new area which historical research revealed was the original site – much closer to the house and a much better place for a vegetable garden.

It’s now home to a new cut-flower border where the team are growing beautiful blooms to decorate the house, with some to be dried for decorations.

Winter in the garden at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire — Bare branches looking dramatic against the sky | © National Trust/John Bayley

The walled garden

The walled garden was created in the early 18th century as an enclosed formal garden on the sunnier side of the house. Little survives of any early planting, as much of the garden was simplified from the 1920s onwards, but watercolours from 1915 show a traditional flower garden was in place. In the 1980s the sundial and formal rose beds around it were re-introduced and the traditional apple trees were planted.

The lake

In many ways the development of the lakeside walk is similar to that of the garden, from utilitarian beginnings to modest pleasure grounds. The great pool which forms part of the lakeside walk is thought to have once been a millpond, and also part of the fish-stocking process, alongside the medieval stewpond.