Explore the garden at Goddards

Colourful foreground with red poppies and different shaped trees beyond — Take in colour and texture around every corner | © National Trust / Joanne Parker

Discover what you’ll see in the five acres of grounds when you visit the garden at Goddards. Once home to the Terry family, this private haven on the outskirts of York city centre features several garden rooms filled with scented borders, mature trees, ponds and wilder areas.

A garden of surprises

From the second you walk under the gatehouse, and leave the busy suburbs of York behind, you feel like you've entered into a secret garden, hidden in plain sight. The garden is divided up into 'garden rooms' as was the Arts and Crafts garden style. What you see today, is the same design created by George Dillistone in the late 1920s.

The garden rooms

As you wander around the five-acre garden, uncover the unique atmosphere in each space. The ‘rooms’ performs a separate function, with hedges and shrubs providing the structure. Each room changes over the year as the planting and produce grow and return. Here's a little of what you might expect as you explore the garden

Colourful flower beds with a bricked house behind and blue sky above — Explore the garden rooms that surround the house | © National Trust / Joanne Parker

Herbaceous borders

Running across the back of the house, the double herbaceous borders make up one of the most spectacular rooms of the garden especially in summer and until the first frosts. They come alive with delphiniums, sedums and brightly coloured rudbeckia blooms in late summer. Letters show Mr. Dillistone wanted a much longer pair of borders but at the time, the area needed to expand into, belonged to the neighbours.

A house in the distance with roses and peonies in the foreground — Let the fragrant garden awaken your senses in summer | © National Trust / Joanne Parker

Fragrant garden

Breathe in the perfume of the blooms in the fragrant garden, especially from late spring and through summer. This is the newest garden room recreated at Goddards using the original 1928 design as inspiration. Dillistone used more annual plants, today the garden team have selected mainly flowering shrubs to give the same impact yet be more manageable both for time and climate. Take a seat close to roses, daphne, peonies, lilacs and rosemary.

Looking along planted vegetable beds to a glasshouse beyond — See what's growing in the vegetable garden | © National Trust / Tom Longridge

Vegetable garden

Stroll through the kitchen garden and imagine the tasty dishes you could make with the fresh produce. It's a prime example of what can be done with a small space. Though it now takes up only part of the lawn, the kitchen garden was once large enough to supply the whole Terry household with vegetables and other staples. Noel Terry’s favourite apple variety, James Grieve, grows in the nearby orchard.

Blue Camassias in grass under fruit trees with a glasshouse in the distance — Don't miss the changing underplanting in the orchard as spring progresses | © National Trust / Joanne Parker

Orchard

Dillistone wasn’t confident in the Yorkshire weather for growing fruit and an orchard was never part of the plan. However, once the family purchased land from next door, they expanded their kitchen garden and started to grow fruit. Today’s orchard was added in the spirit of what the area was used for, but again with modern considerations. Varieties grown reflect popular varieties of the day including Noel’s favourite apple, James Grieve, said to be the inspiration for the chocolate apple, the precursor to everyone’s favourite stocking filler.

Greenhouse

Today a superb example of a Richardsons of Darlington greenhouse, added in the 1930s and restored around 15 years ago thanks to National Trust supporters. Step inside to see the delicious and exotic varieties of plants taking seed. You might find a gardener pausing for a brew or propagating and growing on their annuals plants and produce – they’ll be happy to have a chat about the plants and share the secrets of their green fingers. Four water butts are used to collect rainfall, reducing the reliance on mains water.

Woman and two children sat reading near garden ornaments with lavender and umbrellas behind them — Pretend the garden is yours for a day | © National Trust Images / James Beck

The terrace

Rest on the terrace – perhaps with a refreshing drink in hand – and take a moment to absorb the structures of the spaces from your elevated position. This is the most formal area of the garden with cruciform pond and statuary punctuating the geometric shapes of the lawn and topiary. Spring bulbs line the wall with summer bedding, wisteria and the scents from the lavender hedge and thyme between the paving adding to the ambience.

Flowering laburnum over a tennis lawn — Have a go at tennis, or relax on the sidelines | © National Trust / Joanne Parker

Bowling green and tennis lawn

Anyone for tennis? Bring your racquet and follow in the Terry family’s footsteps by playing sports on the lawns. In the summer you're welcome to borrow tennis and croquet sets, both firm family favourites. A net will be added for the tennis season, ask the team and have your own game, set and match. These days the bowling green isn’t as smooth as Noel Terry kept it for his practice games, but it’s a good spot to have a go at croquet.

Wild area of planting with an informal pond and rockery — Take time out in the wilder side of the garden | © Sue Gabbatiss

Rock garden

Explore the looser, more natural display of the rock garden and you’ll discover a peaceful hidden retreat; perfect for a hot day and you’re looking for a shady spot. The wildlife pond has a very different feel to the more formal pond in the lawn. Look out for dragonflies and listen to the birds making the most of this urban oasis. If you’re visiting after particularly heavy rain, surplus water might be cascading over the limestone. Rainfall from the house is channelled to the formal pond and then any overflow feeds the wildlife pond.

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Glorious gardens. Utterly beautiful peaceful space with so many hidden spots and paths leading to new spaces to discover. It’s not huge but it is immaculate and a real hidden gem in the road out of York near the racecourse.

A quote by Tripadvisor review May 2022

Statuary returning home

New to see, but very much an original part of the garden is a series of statuary, including a pair of griffins, a pair of pelicans and a set of urns. They were originally acquired by Noel and Kathleen Terry and family and placed in their garden at Goddards; probably in the 1930s.

The statues were removed from the garden on the sale of the house to the National Trust in 1984 and relocated to the gardens of other family members. In time, kindly donated by the Terry family to their original home after nearly 40 years. After a programme of conservation, they are slowly getting returned to the garden. Thanks to archive imagery and this sketch from Betty Terry as a child, the team are able to place the pieces with relative confidence.

Watercolour sketch of a garden with statues and trees — This childhood memory has helped with today's garden planning | © The Terry family

Look out for wildlife

Despite its relatively urban location, Goddards is a haven for wildlife. Set back from the busy streets, this pocket of green space has many different habitats to support nature throughout the year. With the neighbouring Knavesmire and to some extent York racecourse, there are plenty of places for wildlife to thrive.

Over 30 species of birds have been recorded in the garden in recent years. As well as the more common species, you might see a treecreeper, goldcrest, nuthatch or greater spotted woodpecker. The mature trees and shrubs provide food and shelter for them, and we’ve put up additional bird boxes to encourage nesting. If you're very lucky, you might hear baby sparrowhawks calling out for food from their parents.
Different habitats in the garden attract different sorts of butterflies. In summer vast numbers of butterflies including red admirals, painted ladies, small tortoiseshells and commas are attracted to the border full of buddleias at the back of the tennis court. In the orchard the long grass supports the eggs of several meadow butterflies such as meadow browns, gatekeepers and ringlets. Patches of nettles are intentionally left for other butterflies to use.

Why is the house closed?

Goddards was bought by the charity from the Terry family to use as the Yorkshire regional office. Although selected rooms in the house were open for a short time, since the pandemic the indoor spaces have remained closed, except for use as a National Trust office. The gardens are open on selected days for visitors to explore.

Opening times