Spetchley Park Gardens

Spetchley Park Gardens

Three miles east of Worcester surrounded by glorious countryside and deer park lays one of Britain’s best-kept secrets, Spetchley Park Gardens. Spetchley is a garden for all tastes and ages, containing one of the biggest private collections of plant varieties outside the major botanical gardens, and weaving a magical trail for younger visitors. Spetchley is not a formal paradise of neatly manicured lawns or beds but rather a wondrous display of plants, shrubs and trees woven into a garden of many rooms and vistas. It is certainly an ever changing garden and one undergoing many changes. For the past four years Spetchley has been undergoing a mini revival with the creation of a new garden entrance, car park and Welcome Centre. Added to that, the visitor experience has been greatly enhanced by the renovation of the garden lake, the creation of a Heritage Interpretation and Learning Centre, and the conservation of the Sovereign Coach, one of only 20 in the country.

Review

Having written now five of my Top 100 Attractions Books, I have visited almost a hundred gardens around the British Isles. Many of them have left me with very dear memories, of which Spetchley Park Gardens is one. I got to walk around the estate at my leisure, complete with a map and audio guide.My usual one hour visit soon turned into three, which meant I had to rearrange a couple of site visits for another day, such is the impression Spetchley had on me. Acre after acre of discovery befell me and I found the audio guide that was provided to me, not only unique for a garden, but very informative and easy to use. The Berkeley family whom own both Spetchley Park Estate and Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, have one aim in mind and that is to make your visit as pleasurable as possible and boy they certainly have achieved that.