Wednesday 15 July 2015

Mottisfont Part One


Mottisfont is a National Trust property in Hampshire, it started out life as an Augustinian  Priory being founded in 1201, it welcomed pilgrims on their way to Winchester who wished to worship the relic they had said to be the finger of  of St John the Baptist. The priory suffered during the black death of the 14th century. It was dissolved by King Henry VIII and given to his favored statesman Sir William Sandys  who I might add also owned the Vyne.
My Wife & I were visiting  to see the rose garden (600 odd different kinds) which seems as good a place as any to start there.





 When you come into the gardens at Mottisfont you pass over a bridge











 walk past the house






and the stable block to get to the rose garden
 You pass these pillars of roses on the way into the walled garden





where you see this, I admit to feeling a little disappointed  



even though they had nice roses I though they were a little short of 600
 I then noticed this part of the garden and went wow

 I loved this little water feature with the roses on one side




 There were other flower beside roses as you can see in the beds




Globe Allium , I felt cheated as I planted some bulbs earlier and they never came up, now I know what I missed
 some nice sculptures round the garden





and roses




places to sit. (I waited for this couple to go  but the did not move so I took the photo)






flowers mixed with roses




the walled rose garden













looking back the opposite way











Lawns with rose borders 





 The color variation was great 




and all the roses were mixed together




there were roses growing over arches




up the walls





even roses in roses




roses by the wall









One of the things you pass when going to the rose garden are some huge trees






These are a few near the stabels










 This statue is not far away from them and my wife was taken with it because of the hound





The old stabel block is now a tea & coffee shop along with a gift shop. You can also buy plants here that are grown in the nursery 




you can even see part of the original stables
 Lunch Time




Remember the  first photo of the stream well I have no doubt that was a water mill at some time  which was fed by this stream
 The water flowed under this bridge with roses growing on it






It also had an abundance of fish swimming round 





I say trout , roach and I think a barbel in there




The tree was really old and the trunk you see in the foreground was a sucker from the main one behind



We decided to cross the bridge and follow the path




which went past a play area
 round a tree




and over the bridge past a family who's kids seemed to be giving them the run around





When we started I noticed a swan with her cygnets




next time I saw them they were hitchinga ride




with dad keeping gurard




they were a bit cautious at one stage with everyone looking as they came to the bridge 
 but then went for it and swam under




we walked back along the stream




passing a draggonfly





and some cute fluffy ducks





they were soo sweet
but mum kept an eye on them and us.
 I'll leave you there for now and in Part Two I  will show you more of the house.
For more information see the National Trust Website 



3 comments:

  1. What a beautiful place. The gardens look fantastic. Another National Trust gem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, that is an incredible place!

    ReplyDelete
  3. A beautiful place and a lovely day out.

    ReplyDelete