19 secret gardens in Mid Cheshire open to the public this summer

The National Garden Scheme gives unique access to more than 3,500 private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, raising money for nursing and health charities.

This year, visitors can enjoy 19 gardens in Mid Cheshire with venues in Northwich, Delamere and Holmes Chapel as well as Knutsford, Winsford and Budworth.

Around £67million has been raised over the years for Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute, with £3.1million being donated last year thanks to the generosity of garden owners, volunteers and visitors.

Here are the 19 secret venues in Mid Cheshire open to visitors this summer followed by a list of the other Cheshire gardens opening this summer:

 

 

Bollin House, Hollies Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK 9 2BW

By arrangement

This garden has established deep borders full of perennials, a wildflower meadow and a new formal area with parterres and central water feature. The meadow, with its annual and perennial wildflower areas (with mown pathways and benches), attracts lots of bees, dragonflies and other insects and butterflies.

 

 

Bowmere Cottage, Bowmere Road, Tarporley, CW6 0BS

A colourful and relaxing one-acre country style garden around a Grade II listed house. The lawns are surrounded by well-stocked herbaceous and shrub borders and rose covered pergolas. There are two plant-filled courtyard gardens and a small vegetable garden. Shrubs and rambling roses, clematis, hardy geraniums and a wide range of hardy plants make this a very traditional English garden.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Somerford, 19 Leycester Road, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 8QR

Sunday, April 30, Friday, June 16 and Sunday, July 30

Majestic trees surround this one-and-a-half-acre garden. Hard landscaping and sculptures complement lush herbaceous and perennial borders. Lawns are separated by a magnificent oak pergola. Cube-headed hornbeams lead into the snail-trail walk and informal lawn and fernery.

Admission: Adult £4 Child: Free

 

 

Norley Court, Marsh Lane, Norley, Cheshire, WA6 8NY

Sunday, April 30

Norley Court is a large spring garden with rhododendrons, azaleas, pieris, a bluebell wood and embothyrium flowering against a backdrop of north Cheshire views. A variety of trees are planted along the banks, including cornus, a handkerchief tree, Judas trees, mountain ash trees and a strawberry tree.

Admission: Adult £6 Child: Free

 

 

Abbeywood Gardens, Chester Road, Delamere, Northwich, Cheshire, CW8 2HS

Sunday, May 14 and Sunday, September 17

A superb setting near Delamere Forest which totals 45 acres including mature woodland, new woodland and new arboretum all with connecting pathways. Approx 4.5 acres of gardens surround the large Edwardian house. There’s a vegetable garden, an exotic garden and a chapel garden as well as a pool garden, a woodland garden and a lawned area with beds.

Admission: Adult £6 Child: Free

 

 

Tiresford, Tarporley, Cheshire, CW6 9LY

Sunday, May 14

Established in the 1930s, this garden has had a major restoration project to reinstate it to its former glory. There are fabulous views of both Beeston and Peckforton Castles which offer a wonderful backdrop in which to relax and enjoy a delicious tea. This year, they are hoping to recreate the kitchen garden and to repair the fountain among the new hot borders of the sunken garden.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Stonyford Cottage, Stonyford Lane, Oakmere, Cheshire, CW8 2TF

Sunday, May 14

Set around a tranquil pool, this Monet-style landscape has a wealth of moisture loving plants, including iris and candelabra primulas. Drier areas feature unusual perennials and rarer trees and shrubs. Woodland paths meander through shade and bog plantings, along boarded walks and across wild natural areas with views over the pool to the cottage gardens. Unusual plants are available at the adjacent nursery.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

The Old Parsonage, Back Lane, Arley Green, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 6LZ

Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21

This two-acre garden is set in an attractive and secretive rural setting in a secluded part of Arley Estate, with ancient yew hedges, herbaceous and mixed borders as well as shrub roses and climbers, leading to a woodland garden and unfenced pond with gunnera and water plants. There are rhododendrons, azaleas and meconopsis as well as cardiocrinum and some interesting and unusual trees.

Admission: Adult £6 Child: Free

 

 

Mayfield House, Moss Lane, Bunbury Heath, Tarporley, Cheshire, CW6 9SY

Sunday, May 21

A thoroughly English garden with a wealth of colour and variety throughout the year. A background of fine trees, defined areas bordered by mixed hedging, masses of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas and colourful shrubs. Clematis and wisteria festoon the walls in early summer. There is easy access and random seating areas. There’s a small lake with an island and broad lawns with glades of foxgloves.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Rowley House, Forty Acre Lane, Kermincham, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, CW4 8DX

Sunday, May 28 and Sunday, July 9

The aim is to give nature a home and create a place of beauty. There is a formal courtyard garden and informal gardens featuring rare trees and herbaceous borders, a pond with swamp cypress and a woodland walk with maples, rhododendrons, ferns and shade-loving plants. Beyond the garden, there are wildflower meadows, natural ponds and a wood with ancient oaks. There are also wood sculptures by Andy Burgess.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Peover Hall Gardens, Over Peover, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 9HW

Saturday, June 10 and Sunday, June 11

The extensive formal gardens to Peover Hall feature a series of garden rooms filled with clipped box, water garden and Romanesque loggia as well as warm brick walls, unusual doors and secret passageways with beautiful topiary work and walled gardens, rockery, rhododendrons and pleached limes. Peover Hall, a Grade II* listed Elizabethan family house dates from 1585 and provides a fine backdrop.

Admission: Adult £7 Child: Free

 

 

Bucklow Farm, Pinfold Lane, Plumley, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 9RP

Sunday, June 11

This country garden has shrubs, perennial borders and rambling roses as well as a herb garden, vegetable patch and meadow with a wildlife pond/water feature and alpines. Landscaped and planted over the last 30 years there have been recorded changes. There are free range hens, a carpet of snowdrops and spring bulbs. Leaf, stem and berries to show colour in autumn and winter.

Admission: Adult £4 Child: Free

 

 

The Homestead, 2 Fanners Lane, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 0RZ

Sunday, June 11 and Sunday, July 9

This compact gem of a garden has been created over the last seven years by a keen gardener and plants woman. Enter past groups of liquidambar and white stemmed birch. There are colour-themed areas with perennials, shrubs and trees. Walk past topiary and obelisks covered with varieties of clematis and roses, enjoy the colours of the hot border, a decorative greenhouse and a pond.

Admission: Adult £4.50 Child: Free

 

 

All Fours Farm, Colliers Farm, Aston by Budworth, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 6NF

Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25

A traditional and well-established country garden with a wide range of roses, hardy shrubs, bulbs, perennials and annuals. You will also find a small vegetable garden, pond and greenhouse as well as vintage machinery and original features from its days as a working farm. The garden is adjacent to the family's traditional rose nursery.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Parm Place, High Street, Great Budworth, Cheshire, CW9 6HF

Sunday, June 25

This is a well-stocked half-acre plants woman's garden with stunning views towards south Cheshire. There are curving lawns, parterre, shrubs and colour coordinated herbaceous borders as well as roses, water features, rockery and a gravel bed with some grasses. Fruit and vegetable plots are plentiful. In spring, there’s a large collection of bulbs and flowers, camellias, hellebores and blossom.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Sandymere, Middlewich Road, Cotebrook, Cheshire, CW6 9EH

Sunday, June 25

Sixteen landscaped acres of beautiful Cheshire countryside with terraces, walled garden, extensive woodland walks and an amazing hosta garden. Turn each corner and you find another gem with lots of different water features including a rill built in 2014, which links the main lawn to the hostas.

Admission: Adult £7 Child: Free

 

 

Bluebell Cottage Gardens, Lodge Lane, Dutton, Cheshire, WA4 4HP

Saturday, July 1 and Sunday, July 2

A south facing country garden wrapped around a cottage on a quiet rural lane in the heart of Cheshire. Packed with thousands of rare and familiar hardy herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees, there are unusual plants available at the adjacent nursery. There’s a new walled garden with greenhouse and raised vegetable beds.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free

 

 

Milford House Farm, Long Lane, Winsford, Cheshire, CW7 4DN

Saturday, July 15

A large country garden created over 20 years with a lawn, mixed borders, hot, white and pastel areas. There’s a modern walled garden for vegetables and fruit as well as a greenhouse, potting shed, dahlias, wall shrubs and a display of exotics, succulents, tender plants and a water feature. There is an orchard for fruit and native, ornamental trees. The wildlife pond is popular with toads and newts and the venue has been gardened on organic lines to increase biodiversity and attract wildlife.

Admission: Adult £4 Child: Free

 

 

Norley Bank Farm, Cow Lane, Norley, Cheshire, WA6 8PJ

Sunday, July 23, Sunday, July 30 and Monday, August 7

A garden well-stocked with perennials, annuals and shrubs that wraps around this traditional Cheshire farmhouse. There is an enclosed cut flower and nursery garden surrounding a greenhouse and just beyond the house a vegetable garden. Wander past this to a large wildlife pond with a backdrop of pollinating flowers and a a recently formed stumpery. All set in about two acres.

Admission: Adult £5 Child: Free