This garden wasn’t on my ‘to visit’ list, but when our hosts said it was a garden full of topiary, well it jumped to the top of my list. It was less than a fifteen minute drive from where we were staying so it seemed a complete no brainer, and we worked out that we could pair it with a visit to the National Trust’s nearby Sizergh Castle, which was on my list, so even better.
This was the view that met us as we walked through the wooden gate to the gardens:
Even though I’d read on the Levens Hall website that the privately-owned house was home to the world’s oldest topiary gardens, I’m not sure I quite expected this. The gardens remain largely unchanged since the 17th century and were truly remarkable.
The garden is a mix of ‘ancient box and yew’ and for someone that, as you know, has a bit of a thing for topiary was breathtaking. I don’t know how my research of the area missed this gem, but I was so glad that we were pointed in the right direction early in our stay!
The gardeners were busy working, but still happy to stop and chat and share more about the gardens. There’s so many shapes to trim that each is only cut once a year, otherwise as the gardener’s said that’s all they’d be doing. And as any gardener knows, there’s always something to be done - while we were there they were fastidiously replacing the bedding plants.
The house wasn’t open on the day we visited, which is a shame as from a at-a-distance-glance-through the windows it looked a great place to visit. It’s a family home which the leaflet we were given assured was one that was free of ropes and barriers for visitors, so as such it felt right to sneak a look rather than peer through the windows!
There was more than the topiary, but clearly this was the main feature - another day I’ll share more from here, and by then we may even have tasted the jar of honey we purchased part-way round the garden. But until then, let’s just enjoy the topiary and the many varied shapes.
