Broughton Grange Gardens
Contemporary planting in the hills above Banbury, centred on Tom Stuart-Smith's three-tiered walled garden.
Contemporary planting in the hills above Banbury, centred on Tom Stuart-Smith's three-tiered walled garden.
We keep Broughton Grange on our shortlist for the days when the weather turns kind and we want somewhere unhurried to spend a few hours. It sits above the village of Broughton, just south-west of Banbury, and from the cottage it is a little over half an hour up through the lanes. What strikes you first is the walled garden: three broad terraces dropping down a south-facing slope, each one planted with a kind of controlled wildness. Loose drifts of perennials, ornamental grasses catching the light, clipped shapes that shift through the seasons. Tom Stuart-Smith designed it in 2001, and it has only deepened with age.
Beyond the walls the grounds open into a parterre, a formal pool, meadow planting and an eighty-acre arboretum you can wander at your own pace. There is a plant nursery too, which is where we usually end up buying something we have absolutely no room for in the car. It is rarely crowded, and on a warm afternoon it feels less like a garden tour and more like a slow walk through a living painting. If you want to make a full day of it, Banbury is ten minutes back down the hill for lunch, and the whole thing sits neatly alongside a loop through the lanes towards Hook Norton.
Before you go, the important bit: Broughton Grange is a private garden with genuinely limited opening. It is not a park you can turn up to any day. For the 2026 season the gardens, arboretum and nursery open on Wednesdays only, 10am to 5pm, from April to the end of September, with the occasional charity day for the National Garden Scheme on top (there is a pre-booked NGS opening in late July, for example). Group visits are by appointment on Tuesdays. Days, prices and the exact season change each year, so please check the official site before you set off rather than trusting these dates.
High summer is the obvious answer, when the terraces are at full pitch and the colour is extraordinary. But we would argue the shoulder seasons are quietly better. In early autumn the seedheads and grasses take over, the light goes long and gold, and the whole garden holds its structure beautifully. Because it only opens one day a week, it never feels busy in the way the bigger National Trust gardens can, which is a large part of the appeal.
A morning at the garden pairs naturally with a wander around Banbury or a stop at nearby Broughton Castle, which sits in the same village and is one of the loveliest moated houses in the county. If you are chasing planting rather than history, Barton Abbey Gardens is a short hop south and open on its own handful of days. For a bigger day out, Waterperry Gardens further towards Oxford runs a fuller weekly programme and a good tea room.
“The walled garden at Broughton Grange is the best piece of contemporary planting I've seen in Oxfordshire. Just remember to check it is a Wednesday.”
You can find open days, ticket prices and pre-booking on the garden's own site. Visit the official site →
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.