Hidcote
Step through a gap in a tall hedge and find an entirely new world, walled in yew and full of rare plants.
Step through a gap in a tall hedge and find an entirely new world, walled in yew and full of rare plants.
Hidcote is our favourite garden day out from the cottage, and the one we send every visiting family towards first. Major Lawrence Johnston began making it in 1907, carving a sequence of intimate garden rooms out of a bare North Cotswold hillside above Chipping Campden. Most gardens lay everything out at once; Hidcote hides itself. You step through a gap in a tall yew hedge and find yourself in an entirely new world, walled in dark green and full of plants you have never seen before, and then you do it again, and again. Johnston gave the whole place to the National Trust in 1948, and it remains one of the most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in England.
Each room has its own character. The Red Borders blaze with dahlias and cannas through late summer, the White Garden is cool and almost silent, and the Long Walk stretches out toward open countryside as if the garden simply refused to end. The planting is bold but never showy, layered so that something is always coming into its own while something else fades gracefully. From Well Cottage the drive takes about 40 minutes, winding up through some of the prettiest villages in the northern Cotswolds, and it pairs beautifully with a wander around Chipping Campden or a stop at a good pub on the way home.
Hidcote is a National Trust property, so entry is free for members and ticketed for everyone else, and it is worth checking the current opening calendar before you set off. The garden keeps fuller hours through spring and summer, when it is at its best, and runs a reduced winter timetable with days when it is closed altogether, so a quick look at the official page saves a wasted trip. We would go early if you can. The light in the morning is beautiful, the coach parties tend to arrive later, and you will have the garden rooms more or less to yourselves for the first hour.
Hidcote sits almost directly opposite Kiftsgate Court Gardens, and the two make an easy pairing on the same lane. Kiftsgate is smaller, family-run and quite different in spirit, built by three generations of women where Hidcote is the work of one exacting eye, so seeing them back to back is a lovely way to spend a whole day. Together they are the reason this particular corner above Chipping Campden draws garden lovers from all over. If you would rather balance the day with a village and a landscape rather than a second garden, the honey-stone streets of Chipping Campden are only a few minutes down the hill.
A garden morning earns a proper pub lunch, and this stretch of the Cotswolds is well served. The Ebrington Arms is a short hop away and has one of the best pub gardens in the county, while the Howard Arms at Ilmington sits below the beacon and does exactly the kind of unhurried, fire-warmed lunch you want after a couple of hours on your feet. For the wider picture, our guide to things to do and see in the area lays out the gardens, villages and days out within easy reach of the cottage.
“Hidcote changed the way I think about gardens. Every time I go back I notice something new, some quiet combination of colour or texture that Johnston must have planned a century ago.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.