All you need to know about one of Shropshire's grandest gardens as it prepares to re-open this weekend
Ahead of its spring reopening, we took a first wander through Hodnet Hall’s historic grounds to see how the gardens are shaping up after the wettest winter on record.
It’s been almost five months since the (metaphorical) garden gates of Hodnet Hall last swung open to visitors.
Not that the small, green‑fingered team behind the 60‑acre estate near Market Drayton have had much chance to rest - especially after a winter that broke rainfall records across the region.
In recent weeks, though, the pace has quickened. Gardeners and volunteers have been working flat out to ready the grounds for the public’s return this Sunday (March 15).
It’s a familiar rhythm. For more than half a century Sir Algernon Heber‑Percy and his wife Jane have welcomed thousands of people to share in the beauty of their private gardens throughout spring and summer.
Ahead of the grand re-opening, the Shropshire Star was invited for a first look around the remarkable grounds.
After the wettest winter on record in the West Midlands, spring has certainly not yet sprung at Hodnet Hall.
But it won’t be long: in the coming weeks, the gardens will burst into colour with rhododendrons, bluebells, nearly a thousand David Austin roses and one of the county’s largest collections of magnolias.
Hodnet Hall Gardens is also home to a national collection of cidiphyllum japonicum, the so‑called caramel tree, named for the sweet scent released as its leaves fall.
Soon the Victorian kitchen garden will be brimming with flowers, fruit and vegetables, destined either for the hall’s residents or for sale on site.
For now, though, the grounds are dominated by swathes of bright yellow daffodils. And even with leafless trees and rose bushes pruned back to knee‑high stumps, Hodnet Hall is far from short of spectacle.
A manor has stood here since the 16th century, with evidence of human settlement stretching back much further. Today that history is written into the very landscape: a Tudor stable block, a 17th‑century tithe barn and dovecot, and the earthworks of Hodnet Castle - a Norman motte‑and‑bailey fortress dating to the 11th century.
It's in one of these historic buildings that the hall's tea room will soon be filled with the noises and smells of tasty treats.
Run by Root Food, a Market Drayton-based family business, visitors can enjoy a light lunch or afternoon tea beneath the beautiful timbered ceilings of a former stable block.
This year Fridays have been added to Hodnet Hall Gardens's opening hours: between 10am and 5pm three days a week (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) from March 15 until October 31, plus bank holiday Mondays.
