Rose Doran

Review of Hestercombe Gardens Trust

It's been a hot summer, so it's to be expected tha...

It's been a hot summer, so it's to be expected that gardens might be showing signs of wear. But when we visited it was really tatty. Roses left undeadheaded. Patchy borders full of dying plants. I'm sure it's tough to run a place like this as a charity but the entrance fee is substantial so it was inevitable that we felt let down. It just felt poorly managed. We wanted lunch but a tenner for a sandwich in a cramped, grubby courtyard? A shame as this is a garden of great historic interest, and some of the current planting is still imaginative. It's hard not to wish it had the might of the National Trust behind it.