Parking and arrival
Please have your tickets, membership card and booking voucher close to hand as you arrive, as we'll be checking your booking as you enter the car park.
Please arrive within your half-hour timeslot, to help maintain social distancing. If you’re more than 10 minutes late for your arrival slot then entry will be at the discretion of the property team. We're asking visitors to limit their visit to three hours, to help maintain safe numbers in the grounds.
There's no extra charge for parking - your pre-booked ticket includes a parking space.
Campervans that are used for transport are welcome for pre-booked visitors, but are not permitted to stay overnight. At this time we’re unable to welcome caravans and coaches.
Staying safe
To help keep everyone safe, please follow social distancing and government guidance when you visit. And look out for signs while you’re here which will explain any changes to how you can access different parts of the site. There are one-way routes for the rose garden (with some small areas closed off), the river walk and the meadow.
You'll find bottles of hand sanitizer you can use at key locations, as well as sinks for hand washing in the available toilets.
If you’re showing any of the symptoms of coronavirus, or if you've been in contact with anyone that has the virus in the last 14 days, please don’t visit.
Facilities
Toilets - including access and baby change facilities - are available at the Welcome Centre, the Stables and the Kitchen Garden, on a one in/one out basis. These are sanitized at least three times a day by a professional cleaning company.
The Old Kitchen Café is serving takeaway food and drink from 10am-4.30pm. Here you'll find soups, one pots, jacket potatoes, sandwiches, cakes, snacks and drinks. There's no indoor seating, but outdoor seating is available on the east lawn.
In addition, our refreshment kiosk in the Kitchen Garden offers hot drinks, cakes and light bites from 10am-4.30pm,. If weather permits, our Jude's horsebox will serve up scoop ice cream from 12noon. Feel free to enjoy a picnic when you visit - some picnic tables are available on the paddocks, appropriately spaced.
Our shop and plant sales are open from 11am daily.
For the safety of staff and visitors we've introduced social distancing measures and changes to payment in our cafés and shop, which will be via card only. In line with government guidance visitors to our shop and the indoor Old Kitchen Café are now required to wear a face covering. Please bring one along with you.
Sadly, we’re not able to open everything at once. Some facilities and areas remain closed at the moment, so that we're sure that everything we do is safe, but new possibilities are opening up all the time. The path beside the font stream and the winter garden are closed for now, as well as the house, gallery and most other indoor spaces (including the Old Kitchen Café seating area, the Coach House café and second-hand bookshop).
Our play areas also remain closed. They are usually very popular, making it difficult to uphold social distancing. It's also not possible for us to keep them sanitised with our current limited resources. However, we continue to monitor government advice and will open them as soon as is safely possible. There are plenty of other spaces to play in the gardens: ball games and frisbees are welcome on the paddock areas (though please not on the formal lawns in front and behind the house, or in the walled rose gardens).
Access
We're not currently able to offer a buggy service as it's not possible to operate this while observing social distancing. Visitors are welcome to loan one of our five wheelchairs on a first come, first serve basis. Benches are located around the site for visitors to rest as they walk.
Dogs are welcome everywhere apart from the rose gardens and formal lawns (assistance dogs only in these areas), but please keep them on a short lead at all times.
Exploring the gardens
