Discover the garden at Oxburgh Estate

Kitchen Garden

This kitchen garden would have originally supplied the family. Today you'll find a wide array of heritage vegetables and fruit, and salad crops grown for you to enjoy and take home. Many of the fruit and vegetables are grown from seed and are heritage varieties, including skirret, a forgotten Tudor root vegetable that was often added to salads like spring onions. There is also a cut flower garden filled with Dahlias and Alstroemeria.

In a corner of the garden, you’ll find the glasshouse where some of our plant collection are grown and hosts our beautiful semi-tropical display. Re-built in 2010 by a group of volunteers to reflect an earlier Victorian glasshouse, rainwater from the roof now provides water for the beds and an energy saving air source heat pump heats the building.

The kitchen garden also has a potting shed which now hosts our second-hand bookshop.

Look out for the bell in the tower, but be warned as the old poem next to it reads, ‘if you ring this bell, the gardeners will come; should you ring in jest, then we hope you can run.’

Orchard

Within the orchard you’ll find fruit trees from around East Anglia, including heritage varieties from Norfolk. With the exception of a couple of older medlar and quince trees, the apple and pear trees are a recent addition, as work takes place to re-establish the orchard that once grew here.

The grass here is managed as a wildflower meadow and cut using the traditional method of scything – it’s at its best in June and July.

The Parterre

The Parterre, known by the family as the French Garden, was created for the 6th Baronet in 1848 following a trip to France. Traces of coal and cement suggest it was originally coloured with minerals as well as flowers, before being planted with potatoes during the Second World War to help with the war effort.

The Parterre Restoration

Every thirty or forty years, the Parterre needs a major refresh and replanting to keep it looking good. The Parterre was last completely refurbished in 1972, with smaller refreshes occurring since then. With the effects of climate change and the damaging effects of disease on the Parterre’s hedging, the time has come to carry out another major restoration of this wonderful garden feature.

An archaeological dig took place in April 2023 and in the summer a topographical survey will be carried out to help us accurately recreate the 19th century French design and correct levels within the Parterre and in the surrounding lawns.

Discovered items include pottery sherds which date back 200 years prior to when Oxburgh Hall was built, civil war pistol shot balls and the sill plate of an original house on the estate.

Once we know what the findings of the archaeology are, we will carry out works to restructure and resurface the pathways in the Parterre to reduce weed germination and protect the infrastructure of the 19th century French design.

Staff and volunteers will be excavating paths and relaying them with a new substrate and surface through autumn and winter 2023/4.

We expect the whole project to be completed by Spring 2026.

The Herbaceous Border

This long bed is planted in repeating patterns. A high hedge originally ran alongside the grass path and there were doors at either end. If the family story is true, it was used as a secret garden by Lady Augusta Bedingfeld, who could enjoy the colourful border unseen, while she was pregnant (which happened 11 times).

This border is currently seeing restoration works which includes a new archway in the hedge, creating a window with a view across the Parterre to the hall.