Visiting the garden at Baddesley Clinton

Over the years the garden at Baddesley has evolved into a mix of pleasure and production, with new areas being added all the time. Explore the woodland, walk around the lake or simply find a quiet seat and relax. The formal walled garden, with flower borders and fruit trees, makes a lovely contrast to the nature trail through the woods and around the fish pools.

Autumn in the gardens

Autumn gardens are a beautiful place to unwind: treading through crunchy leaves, discovering shiny conkers and enjoying the fresh air with all the family, autumn is here for us all to embrace. Take a local walk through the seasonal spectacle of oranges, reds and golds on one of our walks and get planting ideas for your own autumn colours at home from our beautiful gardens.

The walled garden still has plenty to see during the autumn months from asters in the borders to juicy apples hanging heavy in the trees and our new pumpkin patch.

Our productive vegetable garden is still full of vibrant vegetables and beautiful blooms in our cut flower borders.

A stroll round the lake is always lovely and will become even more spectacular as the leaves turn colour.

From late October we ask visitors to help us collect up leaves – a lovely opportunity for people big and small to get involved and help us look after Baddesley – even if just for 10 minutes!

The lake at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, in the autumn — The lake at Baddesley in the autumn | © National Trust/Ellie Willmer

The Courtyard Garden

Created in 1889, the Courtyard Garden is home to yews, lawns and brick paths that have little changed since creation. The main charge of the Ferrers’ arms (seven mascles, or lozenges) is laid out on the lawn and is planted in its gold and red heraldic colours. During the summer months hanging wisteria fills the courtyard with its heady scent.

The vegetable garden

Originally the medieval residents of Baddesley Clinton would have used the garden to provide food, with stewponds as a source of fresh fish. Nowadays gardeners work hard year-round to grow vegetables and herbs.

Over the winter of 2017-18 the team undertook the mammoth task of moving the vegetable garden from its old position, which had problems and wasn’t in the right place, to a new area which historical research revealed was the original site – much closer to the house and a much better place for a vegetable garden.

It’s now home to a new cut-flower border where the team are growing beautiful blooms to decorate the house, with some to be dried for decorations.

Pumpkin and gourd display at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire — Pumpkins and gourds at Baddesley Clinton | © National Trust Images/Abi Cole

The walled garden

The walled garden was created in the early 18th century as an enclosed formal garden on the sunnier side of the house. Little survives of any early planting, as much of the garden was simplified from the 1920s onwards, but watercolours from 1915 show a traditional flower garden was in place. In the 1980s the sundial and formal rose beds around it were re-introduced and the traditional apple trees were planted.

The lake

In many ways the development of the lakeside walk is similar to that of the garden, from utilitarian beginnings to modest pleasure grounds. The great pool which forms part of the lakeside walk is thought to have once been a millpond, and also part of the fish-stocking process, alongside the medieval stewpond.