visiting the national trust – spring arrives to english gardens on #igtravelthursday

NT Standen in West Sussex

Spring has arrived in England (although it did snow a bit yesterday) and it’s time to properly kick off the Garden & Castle season. I’ve seen spotting some flowers in the forests and gardens sine January, but late March-early April is when you start getting  a proper bloom in the gardens and blue carpets of bluebells in the forests.

Standen bees and orchardToday I visited Standen in East Grinsted, West Sussex. It’s a beautiful Arts and Crafts movement-style manor house with views over Ashdown Forest and Weirwood Reservoir, and gardens stretching around the house and along the hillside. These gardens are beautiful and well-cared for: there is both a small formal garden and more natural ones with bees and an orchard, and even an adventure-styled one for the smaller ones.

Standen interior

The tour of the former home of the Beale family is also interesting and the decor is full of beautiful details. As was the custom of the time, the architects of the house designed everything from the fabrics and furnishing to glassware: in this case they were the famous Philip Webb and William Morris.

Claremont Gardens Surrey

I’ve visited so far three English spring gardens and hopefully can add yet another to the list this coming weekend: The Claremont Landscape Gardens in Surrey. I took this photo last autumn and it was lovely there with the first signs of foliage – and I am looking forward to seeing what they can offer in springtime!

England for sure has a lot on offer when it comes to gardens: private gardens that open few times a summer, National Trust properties (where you get to combine the visit often with a tour of the castle, manor or ruins), English Heritage – and even just some local parks. If you are heading over to England you have to visit at least one garden – be in Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens if you don’t have time to explore outside London!

here are some of my photos around England and Wales from National trust properties and the actual National trust account where you are guaranteed to find some amazing photos every week. Enjoy browsing!

See my IG account for more photos from around UK and our other travels

More on National Trust on IG at @nationaltrust

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