A Lost Garden Rediscovered and Given New Life: Guy’s Cliffe Walled Garden, Warwick

I love gardens which once were lost, but have now been restored.

How poignant and symbolic they seem, and how inspiring when they are recovered and given new life.

A famous example is The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall; but we have a rediscovered garden just down the road from us.

Just off the road between Warwick and Kenilworth you will find Guy’s Cliffe Historic Walled Garden. It used to be the kitchen garden for Guy’s Cliffe House, the atmospheric mansion about which I have already written on this blog. You can read my post here. But after the last heir to the estate, Sub-Lieutenant Algernon Percy, died in the First World War, the estate was broken up. For years this walled garden was lost beneath thick undergrowth, but in the last few years, the garden has undergone restoration by a team of devoted volunteers.

I’ve visited the garden a few times, sited behind Hintons Nursery off the Coventry Road, Warwick; and my son Jamie, a horticultural student, has also spent some hours volunteering in the garden.

The garden now is testament to the dedication of those who’ve freely given their time and expertise and hard work to bring it to its present state. It’s an ongoing project and has been featured on Gardeners’ World.

Recently the gardeners have installed a new poppy wall mural to commemorate the Battle of Jutland,  in which Algernon Percy, the last heir to the estate, died.

What an inspiration this garden is; and it is also full of atmosphere, invoking a strong sense of the lives of those who worked here and loved the garden and nurtured it in the past.

How to find it:

The Walled Garden is at the back of Hintons Nursery.  

Access & parking via:

Hintons Nursery, Coventry Road, Guy’s Cliffe, Warwick   CV34 5FJ