Kentwell Hall visit

 Kentwell Hall is a Tudor Manor House surrounded by a traditional country house garden, but it's much more than that. Amazingly, it was bought 50 years ago by Patrick and Judith Phillips who have made it their life's work to collect artefacts for the house and gardens. There are recent additions to the garden, and the work continues. I took more photographs during this visit than anywhere else, a testament to how much there is to be enjoyed. We didn't go in the house, and hope to do so on another visit. As you would expect, there's a long drive with a superb view of the house, and an even longer drive from the road.

This is what the website says:
 'A timeless Manor House set in over 30 acres of stunning gardens and parkland, in the beautiful village of Long Melford.  Kentwell is a privately-owned family home, acquired by Patrick and Judith Phillips in the 1970s, when it stood neglected and in need of restoration.  Over 50 years of renovation have passed, and repairs continue to this day.'

Following arrows to go in, we passed the pigs and watched them for a while before heading for the cafe

This lovely hydrangea was one of a pair in the outside seating in the cafe area, it may be a paniculata Vanilla Strawberry

I won't say much about each photo, there are so many. The house is moated, there are lots of fish in there

This tree died a few years ago and a sympathetic rendering of the trunk has been made to mirror the house.

Here's another, closer view of the house

Behind the house there's a beautiful topiary which takes Judith a week to cut each year, it depicts scenes from the Pied Piper, and is delightful

Here are close ups of two of the elements

It was possible to see The Moat House although we didn't see inside the actual house

this is delightfully recreated as it would have been, and nowadays looks quite shabby chic!

This is the first floor, with painted walls

and a fabulous candelabra chandelier

More artefacts

Here's another view of the house, I'm not sure where this was taken from

Here's Lyn in the sweet pea wigwam

and a view of the back of the house showing the extent of the topiary

There are formal gardens across the moat from the house

and from there I tried to get another photograph of the topiary

At the top of the walled garden is a magical area with masses of tunnels with sunflowers, runner beans and pumpkins

as you can see a real delight

and for me the best bit of the garden. I would love to emulate these at home

I wondered who the Head Gardener is at Kentwell, it turns out it's Judith Phillips, I could have had a tour round the gardens in July

I'll finish up with these Rudbeckia, on GW last night I think, absolutely lovely. I have more photos of the pigs, but think that might be enough photos of a memorable visit.