By kind permission of Michael le Poer Trench and Sir Cameron MacKintosh.

Stavordale Priory is the home of Michael Le Poer Trench and his partner, theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh. The gardens were featured on Gardeners’ World in July 2016 and were described by Gardens Illustrated as “singing with creativity and invention”.

Michael will be our host, but also all their garden team, guiding us around the garden’s generous herbaceous borders, sculpted topiary, lawns, lakes, woodland and occasional surprise feature.  Originally laid out by the previous owner and garden designer Georgia Langton, the gardens overflow with features further developed by Michael over the past 30 years, including an arboretum and large vegetable and cut-flower garden.

 Afternoon tea will follow.

“Arts and Crafts” is an overused phrase, but if meaning a garden of outdoor rooms, topiary, stone walls and gorgeous “tapestry-style” planting it can apply to much of what we see at Stavordale. Beds overflow with richly-coloured perennials with structure provided by tightly clipped box shapes and topiary yews. The vegetable garden is more a potager with fruit and flowers in the mix. Michael’s birthday arboretum leads to the “Les Misérables” elephant and then through a woodland grove to a series of recently extended lakes surrounded by generous beds of moisture-loving primulas and iris. This is a garden of atmosphere and great horticultural passion.