Date/Time
Date(s) - 31/07/2014
All Day
Categories
Buckland Abbey and Wildside Garden Visit
The visit by Kilmington Gardening Club to Buckland Abbey and Wildside Garden on 29th July 2014 was an unqualified success although keeping 39 members with varied tastes in a happy frame of mind is a tall order! However, the historic content of the Medieval Abbey and a guided tour of the Cider House garden by the head gardener appealed to everyone.
Treading the same cobbled slopes as the Cistercian monks in the thirteenth century made us realise what a special place this is.
Renovated by swashbuckling Sir Richard Grenville before passing it on to his cousin Sir Francis Drake in 1581, Buckland Abbey and its 700 acre estate remained in the Drake family until 1946 before it was taken over by the National Trust in 1951. Apart from the imposing structure of the Great Barn, the murals, Drake relics, documents, paintings and the legendary Drake’s Drum, members were able to look at the “lost” self portrait of Rembrandt. Thought to be worth £20 million, the now authenticated and professionally cleaned painting is housed in its own gallery with a video to describe its complicated provenance.
After lunch at Buckland Abbey, we visited Ros and Keith Wiley’s four acre garden at Buckland Monachorum. Once a cider orchard, Wildside is still a work in progress as Ros explained in her introductory talk, but it hardly prepared us for what we were about to see. Round every corner we gasped at the imaginative planting of rich colours of varied plants and grasses, set off by a magical light. Just look at the photos to see for yourself this wondrous tour de force. A Gardening Club expects a good garden and we were treated to that in spades at Wildside!
