Quote from: Christina152 on June 13, 2026, 10:43:22 AMI'm sorry you didn't enjoy Belsay Hall. It's a favourite half-way lunch stop on my way up to Scotland to see my family. I love the Quarry Garden. But I've never been there on a Saturday.
And I do love croquet. It appears to be a very gentile game but it can get vicious|!
Yeah it can be an wickedly vicious devious game at times, I really like it.
Don't get me wrong Christina, I have been many many times before and loved it. You used to be able to chat to all the gardeners and they would tell you about what they were doing and give you tips etc. All the plants used to have labels etc. But I truly hate what they've done to the place. We weren't the only ones either, a few of the older generation commented on it as well.
English Heritage is catering for kids family days now as that is where they think the money is,maybe they're right. But they are going to alienate the actual gardeners who loved to go there. The National Trust does things way better. I'd far rather go round Wallington or Cragside, or Crook Hall in Durham.
I've not been for a few years and the gardens were massively disapointing this year. All fully planted out but barely any colour anywhere. Large sections of it seemed to be given over to wild planting. I mean, I love a wildflower meadow but not at the expense of the ornamental gardens. Maybe it's just a temporary blip and it might return to normal in future years, I don't know. I suspect they've sacked the estate gardeners and brought in some middle class fartie landscape architect who told them that wilding was the way forward! It's only twenty minutes from where I live so I've been so many times through my life, this is the first time I left with a sour taste in my mouth.
