Garden
of the Year Award Blenheim Palace is the proud winner of the Historic
Houses Association/Christie’s Garden of the Year Award in
2008. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the award, HHA
and Christie’s of London commissioned a professional photography
competition and exhibition featuring images of the winning
gardens of the last 25 years. Blenheim Palace will host this
fabulous photographic exhibition for six weeks from the opening
of the new season in 2010.
The exhibition will include images created by acclaimed landscape photographer
Simon Norfolk. Norfolk captured Blenheim Palace's oak trees back-lit at night
to represent soldiers on the battlefield at the Battle of Blenheim 1704.
The stunning Formal Gardens at Blenheim Palace include the majestic Water Terraces,
the ornate Italian Garden, the secluded Secret Garden with winding streams and
water features, the fragrant Rose Garden, Arboretum and the Pleasure Gardens
which includes Europe’s largest symbolic hedge maze.
Guided tours of the Palace’s State Rooms are available daily (except Sundays
and Bank Holidays) including the permanent exhibition on Winston Churchill, and
the fascinating visitor experience ‘Blenheim Palace: The Untold Story’ where
300 years of enticing tales are revealed.
With lots to see and do, including Farm Shop selling farm
produced food, Garden Centre, Restaurants, Farm Zoo, Children’s
Play Area, Woodland Walk and lots of seasonal events. Pick
Your Own opens in June with a choice of over 30 different
fruits and vegetables.
A great day out for ALL the family.
Open: 7 days a week. Free entry a free carpark.
Hundreds of different species can be seen at this spacious
and well-kept wildlife park, including animals ranging from
cuddly Red Pandas to poisonous snakes. With picnic areas,
an adventure playground, a brass-rubbing centre and a narrow-gauge
railway, the Cotswold Wildlife Park will guarantee a fabulous
day out for the entire family.
Please add see web-site for birds of prey demonstrations
and other events.
Open: daily at 10am
Cogges
Manor Farm Museum
Church Lane, Witney, Oxon,
OX28 3LA.
Tel: 09113 772602 www.cogges.org
Cogges is a unique, working museum depicting Oxfordshire
rural life in Victorian times set in an historic manor house
and Cotswold stone farm buildings. Explore the beautiful
farmstead, original Cotswold buildings and displays about
farming in years gone by. Meet various breeds of farm animals,
talk to farm hands and dairy maids and watch them go about
their daily work. Note: all events run from 11.30am to 5pm.
Whether you are 4 or 40 you are going to enjoy everything
that Warwick Castle can offer. Our day was made even more
enjoyable by taking the train and removing the headache of
car parks, pay and display and unforeseen traffic.
Hundreds of different species can be seen at this spacious
and well-kept wildlife park, including animals ranging from
cuddly Red Pandas to poisonous snakes. With picnic areas,
an adventure playground, a brass-rubbing centre and a narrow-gauge
railway, the Cotswold Wildlife Park will guarantee a fabulous
day out for the entire family.
Please add see web-site for birds of prey demonstrations
and other events.
Open: daily at 10am.
Railway Experience Days: A chance of a lifetime to
realise a childhood ambition and drive a steam train.
Ideal for a birthday treat, a special anniversary,
corporate hospitality or pure self-indulgance.
A Day at Didcot: On one of our normal Steamdays spend
the day with one of our Guides – you’ll see round
the Centre, take a look behind the scenes and experience
standing on the footplate of the engines.
Open: Weekends throughout the year.
At Buscot Park you will find exquisite gardens, including
the spectacular Water Garden designed by Harold Peto and
the Four Seasons Walled Garden created by the present Lord
Faringdon. The House is home to the Faringdon Collection
which contains an extraordinary array of paintings, furniture
and objets d'art, including Burne-Jones’s The Legend of the
Briar Rose.
Open: Daily 10am-5.30pm mid-February to end of October. The
Hawk Conservancy Trust is a national award winning family
attraction. Set in 22 acres of grounds including woodland
and a wildflower meadow, there is plenty to do for the whole
family. There are three bird of prey flying displays a day;
children can complete our Raptor Passport Trail and nature
trail, and enjoy the fun of ferret and runner duck racing.
All visitors can hold a British Bird of Prey and can either
walk or take a tractor ride around our beautiful wildflower
meadow. Adults can also have the opportunity to fly a Harris
Hawk. Our facilities include: Gift shop, coffee shop, BBQ,
education centre and bird of prey hospital.
The family home of Virginia Grant and her children Elizabeth
and Alexander. Kingston Bagpuize House is open to the public
on selected days and for group visits, by appointment, throughout
the year. The house and grounds are also available for wedding
receptions private functions, corporate events and filming.
A day out at Waterperry Gardens near Oxford is guaranteed
to delight and inspire garden-lovers from across the country
and the world. Founded by Beatrix Havergal more than seventy
years ago as a School of Horticulture for Ladies, the gardens
at Waterperry have evolved into an oasis of calm and beauty
in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside within easy driving
distance of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.
Waddesdon
Manor
Off the A41 between Bicester
and Aylesbury
Tel: 01296 653226 www.waddesdon.org.uk
One of the finest collections of 18th century decorative
arts and Victorian gardens is only half an hour from Oxford.
Plus gardens, aviary, shops, restauirant, house and wine
cellars.
The ancestral home of the Washingtons in Britain. Visit thethe
Manor House a gentle stroll through three centuries of English
history. Our wonderful Tudor to Georgian furniture and artefacts,
displayed in their natural settings and the largest UK collection
of George Washington memorabilia demonstrating the British
contribution to the origins of the USA with a separate exhibition
on George's life and career in the US.
Six miles south of Oxford on the A4074 is the Harcourt Arboretum.
This is an integral part of the plant collection of the Botanic
Garden. There are no walls, glasshouses or straight lines
at the Arboretum. The Arboretum is a magical place to spend
a day at any time of year.
Admission charges apply: adults £3.00, concessions £2.50,
children free. Free parking.
Show your children the place where Cromwell's men plotted
for the battle of Edgehill.
Godwins
Ice Cream Farm
Weston-on-the-Green, Bicester.
Tel: 01869 351647.
Family run farm. Specialise in making and selling own Jersey
ice cream. 22 flavours of ice cream on display in the cafe
on site. Also do cream teas and farmhouse breakfasts and
an on site caravan and camping park. 50 flavours of ice cream
available, also sell eggs, craft, clotted cream, Jersey Milk
butter, jams, preserves. Electric fun cart available at the
weekend.The whole process starts and ends on the farm from
the Jersey herd.Ice cream parlour and cafe bar open daily
9am6pm. Open for farmers markets, trailer available for corporate
events etc.
The Living Rainforest runs a visitor centre in Berkshire,
UK, open year-round and featuring a tropical rainforest-inspired
ecological garden. The Living Rainforest is an international
conservation education charity, launched in July 2000. We
aim to promote a sustainable future by providing education
and research on the relationship between humanity and the
world's rainforests.
