Cotswolds Miserden Park Gardens, Cotswolds

Well off the tourist trail these delightful gardens are set in the depths of the Cotswold countryside between Stroud and Cirencester. They are reached along narrow lanes running through bluebell woods and grass verges covered with wood anemones, primroses and cowslips. There are small signs to the gardens, but they are easy to miss. You need to want to come here.

For those who enjoy gardens, they are well worth the effort of finding. The gardens are on a hillside overlooking the attractively named Golden Valley.

Apart from two gardeners and the owner walking his two dogs, we were the only visitors. All stopped to talk to us and we were made to feel very welcome.

These are lovely gardens, lovingly tended and with hardly a weed in sight.

Two long carefully trimmed coniferous hedges with a grassy walk lead down to a small water feature with a fountain. There are long herbaceous borders which lead down to the lovely C17th stone built manor house (private).

Mid April was a bit too early to see them at their full glory.

There is a small orchard with fruit trees and parkland with mature trees and wide gravel paths, so it is easy to spend some hours wandering here. There are no tourist facilities in the gardens. Next to the gardens is a nursery with a cafe in one of the greenhouses. Their website also gives details of four different walks in the estate.

The post code is GL6 7JA and the grid reference is SO 940089.

Website

 

[Pauline]

When we lived in the Cotswolds (2010 - 2015) we were not far from Miserden (also spelled as Misarden sometimes) and visited a few times. There is a very nice hike from the town.

Miserden is one of those villages that you find here and there in the UK that is privately owned. We have one near us now in Dorset (Symondsbury). One family owns the entire village and lands (the Wills family). The village houses are available to rent, priority given to people from the area. I know a woman in Painswick who is related to this family. It was her grandparents who owned it and passed it down another branch of the family. We talked to one of the tenants there on one visit. She rented from the family and had lived there a long time.

This website has a few more details about the family.

Welcome to the 21st-century village | Strutt & Parker

Through foresight and teamwork, the Cotswold estate of Miserden has been transformed from a pretty but isolated rural village to a fully connected, sustainable community.

www.struttandparker.com

From the website: "Comprising around 2,900 acres in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Miserden Estate has been owned by the Wills family since 1913. Its business centres on an in-hand farming operation, along with residential and commercial property – with some 80 let properties in and around the village. ‘The estate has always been built with a strong ethos of contributing to the community, and sustainable agriculture and practices – while keeping an eye on the future,’ says Nicholas Wills, who is in the process of taking over its management from his father."

See, it isn't just the Royal Family that have huge land holdings!