Bright and early on the morning of Monday 15th July, 39 trip-goers assembled at Llantwit Major train station car park, ready for a 5 day trip to Cheshire. Pencoed Travel provided the coach, as they do for all our trips, and our driver once again was Dave. Why he puts himself through this every year goodness only knows!! We also enjoyed homemade welsh cakes courtesy of Barbara - a huge thank you to her for setting us up for our journey! After an easy ride, and one stop at the services, we arrived at our first garden of the week.

Wollerton Old Hall in North Shropshire is a formal, modern garden situated on an old site, covering 4 acres. It`s garden rooms are richly planted with shrubs and perennials and it is bursting with design ideas. The garden is renowned for salvias, clematis and roses, and the clever use of colour, form and scale. We enjoyed a cup of tea/coffee and a slice of homemade cake before heading for the plant nursery to start stocking up!

It was then a fairly short journey to our hotel where we were based for the whole trip. Alvaston Hall, a Warners group hotel, is situated just outside Nantwich. The building is Grade II listed and seeped in history, offering both charm and elegance, and is set in award winning gardens with a vast wildflower meadow. Facilities available to all guests include a heated indoor swimming pool, sauna and steam room, and fitness centre, and there are many activities to take part in, including aqua aerobics, archery, and rifle shooting. The hotel also hosts film nights, an afternoon quiz, and history talks. We were all ready for a 3 course evening meal by 7pm, where we could choose from a huge selection of dishes which varied on each night of the week. Following this, evening entertainment was provided with a unique show of music, comedy, ballroom and party dancing!

Tuesday 16th July

Following a hearty breakfast where, again, we could choose from a good selection of food, we set off for Dunham Massey, a National Trust property nestled between Manchester and rural Cheshire, which includes a 300 acre deer park, an historic house, and all season gardens, including a beautiful
rose garden. Accessible paths outside pass roaming fallow deer, while inside the house, ornate rooms and servant`s quarters hold a collection that spans the history of the house, and a fascinating water powered mill beckons you into the past.

In the afternoon we visited Anderton Boat Lift, a giant three storey high iron edifice, which lifts boats and barges 50ft from the River Weaver Navigation to the Trent & Mersey Canal, which we experienced for ourselves before heading off on an hour long trip on the Edwin Clark boat. Anderton is one of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways and well worth a visit.

Wednesday 17th July

As the Society is affiliated to the RHS, once a year we can visit one of the five big RHS gardens free of charge. So this was a great opportunity for a day out at RHS Bridgewater, Salford, the newest of the five, and one of the largest gardening projects undertaken in Europe in recent years. The 154 acre site is steeped in history and contains fascinating remnants from previous uses. This green space is intended to enrich the lives of local communities, and their environment, for the future.

The 11 acre Weston Walled Garden consists of an inner walled garden, divided into two halves. The Paradise Garden occupies one half and the Kitchen Garden the other. Within the outer wall is a series of gardens dedicated to serving the local communities. At the heart of the Paradise Garden is
a 70-sq metre Lily Pond, with 89 individual planting beds surrounding it containing 27,000 plants!

The Kitchen Garden has more than 100 planting beds containing 29,000 plants and embraces distinct planting styles – forest garden, herbal garden, and formal vegetable garden, all linked by wall- trained fruit which wrap around the walls.

Covering just over 7 acres, the Chinese streamside garden is centrally located and is a predominantly woodland garden in its early years. Its pretty stream meanders slowly through the garden, while a sinuous path weaves over 5 stylised wooden bridges. The planting is a sight to behold. There are many more parts to this garden, including a 21 acre meadow, Ellesmere Lake, a Blue Peter garden, a learning garden, woods, and the Old Frameyard which is the propagating area, where plant trials also take place. Another enticing area was the Plant Centre, where there was a huge selection of shrubs, perennials, bedding plants, house plants, gardening equipment and gifts galore. The coach back to the hotel smelt wonderful courtesy of a beautiful standard rose which had pride of place strapped in to the back seats!

Thursday 18th July

Stonyford Cottage Gardens and Nursery was our first destination of the day. This is a family run plant nursery and garden specialising in rare and unusual herbaceous perennials and shrubs. The gardens are set around a tranquil lake with woodland walks and a Monet style bridge and are not large, but are packed with interesting and colourful plants to create a magical space for humans and wildlife alike.

The selection of plants available to buy meant that a lot of the time spent at Stonyford seemed to be in the nursery! As there was a slight uphill walk to where the coach was parked, the owners very kindly provided trolleys and the manpower to get all our purchases (including a heavy stone hare – well of course that`s what you buy in plant nurseries!) safely to the coach. Poor Dave had to climb inside the luggage compartment to get it all in.

We then headed 5 minutes up the road to Abbeywood Estate and Gardens, where we enjoyed refreshments in the glasshouse before exploring the 6 acres of formal and informal gardens, all different and distinctive in their own right. They were amazing! The Tropical Garden layout is formal but with relaxed planting, mainly made up of tender exotics planted out each spring. The Pool Garden has `cottage garden` style borders with campanulas, agapanthus and phlox to name but a few. The Pergola Walk is the main access point to the rest of the gardens with adjacent herbaceous borders, and roses and clematis climbing the brick pillars.

The Kitchen Garden was huge, comprising just about every fruit and vegetable you could think of, and beautiful in its own right.

Friday 19th July

After our final breakfast at our lovely hotel, we set off for home, stopping off at Berrington Hall near Leominster, another National Trust property. This Georgian mansion sits within Capability Brown`s final garden and landscape, with walks through the parkland taking in woodlands, wildflower meadows and around the pool which is a site of special scientific interest. The walled garden and `The Curve` - the intriguing architectural feature that remains of the curved garden - contain an orchard, flower borders and large vegetable beds.

Inside the house we discovered jewel-like interiors designed by the architect Henry Holland, including the Dining Room with its 4 impressive battle paintings, and the Staircase Hall which is Holland`s most sophisticated experiment in space, light and colour. The dairy was never a `working` dairy, in fact the lady of the house used it to take refreshments with her friends and acquaintances.

Dave was relieved to find that there were no plants available to buy at Berrington as the coach was pretty full with previous purchases and suitcases. We headed off for the final leg of our journey and arrived back in Llantwit early evening.

Many thanks to everyone who came on this trip, they all said they enjoyed it, so hopefully we can plan another excursion for 2025. As always, a big thank you to Pencoed Travel and to Dave in particular, who always goes above and beyond to look after us all, and makes the organisation of the trip much easier.

Our thanks to Marge and Elizabeth for the photos!