Creed House, Grampound
TR2 4SL
Tel: (01872) 530372
Restored rectory garden
Creed House was built around 1730, originally as a Rectory. The house sits in five acres of beautiful gardens, a stone's throw away from Creed church and the peaceful Golden Valley.
The Georgian rectory garden has a tranquil rural setting and spacious lawns. There is a sunken cobbled yard and formal walled rose garden. A stream trickles down to ponds and bog. There is a natural woodland walk and large terrace with rose bed below, if fine bring your lunch picnic and a rug.
The Croggons came to Creed House in 1974, and has been the home of Jonathon and Annabel Croggon ever since. Restoring the garden began in earnest when Jonathon's parents arrived here on their return from Malaysia. The family lovingly spent the next 35 years dedicating their time to reclaiming a garden which had been neglected for the best part of 50 years. We set to work initially on the lawns with a tractor and silage cutter. Then we cut the brambles and nettles around the immediate area of the house. We gradually worked our way into the woodland, particularly down the north-west side of the main lawn to find our boundary. We started around the gunnera and worked our way up to the summerhouse and stable yard.
We reckon we felled and winched out some 300 trees between 1974-1984, some with root balls above a man's height. These all had to be knocked out, chopped up and burnt. Then the ground had to be levelled, the lawns seeded and areas marked out for planting. The few remaining good trees were revealed, the outlines of paths and ponds and even buildings we did not know existed. It seems hardly credible that it was sometime before we discovered the derelict remains of what is now the Summerhouse.
One of the great delights of the first Spring, after clearing the undergrowth, was that thousands of snowdrops and daffodils sprang to life, principally on both the banks but extending down through the garden to the lower woodland, and the large old magnolia was free to bloom again in unfettered profusion.
From 1984-1993 we have gone back over the whole garden refining and upgrading, and we have been all over the country finding interesting shrubs, rhododendrons and above all trees to plant to give colour and interest throughout the year.
Together with many original rhododendrons and magnolias, the garden now has a wonderful collection of rare trees and plants from far and wide - as with all gardens, a work in progress.
The garden is open by prior appointment for groups. The garden is part of the National Garden Scheme.
One mile south of Grampound.
Now Closed |
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