Secret Garden

It is planned that with the help of the Batheaston Garden Group and Volunteers, a "Garden Team" will be formed to bring this fabulous Historic Garden back to a condition that the Community can be proud of and encouraged to use fully.

Regular updates will be posted below and allow everyone to follow the progress and respond to periodic requests for help.

History of the garden

Batheaston House was built in 1712 for Henry Walters on the cellars of the house he inherited from his grandfather Henry Blanchard. In 1921, after 200 years, the house left the Walters family and fell into a dilapidated state until the 1960s when restoration was started by Dr Hilliard, it then passed to Mr P Davis in 1982 and then on to the present owners who have continue the restoration of this Grade 1 listed house.

In 1969 the fruit garden at the eastern end was compulsorily purchased by Somerset County Council for a new police station that was never built. It passed to Avon County Council in 1974 who subsequently attempted to sell the land with housing consent. Neither plan materialised and after local pressure the site was designated public open space, but official abandonment and neglect led to vandalism and concern from local residents.

Wansdyke turned down a generous offer to buy the site by Dr Hilliard and to restore it as a garden, establish an endowment for its upkeep and gift it to the village; a plan that was supported by the Parish Council in 1975.

Eventually the Parish and Batheaston Society were successful in having the land accepted as a Community Garden Project by Avon helped by funding from the Countryside Commission.

In 1987 a party of volunteers started clearance and archaeological investigations identified the garden layout with stone walls, pillars, an original listed stone niche and formal planting areas based on the 18^th century designs.

New gateways to the garden with ornamental iron grill gates were created in the eastern wall to allow public access with seating. Several pieces of statuary were designed and produced by the Avon Community Environment Scheme and placed around the site but sadly much of this was lost due to vandalism some years ago.

The site of the toilet block in the car park used to be a tennis court serving Batheaston House and by the large garden entrance is a hole through the wall that was used to return tennis balls hit into the garden.

The Garden Team aim to bring this back to a state that the community can be proud of and encouraged to use fully.

What is the Secret Garden

Originally laid out as a formal walled garden to Batheaston House there are 5 grassed area separated by paths and borders and a central avenue with an octagonal paved area as below -

Drawing of Garden layout with area descriptions

In recent times the garden has only been used by a handful of local residents and dog walkers, yet this garden has enormous potential for improvement and enjoyment by the whole community.

Since taking responsibility for the Riverside on 1st January 2018 the Parish Council have been encouraged by the interest and enthusiasm shown by  Batheaston Garden Group in helping to plan develop and maintain this area in partnership with their Riverside Team and other volunteers.

The overall plan will be under the direction of the Garden Team and will focus on short, medium and longer term actions and objectives which will be regularly documented on this blog.

Potential volunteers are invited to contact the Garden Team for more information by sending an email to -  batheastongarden@gmail.com 

Donations to support this work will be greatly appreciated using this email for information requests or by direct contact to a member of the Parish Council

Initial plans

February/March 2018 

clear sedge from all areas and prepare an area next to the south wall of the Wild Area ready for construction of compost bins and temporary storage of removed growth.

Sedge all over the Wild Area

North facing wall where compost bins will be located

prepare the south facing High Wall with wires  and soil improvement for future planting

Sedge in south facing bed along High Wall

remove ivy from stonework with help from Bath&nes

ivy on east wall

Ivy all over stone pillar

remove/repair damaged seats on the River Terrace

Seats and terrace January 2018

identify trees that should be replaced, pruned, or removed and obtain appropriate consents and agree timescale for work

Fallen tree in north east lawn

fallen tree in south east lawn

March/April 2018

prepare box beds within the Sphere Garden ready for spring planting and trim inside of the box hedges.

Sphere garden with box beds - february 2018

April/May 2018

Initial planting suggestions include -

Planting Scheme for 4 box beds in the Sphere Garden - 
Summer 2018.

The aim of this scheme is to give colour, height and scent for summer 2018 whilst establishing some plants that will flower again in future years.  There should be something in flower from June to the end of September.

Nicotiana Sylvestris - tall, releases scent in late afternoon/evening

Sweet Peas - release scent all day

Salvia Amistad - tall blue flowers through summer

Gladioli - height and colour

Verbena Bonariensis - Mauve flowers through summer

Cosmos - Pink and white through summer

This first planting scheme will be funded directly by BPC and include feed to encourage flowering through the summer season.   The soil in the 4 beds will be improved which means that plants should bulk up for flowering in future years.

Working Parties are planned each month, generally on a Saturday morning depending on weather -

First tasks will be clearance and digging so bring a fork and spade please.

Please email Batheastongarden@gmail.com to offer help and to be kept informed.



Despite snow flurries and low temperatures the first Working Party was a great success and much was achieved.

It wasn't quite this cold

All Sedge from the main garden area has been cleared and central beds prepared with main walk path lines defined. 

Main Walk the day after

Thanks to attendees - Wendy, Catherine, Steve, Ali, David, Ann, Elizabeth, Jean, Nigel, Pam, Susanne, Emma, Ant, Vicky and Mark.

The latter three are not from BPC or BGG and their efforts were especially appreciated as the first villagers to join in with the new Community Project. Given that we also had apologies from Sue, George, Rob, Catherine, Peter and Bert who were all unavailable the future is looking good.

Tea and coffee plus cakes and biscuits were provided by Pam which allowed some cold fingers to thaw out and also some interesting chats between new acquaintances.

Further work by the team will now continue over the coming weeks ready for the next Working Party in April.

Please email the garden team at Batheastongarden@gmail.com to ensure you are kept up to date with progress and future opportunities to contribute.

Batheaston Secret Garden March 2018

Thanks to everyone who came to our first working party in the Secret Garden.  We made significant progress in clearing the sedge, clearing beds and redefining the border edges.

path edges redefined

Clearing the 4 box beds

Clearing Sedge

A good morning's work - heading home

 It’s a great space and we can all see it has a lot of potential to be even better.  We can’t tackle everything at once and the agreed priorities for the garden for the 2018 season are to have a summer display in the 4 box beds and to prepare the 4 beds in the formal walk and the bed at the foot of the high wall for planting in the autumn.  The Parish council are working with BANES to remove ivy from walls and to repair masonry as required.