Visiting Westonbury Mill Water Gardens

The joy of visiting gardens is seeing something different and Westonbury Mill Water Gardens certainly provided that. A lush landscape compared to my own garden – particularly this year – it’s also got follies and clever design that makes the most of the natural landscape.

The garden, near Leominster in Herefordshire, was created by the late Richard Pim, a water engineer, who used his skill to transform what had been an overgrown wilderness around a former millhouse into a plant-filled water garden.

Originally, the five-acre site, which he bought without seeing at an auction, had little more than the Curl Brook and the mill leat. He connected them with a canal and added boards to create a dam, which keep the water level in the leat constant until the boards are removed at the end of the season.

Lowering the water then protects the house from flooding, explained Mark Constable, who now owns Westonbury with his wife, Deborah.

Managing the water allowed the creation of several features, including a large pond and a bog garden.

The planting, so different to the drought tolerant things I have to use, was all supersized, thanks to run off from chicken farms in the area – the couple and their part-time gardener Colin use no fertiliser but simply mulch with nutrient-free soil conditioner to supress weeds. Weeding is also kept to a minimum by the dense planting with nothing cut back until February.

Despite it being towards the end of the season, there was plenty of colour in the beds.

“Richard said he took one of each plant out of a catalogue, stuffed it in the ground and if it came up and he liked it, he kept it. If he didn’t like it, he threw it away,” explained Mark.

If the water is beautiful, the garden’s follies are memorable. The first was made by Richard using the original mill wheel, which he found when clearing the ground.

The Stone Water Tower has buckets that lift water to a tank at the top. Once that is full, the water spurts out from the mouth of a gargoyle, one of three carved from Forest of Dean sandstone.

Even on a dull day with constantly threatening rain, The Glass Bottle Dome sparkled as light caught the 5,000 wine bottles used in its construction. Inside is a small pool and ferns.

The greatest engineering feat though is the cuckoo clock that’s powered by a complicated system of water-filled tanks and pipes. Not only does the cuckoo appear every hour and call across the garden, there is also other birdsong. Standing 7m-high, it’s impressive even when not in action.

Most notable was the atmosphere in the garden, which has a tranquil air that encourages lingering on one of the many seats.

Mark and Deborah are in the process of adding to Westonbury by creating gardens in a neighbouring field. Already they have planted 600 trees and are making a Japanese garden, complete with tea house, and a ‘Paradise Garden’. A return visit will be needed when these are completed.

I visited Westonbury Mill Water Gardens with my local gardening group, Cheltenham Horticultural Society. It’s well worth seeing what trips your garden clubs are offering as it’s always good to visit places with other gardeners and clubs need supporting.

You can find out more about Westonbury Mill Water Gardens here.

You can read about my other garden visits here.

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