HEART OF ENGLAND: A journey through the gardens and landscapes of England's Cotswold Country

Thursday 24th June - Wednesday 30th June 2027

Over the week we will be visiting some of the finest gardens in England, including Hidcote, Kiftsgate, Sudeley Castle and the incomparable Rousham.

You can expect the usual G&T combination of great food, top accommodation, magnificent private gardens, great estates and, of course, congenial company.

G&T's exclusive events include a day with the celebrated gardener, designer and watercolourist, Mathew Rice, at his splendid castle, Ham Court, and a visit to the magnificent private garden at Dean Manor.  

We will be staying at the award-winning and deeply luxurious Bruern Cottages in the heart of the Cotswolds, close to Burford and the enigmatic Rollright Stones. As well as being extremely comfortable and fully ensuite, Bruern comes with an indoor swimming pool, gym and its own lovely gardens.  

Lunches will be at some of the Cotswolds’s best restaurants and atmospheric pubs, and at the end of the day we will return to Bruern for suppers in the huge kitchen, prepared by private chef David Cross.

Pick-up from Kingham station, to arrive at Bruern Abbey Cottages for tea. We have time to unwind and enjoy the garden over drinks, before dinner is served.

Simon Tiffin and Jason Goodwin will set the scene with an introductory talk on the history and gardens of the Cotswolds.

This morning we will visit the gardens at Asthall Manor, designed by I & J Bannerman to flow into the Windrush Valley landscape. The gardens blend open views with secret spaces. tranquil walks bordered with sharp wedges of yew, vast beeches enclosing a hidden lake, orchards sloping down to the mill stream, stone tubs overgrown with roses and a formal box-bordered parterre.

Lunch will be at Bruern Abbey Cottages.

Over the last 30 years Emma Keswick has created – from scratch – one of the finest gardens in the Cotswolds, a testament to plantsmanship and sculptural form. In the morning we are invited to explore this extraordinary 8-acre jewel which, in the words of the great photographer Clive Nichols, ‘oozes English country garden chic at every turn’.

This morning we will visit the (ten!) gardens at Sudely Castle. First laid out in the 15th century, Sudeley was largely abandoned and reclaimed by nature until Emma Dent launched a major 19th century restoration. More recently, a number of distinguished gardeners have worked with Elizabeth, Lady Ashcombe to re-imagine and maintain the gardens in keeping with the historic and magnificent backdrop of Sudeley Castle.

After lunch at the classic, tiny 5 North Street, in Winchcombe, we have an invitation to Sezincote, the astonishing Moghul palace created by Colonel John Cockerell, who made a fortune in the East India Company. 

The incomparable Rousham is perhaps England’s loveliest and most romantic garden, set against the backdrop of the 17th century house. Much of the garden was laid out by the early 18th century polymath, William Kent, who pioneered the 'natural' style of English landscape gardening, and it remains a rare survival from the period. Expect ha-has, picturesque vistas, walled gardens, and a sense of garden melting into the countryside beyond.

As Horace Walpole wrote, Kent 'leaped the fence and saw that all nature was a garden. He felt the delicious contrast of hill and valley changing imperceptibly into each other, tasted the beauty of the gentle swell, or concave scoop, and remarked how loose groves crowned an easy eminence with happy ornament...'

Our visit includes a private tour of the house, which has been home to the Cottrell-Dormer family since they built it in 1635.

After a splendid picnic lunch in the Rousham grounds, we go on to absorb the ancient atmosphere of the enigmatic Rollright Stones, perhaps the key to the Cotswolds’ man-made landscape, before returning to the cottages for tea and dinner.

Today we explore two of the Cotswold’s must-see gardens, Kiftsgate and Hidcote, finishing the visit with a champagne tea in the Hidcote belvedere.

This Arts and Crafts-inspired garden was created in friendly rivalry with neighbouring Kiftsgate by the passionate plantsman and designer, Major Lawrence Johnston. Over ten acres of gardens, with the smaller, more formal garden ‘rooms’ near the house giving way to more natural areas that blend in with the surrounding countryside. 

Lunch is at The Howard Arms, a neighbouring pub restaurant.

Famed for its roses – and in particular the eponymous scented climbing rose which is shade-tolerant and vigorous – and for its intimate and ever-evolving views, the hillside garden at Kiftsgate was shaped by three generations of women gardeners. 

We stay close to Bruern Cottages’ gardens, gym and swimming pool this morning, with an invitation to visit the gardens laid out at Bruern Abbey by Angel Collins.

Angel was commissioned to restore the badly neglected gardens at Bruern by the new owners, Lord Glendonbrook and Martin Ritchie, in 2012. The eye-catcher is the long canal, framed by beehive hornbeams, but the Moorish-inspired courtyard garden is an intimate jewel, its narrow rills set off by agapanthus Navy Blue.

We proceed to Bampton, to enjoy the energy and wit of the celebrated gardener, designer and watercolourist Matthew Rice at his beautiful home, Ham Court, in Bampton.

Matthew designed our lovely G&T logo, and aside from showing us around the moats, woodland, lawns, gravel planting and vegetable kingdom at Ham Court, he’ll be delving (after a fabulous al fresco lunch) into the secrets of good botanical drawing. Among Matthew’s many ferocious displays of talent (he plays the piano, too) he is much sought-after as a brilliant teacher.

For a rousing finale we return for a valedictory dinner at Bruern cottages.

Depart Bruern, for Kingham station.