11 August 2004
It's official from the RAC. Middlethorpe Hall is blooming marvellous!
Middlethorpe Hall is one of three of North Yorkshire's best known hotels to have won high praise from the Royal Automobile Club's expert hotel inspectors - but for once they are concentrating on what's outside the buildings rather than within.
RAC has identified the grounds and gardens of Middlethorpe Hall, Restaurant and Spa, York, as one of the twenty most attractive hotel gardens in the UK and Ireland.
Lionel Chatard, General Manager of Middlethorpe Hall says; "Over the last 20 years, with patience, care and passion, David Barker, Head Gardener and his team have rescued the grounds of Middlethorpe Hall, transforming them from a nettle-filled patch of ground to 20 acres of manicured gardens and parkland, we have to thank him for all his hard work and love of the garden"
Situated in a park just outside historic York, this glorious William and Mary house was formerly the home of the famous diarist Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. It is the ideal base for exploring the treasures of the North of England such as Castle Howard, the ruined abbeys and the famed Yorkshire Dales.
The 26 acres of gardens surrounding the house have been extensively restored and replanted since the property was acquired by Historic House Hotels in 1980. What remains of the previous garden includes a tall cedar of Lebanon on the main lawn, a mature red oak in the spring garden, a Turkey oak giving shade to the south east of the house, a fine line of beech trees on the west boundary, a specimen sycamore, and some very handsome limes.
The foundation to the original garden wall at the end of the south lawn now acts as an interesting ha-ha planted with scented shrubs such as lavender and trachelospermum. Part of the extensive Victorian walled kitchen garden has been retained and planted with a magnificent central double herbaceous border and box edged bed containing various species of old fashioned roses.
The walled kitchen garden holds herb beds, fruit trees and a mellow brick dovecote, now used as a wine cellar and clothed in azara microphylla and clematis cirrhosa. The walls themselves shelter peaches, pears, apples and plums.
To the west of the kitchen garden is the rose garden noted for the wide stone path lined with lavender - the flowers of which almost touch in the centre - and for the tall razor sharp yew hedge that surrounds it. The white garden with its high holly hedge on one side and the kitchen garden wall on the other, is planted with white flowering plants such as wisteria floribunda with agapanthus campanulatus albus below. It also has blue ceanothus as a contrast clipped to the wall. The walk leads to the spring garden where cherry and apple trees are planted in grass around a noble red oak.
The park railings on the boundary of the spring garden signal the limit of the more manicured area and brings us to the park and arboretum with their many specimen trees. The Turkey oak, Wellingtonia and Spanish chestnut are now well over 150 years old, and recent plantings include collections of birch, mountain ash, Japanese maple and cherry trees. The ground level drops to the south east where a lake has been created, and low lying land is planted with trees ideally suited to damper soil such as alders, willows and dogwood.
Middlethorpe is a plantsman's garden full of unusual and interesting treasures scattered throughout a maze of small gardens. It is cottage gardening on a grand scale furnishing everyone who sees it with a sense of great refreshment and delight.
For more information on Middlethorpe Hall, Restaurant or Spa please see www.middlethorpe.com or call 01904 641241.
Middlethorpe Hall
Bishopthorpe Road
York YO23 2GB
For PR information contact:
Ian Scott
Tel: 020 7439 1950
Fax: 020 7439 1970
