Chippenham Park Gardens

About the garden

At the end of the 17th century Admiral Lord Russell, Earl of Orford, received permission from William III to create a park on 330 acres and build a large country house, Chippenham Park. As the victor of the 1692 naval battle of La Hogue, he planted a large avenue of limes to replicate the ships’ battle formation.

Created as an 'Anglo-Dutch' designed landscape comprising canals, park, woodland and formal gardens it was later informalised by 18th and 19th-century designers including William Eames and Samuel Lapidge. The gardens were restored and extended in more recent years and stretch to more than 40 acres of formal and informal areas, borders, terraces, lakes, walled gardens and woodland walks.

Notable for vast swathes of snowdrops and aconites in late winter followed by a spring show of daffodils, hellebores, spring bulbs and blossoms, the summer gardens have a huge display of roses and a generously stocked Long Border. The ‘Wilderness’ is a wooded walk full of interesting trees and shrubs – some quite rare. A large grove of silver Himalayan birch is maturing into wonderful winter show-stopper.

In 2000 the four-acre Walled Garden was re-designed with a large arched colonnade of Leylandii, grass gardens, mound, pleached ornamental pears and a theatre of yew. In 2016 the new rose terrace, designed by Hugo Nicolle, was added with parasol-formed trees, grasses, domes of box, raised beds and modern English rose borders. Rebecca Nicolle and her husband, a garden designer, took over the running of the house, gardens and estate in 2010.