Grounds & Gardens at Lotherton
The beautiful Edwardian gardens cover an impressive eight acres and include a walled garden with rose beds and herbaceous borders featuring scented flowers, creepers and perennials.
The gardens cover eight acres and were designed as a series of enclosed gardens by Mrs Gwendolen Gascoigne between 1893 and 1914, with few changes up to her death in 1949.
The old Walled Garden was transformed into an “old-fashioned” garden filled with rose beds and herbaceous borders with scented flowers, tender creepers and perennials. The William and Mary Garden was built with a sunken pond and plant walls.
Part of the Victorian shrubbery was made into a rock garden, with winding sunken paths and a hard tennis court was laid out overlooking the pasture. Today, the gardens are being slowly restored.
We are delighted to work with local volunteer organisation Garforth in Bloom. They are currently helping us to restore the terrace garden which is the area at the back of the Drawing Room, with the Peony Priest statue.
The garden was originally planted as a ‘Scottish Garden’ by Gwendolen Gascoigne in the early 1900s. Her love of Scotland was brought down to Yorkshire in the form of heaths as ground cover plants and also included Winter-flowering Jasmine and large mixed-coloured Antirrhinums.
We will be updating our blog with more news as the volunteers continue to restore this garden to its former glory.
You can find out more about Garforth in Bloom on their website.
Beyond the formal gardens, you will find woodlands and the former farmland now made up of the orchard, deer park and open grassy fields for picnics and play.
We welcome dogs at Lotherton and have plenty of space for them to play, sniff and explore on the estate.
Our boundary trail, woodland and open parkland are great spots to stretch their legs and play fetch, or enjoy a more leisurely pace through the gardens.
If you are planning on bringing your dog for a walk we have more information on our dedicated dogs at Lotherton page.