Wisteria Explosion!!

A week ago (Apr 28th) a friend and I went to Greys Court (National Trust) with the main purpose to see their famous wisteria. Unfortunately it wasn't at its peak so we decided we would just have to go back! It's amazing that just one week makes a huge difference. We only toured the gardens this time as we had seen inside the house last week. The wisteria of course was stunning! I've been to Greys Court many times but I'm not sure if I've ever seen the wisteria close to its peak. We were still probably a couple of days early but it was fabulous!

Greys Court is also famous for its bluebells and we did the walk through there as well. (See extra - 1 for the bluebells and one for the rest of the gardens at Greys.)

After the garden tour of Greys, we went on to Nuffield Place, which is very close by and is one of the National Trust's most recent acquisitions. I've been here before but it was new for my friend. We had a quick lunch in their cafe, and then listened to a short history of the house and its previous owner, William Morris (Lord Nuffield) the car manufacturer, (not the artist). Afterwards we toured the house and finished with a cup of tea in the garden. (See the extra photo for a collage from Nuffield Place).

The thing I love about both of these properties is that they are a bit of a time capsule to a fairly recent history. Greys Court was lived in until about 15 years ago and Nuffield Place a bit further back - until 1963 when Lord Nuffield passed away.

For a more detailed history of Nuffield, see my write up in my previous blip from 23 Aug 2014.