Echium?

I came across these fine flowers this afternoon, growing in the garden at Town Place, Freshfield Crossways, open today under the National Gardens Scheme.

It looks to me rather like the Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) that grew in our own back garden last year - except the flowerheads on the plant at Town Place today (as seen most clearly in today's 'Extra') didn't look quite so familiar at all.

Can anyone out there positively identify the plant?