Clifton Artists day at Gatcombe

It is a wonderful sunny day at Gatcombe Court and there are many easels dotted around the grounds. The roses are in full bloom as is the campanula so a lot of colour. Some very recognisable drawings of the house, herb garden and yew hedge are emerging from the group. We are being visited by the Clifton Artists and they could not have chosen a better day. In the last few days we have been seeing migrant butterflies on the chive flowers in the herb garden a good thing that the artists have cameras as butterflies are not the best sitters.

Welcome

Gatcombe Court is an ancient family manor house which has grown from the original solar built by John de Gatcombe before 1254.

He used the stone from the Roman settlement upon which the house is built, and it is much in evidence. Two stones are possibly as altar stone and the other the top of a sarcophagus form lintels to two fireplaces! Within the house the changes through the centuries are clearly visible. As Simon Jenkins quotes of Gatcombe in his book England's 1,000 Best Houses 'nothing is regular, nothing the same period, yet everything is pleasing.'

In 2008 to mark the 1600th Anniversary of the Roman Settlement we have constructed a garden growing the herbs that the Romans brought with them to Britain, surrounded by those they would have found when they came. Jekka McVicar (Chelsea Gold Medalist) the organic herbalist extraordinaire has designed it for us.

The old walls of the terraced gardens are covered with roses and there is a remarkable yew hedge thought to be 400 years old.