Gardens and great houses near Crewkerne

Three of the best houses in the West Country sit within about half an hour of us, and they are different enough from each other that you could do all three in a long weekend without it feeling repetitive.

Montacute House

About twenty minutes north east. Montacute was finished in 1601 for Sir Edward Phelips, and built of Ham Hill stone by the master mason William Arnold. It is the one people picture when they think of an Elizabethan house: three storeys of glass and golden stone, symmetrical, and slightly showing off.

The Long Gallery on the top floor runs 172 feet and is the longest surviving gallery in England. It normally hangs Tudor and Elizabethan portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, including Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley and Walter Ralegh. Conservation work on the staircases has kept the upper floors shut for a spell, so check what is open before you set off if the portraits are the reason you are going. The garden is one of the few surviving Elizabethan compartmentalised gardens, with clipped yew, formal borders and parkland and orchards beyond. National Trust, and dogs are welcome in the garden and parkland.

Barrington Court

About twenty-five minutes north west, near Ilminster. Barrington is a Tudor manor begun around 1538, and one of the first large houses the National Trust took on, in 1907. It was close to ruinous by then. Colonel Abram Lyle, of the sugar family, took a ninety-nine-year repairing lease in the 1920s and put it back together, and brought in Gertrude Jekyll to lay out the three formal gardens in the Arts and Crafts manner. Strode House next door was built in 1674 as stables and a coach block, converted around 1920, and now holds the restaurant. There is parkland to walk dogs in.

Forde Abbey

About twenty minutes west, over the border into Dorset at Thorncombe, near Chard. Forde was a Cistercian monastery founded in the 1140s and surrendered to the Crown in 1539 by its last abbot. What makes it different from the other two is that it is still a private family house, lived in rather than curated, and the atmosphere follows from that.

The thirty acres of garden are Grade II* registered and probably the main reason to go. The Centenary Fountain throws water 160 feet, which is claimed as the highest powered fountain in England, and there are newer plantings including a prairie garden and an Asian woodland alongside the older kitchen garden and ponds.

Practical bits

Opening arrangements and prices change, so look them up on the day rather than trusting anybody’s guide. All three are an easy drive out and back from us, and if you want two in a day, Montacute and Barrington sit sensibly together. Ring ahead for a table if you are coming back hungry, and if it is a Sunday, come back for the roast.