Lyme Park, Disley, Stockport, Cheshire, SK12 2NX
Tel: 01633 762023 or visit Lyme Park website for details of opening times and admission charges.
Between the Peak District hills and busy Stockport, explore this magnificent medieval deer park (open all year round) and the 17-acre garden. It’s popular with the locals and visitors from further afield, including those who want to see where the BBC filmed ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
This huge estate is a wild expanse of moorland which accentuates the formal style of the gardens closest to the house, where parterres are bedded out in formal Victorian style. The garden fashions of the centuries have survived here, with the lake and lime avenue dating back to the preferences of the 16th and 17th centuries (and the present parterres representing Tudor and Stuart tastes too). There’s a sunken ‘Dutch’ garden and an orangery from the 18th century, plus a 19th century ravine garden, an Edwardian style rose garden and informal Gertrude Jekyll style herbaceous border (designed by Graham Stuart Thomas).
For refreshments there’s a year-round kiosk plus cafe and restaurant (opening hours vary).