A pleasant surprise

Even after hearing such a glowing report, we were not prepared for such a spectacular garden. Having arrived by the old walls of the vicarage garden, we strolled to the garden entrance set between an open fence smothered in roses. A narrow path led us down a slope, around the edge of the walled garden, where the late Dr Smart, the garden's creator, used to hold the fort from the potting shed.

We emerged on a terrace planted with formal beds of billowing summery flowers and, anxious for some shade on a blisteringly hot day, made a beeline for the trees shading the edge of the lakes. These lakes are shallow, the result of damming the stream running through the valley in 1962, and the home to many carp, including mirror and crucian, originally introduced about 15 years previously as part of research project into the potential of carp production for food. The project folded but the fish live on.