Coughton Court

Coughton is a garden visit with a strong sense of family history. The Throckmortons have been here since 1409, and the long, battlemented front of the house, with its Tudor gatehouse, makes a dramatic backdrop to the grounds. The house still has a family living in it, which gives the place a lived-in feel rather than that of a museum.

The main garden draw is the walled formal garden, where enclosure, clipped structure and generous planting work together. Beyond it the grounds open out towards the river and the lake, with a bog garden in the damper ground, so you move from formal to looser, wetter planting as you walk. The gatehouse turrets and oriel windows are worth looking back at from the garden, as the house and grounds were made to be seen together.

For home gardeners, the walled garden is the place for ideas on dividing space into rooms and planting tightly within strong edges. The bog garden is useful if you have a wet corner and want to see moisture-loving plants used well. The house has its own stories too, including a priest hole and links with the Throckmorton Plot and the Gunpowder Plot, so it is worth timing your visit to see inside if the house is open. A major roof restoration finished in summer 2025, so the house is in good repair after several years of work.