Lamport Hall & Gardens

Lamport Hall is a place where gardening eccentricity is part of the story. The Isham family lived here from 1560 to 1976, and the hall is set in approximately ten acres of gardens enclosed by a spacious park. The size and position of the gardens are the same as when they were first laid out, but successive owners have reshaped their design to suit their own interests, so a walk round is a walk through more than four centuries of changing taste.

The best known feature is the rockery made by Sir Charles Isham, who inherited in 1846. He built it himself over about 22 years, filling it with dwarf conifers and miniature plants, some chosen precisely because they refused to grow fast. In the 1840s he introduced terracotta figures from Germany, and he is credited with beginning the tradition of garden gnomes in Britain; his rockery held tiny fairy miners set in caves and recesses. One of the gnomes survives and is on view at the hall.

Alpine and rock gardeners will enjoy the rockery's history most, since the Victorian gardening press wrote it up for its patience and detail. The wider gardens suit a gentle stroll, and the Stables Café is there for a break. The house holds a fine collection of books, paintings and furniture, and its exterior has appeared on screen in The Crown, so it is worth combining hall and garden if you can.