Their gardens are open to visitors every Monday throughout the year, including Bank Holidays, from 10.00am – 6.00pm April to October and 10.00am – 4.00pm November to March.
Visitors do not need to book in advance (except to arrange a group tour, see below).
The entrance fee is £5.00 but is free for children. RHS and NGS cardholders are entitled to free entry.
Please no picnics, ball games or dogs, except guide dogs.
Please note, Englefield House is a private residence and is not open to the public.
The safety of visitors and staff remains a priority; they ask that visitors act with kindness and consideration to those around them and please only visit them if you are feeling well.
The entry fee will be payable into a secure box at the garden gate and visitors must use hand sanitiser, which will be provided, before paying.
They look forward to offering you a warm welcome soon.
Autumn Colours at Englefield Estate
GROUP TOURS
From March to October they are able to accommodate group tours Tuesday to Thursday for a minimum of 20 people.
Tours are led by their Head Gardener and must be booked in advance. Email gardens@englefield.co.uk for more information and to book your tour.
There are no toilet or refreshment facilities at the gardens.
The village store in Englefield village is open but the tea room is currently closed, planned to re-open in 2022. Visit www.englefieldstoresandtearooms.co.ukfor more information.
Parts of the gardens are terraced or on a hillside making wheelchair access difficult in places.
If the ground is firm (after dry weather), then it would be possible to view much of the gardens.
Click here to download our gardens leaflet, your guide to your visit.
Click here to view Englefield Estate's filming and photographic policy.
A stroll around the beautifully-kept gardens at Englefield House shows that the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” is well and truly upon us.
As summer’s greenery makes way for autumn’s rich variety of fiery crimsons, ambers and browns, Sarah Mosby, House and Events Co-ordinator at the Englefield Estate, took these pictures showing the stunning changes transforming the gardens.
They officially waved farewell to summer on August 31, and the many oaks, maples, sweetgum and other deciduous trees in the gardens are now treating us to a riot of colour before winter’s chill truly hits.
Records show the gardens at Englefield were being managed and cared for more than 400 years ago, with the gardens as they know them today originating from the 1860s.
Much of the planting from that time is still with us 150 years later.
The gardens are open to visitors every Monday (£5 per adult, children free).
From April to October the hours are from 10am to 6pm, but as the nights draw in, from November, they are 10am to 4pm until the end of March.
There is an inscription on a stone staircase in Englefield Gardens which reads,
“If you help towards Englefield Garden either in flowers or invention you shall be welcome thither”.
This inscription was taken from a letter written in 1601 by Sir Edward Norris, the then occupier of Englefield House
It shows that a garden was managed and cared for on the Estate over four hundred years ago.
However, the origins of the gardens as they appear today were created in the late 1860’s with the building of the stone balustrades and staircases by Italian craftsmen.
In 1936 the woodland garden on the hill above the house was created by thinning the forest.
At the same time the stream was constructed and the area planted by Wallace & Barr of Tunbridge Wells.
Much of the original planting is still in place and this includes varieties of rhododendron, azalea, camellia, magnolia, hamamelis, parrotia, cornus, davidia and acer.
The lower terrace was redesigned in 1974 by the redoubtable landscape architect Lanning Roper.
The grotto at the top of the stream is a more recent addition to the gardens and is lined with a mosaic of pine cones.
Near the entrance gates is a children's garden with water jets hidden in four small statues as well as slides and swings - great fun for younger visitors.
A walled kitchen garden has recently been restored to produce many varieties of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers (access to the walled kitchen garden is only for groups that book in advance).
The gardens themselves are enclosed by their magnificent deer park and provide stunning views over their lake and surrounding countryside beyond.
When to visit
Early spring when the witch hazel, Camellias, Daphne bhoula ‘Jacquiline Postil’, snowdrops, aconites and daffodils begin to flower.
March onwards to view the spectacular Rhododendrons in their woodland and the candelabra primula lining the stream edge.
May when their woodlands are blanketed with bluebells and their rare and stunning Azaleas bloom.
From late September when the oaks, maples, Liquidambar and other deciduous trees provide a riot of autumn colour.
- Englefield Gardens
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