The C family were fortunate enough to spend a week recently up in Northumberland with my family. I know Northumberland rather well having spent many a family holiday there over the years and there are places that I go back to time and time again, but also many others that I simply haven't been to (or some that I can't remember going to, but my parents tell me that I have!) Alnwick Gardens falls into that second category – somewhere that I have seen signs for on the A1, but never actually made it to. This year we decided to change that.
Now, I should say that my Godmother (who is local) always refers to Alnwick Gardens as a "theme park" rather than proper gardens, and after visiting I'm inclined to agree with her. There's just something about the place that doesn't feel very garden like. Yes it has only been there for 10 years, but it seems that the style of gardening there is big swathes of green grass and thick beech hedges. The walled garden is quite nice and there were some lovely water features in another area, but then it started boring me a bit. We made the mistake of walking through the cherry orchard – what a mistake! A long, long, long path winds back and forth through row after row of cherry trees. Thank goodness we were going down hill at the time. If we'd been going in the other direction then I think we would have given up!
There was though one part of the gardens that stood out as being very special – and this is what I was hinting at in yesterday's blog post – The Poison Garden. Due to the nature of the contents of the garden (and the various Home Office rules and regulations surrounding it) you can only visit this garden as part of a tour, so that's what we did.
Our guide, Brigit, was fascinating and told wonderful stories about when some of the plants had been used, both in history and in fiction, and she was incredibly knowledgable about the garden's contents. What was scary was the number of things that we saw that we unwittingly have in our own gardens at home, and how many times we heard other people on the tour saying similar! According to their website the Poison Garden is closed in Winter, but if you visit at any other time of the year then please make sure you do go on one of the tours as it was by far the highlight of our visit. This was also the inspiration for Val McDermid (as I wrote about yesterday) and I can see how a tour like this could easily get a crime author's mind thinking about where their next plot could come from.
Overall I have to say that I thought the gardens were overpriced for what they were and I'm not sure we'd return. There were a few strange things about the place too – the most obvious one being the toilets. Now, places like this often attract retired people and families. Two groups were finding a toilet is often quite important. Why therefore have the Alnwick Gardens buried their's away in the basement of the restaurant, without any signs to help you find them? The baby changing facilities are also down there requiring you to take a lift if you need to change your baby's nappy, after you've fought your way past everyone getting their food and drinks in the restaurant. I did ask a member of staff as to why this was the case and was told that the Duchess of Northumberland (who owns the place) doesn't like signs! What???
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