Pictures say a thousand words and the photographs from our visit to Hampton Court Palace very much do that; we all had a wonderful day and enjoyed our visit on a day with clear blue skies, with the gardens and Old Deer Park looking magnificent. The day was planned as a ‘Family Day’ so we were very pleased to have a number of children with us and enjoyed having our picnics in the grounds and, with the high temperature, under the canopy of the trees.

So, what did we see and learn? We met up and had exclusive use of the Garden Room for the day, with light refreshments available.  The Historic Royal Palaces staff offered four guided tours: two of the gardens and two of the Old Deer Park.

The garden tours took us to many different areas of the Palace where we learnt about the evolution of the gardens and current challenges, especially for managing climate change. We also toured the extensive Kitchen Garden, managed to essentially organic standards on a ‘no dig’ basis, using the compost made within the estate.

The Old Deer Park tour started off by taking us along the bank of the Thames with its path and cycle ways from where we entered the Old Deer Park, a Site of Special Scientific Interest covering some 700 acres. The Park has been managed for many centuries as a deer park and so has a number of unique plants and grasses. Our guides pointed out the sites of ground nesting bees. We looked at an amazing avenue of trees planted about 25 years ago. We also saw the deer and watched as they meandered across the Old Deer Park golf course, providing a exclusive backdrop for those playing on the course.

We were lucky to have excellent presentations from Historic Royal Palaces’ team and memorably glorious weather.

Written by Anthony Bickmore