Great Fosters Gardenbreak

Great Fosters Gardenbreak

 ‘Winter in town and summer in the country’ is how the English gentry planned their year. To experience this lifestyle, we recommend a short break at a wonderful garden hotel: Great Fosters. It is a moated Elizabethan house with luxurious modern facilities and a fine early twentieth century garden. The house was once a Royal hunting lodge in the heart of Windsor Forest, with the moat already a thousand years old when the present house was started (c1550). The garden is in the Arts and Crafts Style of Edwin Lutyens and Sir Reginald Blomfield. It is divided into four quarters by yew hedges, with a Tudor sundial (1585) at the centre point of the layout. A Japanese bridge takes you across the western arm of the moat to a sunken rose garden with a lily pond. The garden was originally laid out in 1918 by the landscape architect WH Romaine-Walker and his partner Gilbert Jenkins. The estate was famous for its parties in 1920s and has recovered its lush character. For a really short break, the best plan is simply to relax in the house and garden. For a longer short break, we recommend hiring a car, with a satnav or driver if you wish, and visiting the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley Garden, The Savill Garden, Claremont Landscape Garden and Painshill Park. They are within a 20 mile radius and easily accessible by fast roads. Great Fosters is 45 minutes by train from Central London and 8 miles by road from Heathrow Airport.