Kilver Court - Feb 2025
| Kilver Court, Shepton Mallet | |
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The purpose of our visit to Shepton Mallet was mainly to walk around town during their annual Snowdrop Festival.
Read more about that here: Shepton Mallet
We ended up also visiting Kilver Court Gardens and absolutely loved it! Before enjoying the Kilver Court Gardens we had hoped for some toast and tea. This was mainly because of the giant letters on the wall spelling our favourite thing: "TOAST". As it turns out, this was a clothes store. We therefore went to see the people in the cafe (the Wiggly Shed was closed for renovations). |
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| While we enjoyed tea and muffins in the cafe, we read the various brochures they had. The only problem was that neither one of us had brought reading glasses. We are at the age when your arms are simply too short. Rob solved the problem by using his phone as a zoom lens... | |
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History from their website: "The three and a half acre gardens were first created in the late 19th century by Ernest Jardine (1859-1947), the Member of Parliament for East Somerset. Originally from Nottingham, he was an enlightened employer in the mould of other Victorian social reformers such as the Quaker Cadbury brothers at Bournville and Octavia Hill (one of the founders of the National Trust). He created a 'model factory; where he built lace-making machines and laid out the gardens (what he called 'Jardine's Park) for the benefit of his employees. He used the millponds as a boating lake and gave over the surrounding gardens for the workers' recreation. Fruit and vegetables were grown to provide lunchtime meals and he also created allotments where workers could grow their own food." https://kilvercourt.co.uk/pages/gardens Dating back to the 1500s, the mill buildings are a reminder of how the town flourished with the wool industry. When the wool industry declined the brewing industry took over. Now it is owned and run by the Showering Brothers. |
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| We learnt during our visit that this is the birthplace of Babycham (1947). Hild was not in-the-know about this, but Rob remember the famous drink. "I'd love a Babycham" commercials were the first alcoholic product targeting women and also the first to be advertised on British television in 1953. It was marketed as "genuine champagne perry". One can still buy bottles of it in the cafe. Sadly, due to renovations, we were not able to get a photo of ourselves with the famous and cute Babycham deer - so we scanned this from a brochure. | |
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| One of the other main attractions at Kilver Court is the Charlton railway viaduct constructed in 1874. It is huge and spans 317 yards, is 50 feet tall, and has 27 arches. At first, it was a single-track viaduct, then in 1892 they decided that double-track was better. Standing under the arches one can see the old section with more stones on one side and the newer section in red bricks. | |
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| We enjoyed walking around the gardens and mill ponds with a little island and lots of ducks. There were several signs indicating that entering the pond is a bad idea. If you don't drown you would at least lose a wellie in the deep silt! | |
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| A small wooden bridge lead us across the stream that feeds the mill ponds. The path was blocked due to flood damage. | |
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| And when we got to the other side, the damage was clear. Like many other places they had had damage from the latest floods. We could not access all parts of the park. So much mud! | |
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We found a very well-manicured parterre. The brochure
tells us that the spaces are filled with Gertrude Jekyll roses, but we came at the wrong time
of year and can't tell nor smell the roses.
This was also our first encounter with Otis the guard-cat and guide. At first he was fierce and came charging at us, then he turned snuggly and followed us through the whole garden pointing out stuff along the way. Hild learnt that Otis does NOT like to be picked up! Well, who does? |
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| As usual, Rob found stairs to walk up (or Hild found some stairs for Rob to walk up). Otis was not happy with the speed or style, so he showed Rob up by scaling the entire thing in one giant jump... | |
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The cute little stream and waterfall are man-made with sandstone boulders from Forest of Dean
(where we went camping in September 2024!). Word has it that the trucks that were delivering
Babycham around the country would return with various building blocks for the garden such as stones
and turf.
Rob enjoyed tip-toeing through the heather garden. |
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| It felt like spring was already here - spotting snowdrops everywhere and Hild tip-toeing through the crocuses... | |
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| There were so many flowers, and we regret not picking up the educational flower- bingo sheet from the cafe so we could learn something. Instead we just enjoyed some unconfirmed Google-image-searching... | |
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| They have made a stumpery in one end of the garden. Basically it is a dumping ground for tree stumps - redefined as art as a modern interpretation of a Victorian oddity. | |
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At the other end of the garden we found a Victorian Folly created in 2010.
Again, Hild had to learn a new concept: "Victorian Folly". Rob explained that it is
a structure built for decoration and made to look like it is real and has a purpose.
This one was built to look like a ruin. It formed the entrance to their organic vegetable
garden, which happened to be closed that day.
They also had a real 19th century listed building called the Roundhouse. This was indeed descriptive of its shape. We are not sure what they used it for in the olden days, but nowadays they use it for wedding ceremonies and as a Halloween spooky house. |
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Throughout our visit we were familiarized with the many personalities of Otis
the guard-cat and guide. Keeping his distance while gazing suspiciously at us.
Being sassy. Hiding in the grass and jumping out at unsuspecting tourists.
Feverishly attacking and kicking grass tussocks. Pretending to ignore us.
And sabotaging photos being taken by getting way to close to the camera.
Before leaving Kilver Court, we accidentally let Otis the cat into the cafe. This led to some excitement trying to catch him and throw him out again. We hope they will have forgotten this so we can return again one day. |
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Postscript: We wore our wellies, but it would have been better with hiking boots. Post-Postscript: Who let the cat in?! |
February 2025