‘When the biting North Sea winds blows across Norfolk in the depths of Winter, it can sometimes be hard to imagine the beauty of the county’s gardens at the height of Summer. But … Norfolk is home to some of the most wonderful gardens in the country’.

These were the first two lines written by HRH the Prince of Wales, in his Foreword for the Norfolk County Gardens Trust’s gazetteer published in 2013. Of the 320 gardens included in the book, four have been selected to form the September series of Unforgettable Gardens talks. The gardens include the grand and beautiful gardens at Houghton; Great Yarmouth’s Venetian Waterways beloved by generations on holiday and recently rescued from decline; Norwich’s secret Victorian gem, The Plantation Garden; and lastly the Royal gardens at Sandringham, a garden fit for a Queen.

This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Week 1. Sep 8. Houghton: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 2. Sep 15. Venetian Waterways, Great Yarmouth: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 3. Sep 22. The Plantation Garden, Norwich: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 4. Sep 29. Sandringham: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

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Week 4. Sandringham Park and Garden by Martin Woods

Sandringham Park and Gardens lie in the north-west corner of Norfolk only 3 miles from the edge of the wash. A glorious 60-acre garden in the heart of a traditional country estate covering a total of 20,000 acres. It is no ordinary country estate but a Royal one, belonging to Her Majesty the Queen. It was bought by Edward, Prince of Wales in 1862 and six years later most of the existing house was demolished apart from the early 19th-century conservatory. Soon after, a new house (now Grade I listed) was built to designs by the architect Albert Jennings Humbert in a broadly Jacobean style. The garden has been enjoyed by successive generations of the Royal Family and is an excellent example of a late Victorian landscape park with significant Edwardian and 20th-century enhancements and additions.

The gardens and parkland are often the backdrop for Royal Family photographs, viewed across the world but what are they like to manage and work in? Martin Woods will describe the changes he has seen over the past four decades, now with a staff of under 10 and some slightly more advanced equipment. We will hear how they maintain the same gardens beneath established trees, including an Oak tree planted by Queen Victoria.

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Martin Woods is the current Head Gardener with a long career working at Sandringham, including his five years spent in a traditional Gardeners Bothy working alongside a team of gardeners, many of whom had worked the garden since the 1940’s.

Unforgettable Gardens - Sandringham