Manor House gardens open for Herriot Hospice

On Friday 12 and Saturday 13 April from 11am until 5pm, there is a rare opportunity to see around the grounds of the Skeeby Manor, on the outskirts of Richmond.

Entry by Donation suggested £5. Coffee, tea and cakes also available for donations.

There is no parking at the garden, at 43 Richmond Road, DL10 5DX, and visitors should park in the village car park or at the front of the house..

The Manor House is an early 17th Century Grade II* farmhouse on the site of a medieval house reputedly linked by an underground passage to Easby Abbey. Folklore also suggests that stone for the abbey was quarried there.

The house and gardens were at one time owned by Miss Evelyn Ada Pease, the youngest daughter of the Darlington MP Arthur Pease and granddaughter of Joseph Pease, one of the originators of the first railway. During the First World War Evelyn was commandant of the Richmond Auxiliary Hospital.

The quarry was laid out as a garden by Evelyn from 1939 and later by her niece Dr Mary Ethelwyn Pease (1892-1981). More recently, it has been further improved and the planting extended by Val and Ian Hepworth, the current owners.

The garden extends over1 ½ acres sheltered by walls and hedges. Courtyard, herbaceous and mixed borders, soft fruit, quarry garden – ‘The Dell’ – with pond, shrubs, bulbs and perennials - leading to ‘The Glade’ with some newly planted trees and shrubs and ‘The Valley’, which was originally the sunken track for the leading out of the stone. Terraced shrub rose garden, ornamental trees, conservatory/greenhouse.

For further information, please contact: ian@hepworthskeeby.co.uk