Wimpole Hall - formal garden

Taking a longer than anticipated walk around Barkway in the morning we were late in the day when we arrived at Wimpole Hall. Many of the attractions - tea room, farm, hall, walled garden - were closing for the day but we had time to visit the formal garden and see the outside of the buildings. 

I read somewhere that Wimpole Hall is the largest house in Cambridgeshire - looking at it from the front approach, it's certainly the widest! 

Other things that seem over-sized are the car park (absolutely massive, so I hate to imagine the crowds in summer), and the walk from 'reception' to the hall/garden/stable area, plus an extra 10 minutes apparently to the walled garden. There is a shuttle service but not realising the distance we decided to walk, and the extra time this took meant we couldn't visit the walled garden. 

Anyway, the stable block (yes, that's just the horses' house) was looking stunning against the blue sky, daffodils were coming into flower along the path to the formal garden, and we managed to have a good look around outside, and check things out for another time.

The formal gardens lying behind the hall are, as you'd expect, formal in design - geometric shapes which look good regardless of season - with views over them to the wider estate.

In the distance you can see a folly; given more time this could have been quite a nice walk, but not this day.

To the side of the hall the gardens become more relaxed with a walk leading through a shrubbery and under established trees, with more daffodils to brighten things.

 

We didn't have long to sit and gaze over the view though as the gardens close earlier than the wider property, so before we got locked in we headed out and round to the front of the hall.

 By now staff were closing up the stables building and heading home, and we seemed to be the only visitors around, so just for a few minutes it was possible to stand on the entrance steps and pretend everything in the view belonged to us :)