Stitchcombe House: rare chance to see a rare garden set above the River Kennet

 It is a feature of the Kennet River valley that you will not often get a look at.  But on Sunday, June 7 the gardens at Stitchcombe House will be open to the public – details below.

These beautiful gardens are set on the south slopes leading up from the river just east of Mildenhall.  The owners, Robert and Marianne Benton, have been in the house since 2008 – and five years ago the gardens were given a re-design.

Marianne Benton is quite firm that these are not “very manicured” gardens: “A fault in all gardeners is that we look for faults – it’s so much better just to sit and look at the garden.”

One of the glories of the garden is its views westward – you look over the garden, past the wonderful copper beech, and over the brick-walled ha-ha and onto the field where the Mildenhall’s Roman hoard was found: you are on the edge of Cunetio.

Marianne Benton is especially pleased with a recent addition: the wild flower patch you pass on the way to the pond.  This was created using a ‘mat’ of wild flower seeds – this produces different flowers at various times of the year.

If you are walking down the south side of the garden, past the espaliers, be careful not to disturb the spotted flycatchers that are nesting nearby – he (or she) gets very cross if you get too close to the nest.

Stitchcombe House is mainly a mid-nineteenth century adaptation of a much older farmhouse – some of going back to the seventeenth century.   Round the side of the house and closer to the road, you will find the kitchen garden.

The gardens are being opened to raise funds for Mildenhall’s St John the Baptist Church – pictured below.  Following the mandatory ‘quinquennial inspection’ by an architect approved by the Diocese, the Church needs some ‘onerous’ repairs.

In addition, parishoners are keen to get the church ready for the bicentenary in 2016 of the restoration of the church by ‘twelve good men and true’ from the village.  A lot of work was done on the Church’s interior – and it is still known for its box pews and the twin pulpit and reading desk.  

Some parts of the tower are believed to be Saxon, but most of the fabric dates from the thirteenth century.  The church features in Simon Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best Churches.

The gardens will be open from 2.00pm until 6.00pm.  There will be teas and a special plants stall.  There will be well signed parking in a nearby field.
Directions:  leave Marlborough turning at The Green for Mildenhall.  Go east through Mildenhall – turn right at the first crossroads after the village.  There will be signs for Stitchcombe House at the crossroads.