VISIT by COACH TO THE NEWT, BRUTON, SOMERSET

Light lunches or picnics are available to purchase at the Cyder Bar and the Garden Café, but own picnics are not allowed.

Leave Steamer Quay Car Park, Totnes, at 8.45 am prompt, returning approx. 5.30pm. It may be possible to have an additional pick-up at Sowton OR Honiton. Please ring Pam to discuss.

The extensive gardens at The Newt have been shaped by various gardening enthusiasts including the designer Penelope Hobhouse in the 1970s and more recently Nori and Sandra Pope, a couple from New Zealand with a flair for colour. The current garden owners also own Babylonstoren, a wine estate, destination hotel and RHS Partner Garden in South Africa. The contemporary incarnation of the gardens is the work of the Italo/French architect Patrice Taravella, who has sought to combine beauty with utility. In the Parabola, originally designed as a vegetable garden by Henry Hobhouse, are over 300 immaculately-trained fruit tree varieties arranged in a Baroque-styled maze representing the fruit-growing counties of England. The owners of the Newt aim to ‘create a historical timeline for the estate with individual gardens and landscapes shaped by ideas, skills and traditions from past to present’. Visit the Roman Villa, inspired by on site findings, the Beezantium, explaining the interaction between bees, land and humans, and The Story of Gardening, housing interactive rooms which transport you to gardens throughout time. It would be advisable to consult the Newt’s website https://thenewtinsomerset.com before visiting and to plan your day as some of the attractions prefer prior timed entry and involve a bit of a walk. We hope to arrive by 11.15am and leave around 3pm. Opening in Spring 2024 is the Four Seasons Garden, each part of which is optimised for a particular season.

Light lunches or picnics are available to purchase at the Cyder Bar and the Garden Café, but own picnics are not allowed.