Broughton Grange gardens

Tuesday 17 June 2025

We were blessed with a glorious sunny day for our visit to Broughton Grange near Banbury in Oxfordshire. The 450-acre estate, of which 25 acres are gardens, is tucked away five minutes from the outskirts of Banbury. Even some some local taxi drivers didn’t know of its existence.

Our small but eager group of 12 MPG members were greeted by Ryan, the under gardener, who gave an informative two-hour tour around the garden. He gave us great insight into the timeline of the garden from the start of the current owners’ transformation of the house and site after purchase in 2000.

The garden has a small arboretum and a formal garden near the house. The rest has been transformed from adjacent fields. To help implement the owners’ vision, Tom Stuart-Smith and his team were brought on board. They worked to link the south-facing sloping fields to the house and its garden. A three-level terrace garden, which has been much photographed and admired, was created.

The planting on these terraces is a mix of Mediterranean plants punctuated by clipped

Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’ and clipped barrels of hornbeam, giving all-year structure. A water rill runs to a lower carp pool. Below that are tennis courts and a walled swimming pool garden.  More formal vistas frame the garden, with tunnels of clipped hornbeam playing on the light and shade.

From here in the sunshine we walked past the expanded arboretum, now 80 acres, with many newly planted trees, via the orchard garden and the formal fountain area planted for winter interest, down to the water meadows and stumpery. So many places with different atmospheres which linked together well.

This is a garden that is much loved and cared for, there is a constant process of renewal and adjustment as illustrated by the recent work done in the rose garden by the house.

We finished our tour with a welcome homemade lunch and cake in the shade looking out over the newly planted poppy field, a suitable end to a day in gorgeous English countryside.

Text and images courtesy of Sue Tymon