Goddards is a National Trust property in York, an Arts and Crafts house built in 1927 for Noel and Kathleen Terry, who owned the Terry's chocolate factory (famed for their yummy chocolate oranges, which have been a staple in my family's Christmas stockings for years). The house is, sadly, not open to the public as it is used as offices for the National Trust. The gardens, designed by George Dillistone, who worked with Lutyens, are open during the summer months. I've been meaning to go for ages, and arranged to meet a friend there recently. It was a warm, bright day, pleasant for strolling and enjoying drinks on the terrace even if not ideal for photographing the gardens, which really needed soft, diffused light.
As with most Arts and Crafts era gardens, it's arranged in a series of 'rooms' separated by hedges and shrubs. It has a terrace, formal lawns and planting around the house, herbaceous borders, a tennis court, a croquet lawn, a greenhouse and a series of ponds and rockeries, the gardens growing progressively less formal and wilder as you move further away from the house.
Beyond the orchard, the gardens look over the Knavesmire, York's racecourse. I include the photo below mainly because it amuses me to remember a time when my daughter was a few weeks old. We were invited to a wedding reception in the racecourse grandstand building. I asked if there was anywhere I could discreetly breastfeed... and was conducted to a hospitality box with an enormous picture window overlooking the racecourse! Thankfully it wasn't a race day so there was no-one peeping in!
What a beautiful place! Such a shame the house itself can‘t be visited, but I can understand that the NT people want an office space that suits them, too.
ReplyDeleteTerry‘s Chocolate Orange has been a must for me at Christmas time ever since my Yorkshire husband introduced me to them - 25 years ago!
Never had a chocolate orange, but it does sound delicious. Glad there were those umbrellas on the terrace for your enjoyment. I got a kick out of your racecourse story and breastfeeding. I still have a few nightmarish memories of early days of doing such. It took quite a while to get used to no longer being an individual that could go anywhere and becoming a lactating person tied to that little hungry one all the time.
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