A visit to Great Chalfield Manor and Gardens with kids

I can’t quite believe it’s half term next week. The last few weeks have flown by and I haven’t written half the posts I wanted to about our Easter holiday adventures! We’re off to Wiltshire for a few days over half term. On our last visit we were lucky to visit Great Chalfield Manor and Gardens, a charming 15th-century manor house with Arts and Crafts garden, near Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire.

Entrance to the manor is by guided tour only. Unfortunately we were unable to get tickets for the house so had to be satisfied with the gardens. Fortunately they were amazing and well worth a visit on their own.

The moated manor house was built in the 15th century and the site includes huge barns, a gatehouse, a church and substantial gardens. We visited the Church and were able to explore the gardens and some of the outbuildings which are now used as toilets, a little shop and cafe.

The gardens are a really mixture, with a stream and pond, wild areas and more formal areas. Of special interest were the four “tree houses”, groups of four clipped yews that have grown together and been hollowed out inside like a house. My daughter loved running through these and they reminded me of the sculpted yews shaped like a house at Westwood Manor.

The gardens were lovely to explore with plenty of space for the children to run around.

We loved our visit to Great Chalfield Manor and Gardens. It was quite small but beautiful and would make a great trip combined with a visit to Bradford on Avon. It’s probably not surprising that it’s been used for lots of period dramas from Poldark to Wives and Daughters, Tess of the D’Urbevilles and Wolf Hall.