Day 41 - February 10th

Today we visited Benington Lordship Gardens. The privately owned gardens are listed as Grade II on the register of parks and gardens and open on selected days throughout the year to the public as part of the National Open Gardens Scheme.

The entrance to the property is very grand with an impressive gatehouse. Although it looks extremely ancient it is in fact just a folly built in about 1832 in a neo-Norman style. It appears to be built from stone but is in fact built from Pulhamite, an artificial stone made from sand, cement and clinker

The big attraction, which draws people to the gardens at this time of year are the snowdrops which cover the banks of the moat. The snowdrops are naturalised and include a collection of rare and unusual snowdrops.

Some of the snowdrops were huge!

As well as snowdrops, in the formal gardens near the house there were hellebores, mini-irises, aconites and other winter flowering plants. Although some had taken a battering from the recent rain, they were still lovely.

After visiting Benington Lordship we decided to go for a walk into the countryside outside the village. It was extremely wet and muddy in places but it was a good walk nonetheless.