The Walled Garden, Wolterton Hall

Wolterton Park was bought in 1722 by Horatio Walpole (the brother of Sir Robert Walpole, builder of Houghton) and until 2016 remained in the Walpole Family. The present-day house was begun in the late 1720s and Charles Bridgeman was employed to design the grounds around it, drawing up a plan in 1728.

Since 2016, the new owners, Peter Shepherd and Keith Day, have embarked on an extensive restoration project, transforming many of the ancillary buildings into smart holiday lets and the Hall itself into a multi-functional building for weddings, group events and accommodation. Our members were keen to see the ongoing restoration for themselves and around 200 of them joined our afternoon visit.

The 18th century walled garden had fallen out of use, but recent colourful beds of perennials greeted us, along with newly planted yew and box hedging, pleached limes and an avenue of fruit trees. The walled garden and grounds are in the very safe hands of Mike Owers who, until quite recently, worked at Blickling NT where he project-managed the marvellous walled garden restoration. If you, or someone you know, is interested, Mike is looking for some volunteer gardeners to help move the gardens forward. Contact him on: mike@woltertonpark.co.uk

The recent high temperatures had given way to a pleasant sunny afternoon and there was a strong demand for tea and cake, with many places to sit on the east – west terrace and formal parterre garden, designed by William Sawrey Gilpin, in 1828. This is an important Grade II* Norfolk landscape, and we are sure that our late NGT President, Robin, The Lord Walpole would be very pleased to see all the splendid work going on at Wolterton today.