Visit to Worcester College Gardens

On a day of some seriously heavy showers, a group of Abingdon Fitzharrys members were lucky enough to miss the worst of the rain on a guided tour of the stunning 26 acres of grounds belonging to Worcester College, Oxford. The gardens and grounds include a lake fed by water from the canal, a historic orchard, a sports field and many beautiful borders and a wide variety of trees. Our guide was the affable and informative head gardener Simon who not only told us about the the garden but filled us in on the history of the College and showed us the beautiful chapel, where a particular delight were the carved wooden animals on the arms of the stalls, including an elephant, a unicorn and a dodo.  Walking around the gardens was a real pleasure, and as one of our members put it there was “a surprise around every corner”.  The afternoon was rounded off with tea and cake in the dining hall and everyone agreed that it would be wonderful to visit again at different seasons of the year.  Since Simon told us that he has 26,000 snowdrops, of 90 different varieties, planted in the grounds, we all felt that a visit at snowdrop time would be a very good idea. With special thanks to Dawn for organising the trip.