Gardens

Thornbridge Hall is surrounded by 10 acres of quirky and quintessentially English gardens, set in the heart of the Peak District National Park. They were designed at the end of the 19th Century to create a vision of '1,000 shades of green' which the owner wanted to be able to see from his bedroom window. The startling, calming and gracious gardens are a perfect example of Victorian drive, determination and engineering to manipulate the landscape into a series of garden rooms.

The Gardens first opened to the public in the 1930's and there are many distinct areas including the Italian Garden, 30m (100ft) Herbaceous Border, Water Garden and Koi Lake, as well as terraced lawns overlooking the beautiful Derbyshire countryside.

Visitors will also come across three temples, numerous statues, 46 urns and two grottos, all of which were incorporated into the garden in the 1890's. Some of the statuary came from Clumber Park and Chatsworth, while some were gifts from the Greek Government.

Since 2002, Emma and Jim and the talented Thornbridge team have developed the Kitchen Garden, Scented Terrace, Long Border, Modern Knot Garden, Cascade Garden, The Greenhouse and The Orangery. The garden that will be created next is the Jaipur Garden - at long last! - a garden for Emma and Jim - to celebrate their marriage in Jaipur (whilst backpacking) in 1993. There is no doubt that a considerable amount of Jaipur Beer, an IPA, named for the place they were married, will be deliciously and unsparingly enjoyed in this garden…

For the kids (and big kids)
We have plenty for kids to enjoy such as Meet the Animals from The Thornbridge Smallholding, garden trails, basketball, swing ball, our famous net a duck….and now a fantastic sandpit area and living willow huts & tunnels, constructed by the Gardens team.