There's a sense of liberty when you visit Barrington Court. The absence of a collection permits you the area and viewpoint to find the soul of this house, and feel the love and passion that went into its remediation.
Among the Court's most sensational functions is the long gallery. It runs the length of the attic floor, and in Tudor times would have offered an area for indoor workout. When Canon Rawnsley visited the house in 1907, he explained the long gallery as being 'loaded with holes, offering an excellent house for owls'.
Colonel Lyle brought back the walls utilising his extraordinary collection of panelling, and lots of pieces include fantastic examples of marquetry. Some of the most appealing seem to be half-hidden inlaid signs and indications. Look out for the skull and crossbones and the axeman's block, but there are much more to find.
The popular garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll, was spoken with by Colonel Lyle's other half, Elsie, on the design and best planting schemes for the garden. At the time, Jekyll was well into her seventies and almost blind, however she had the ability to recommend exactly what would grow best in the limy earth just by falling apart the soil, which was sent to her in biscuit tins. Elsie Lyle visited Jekyll to discuss the plans for the garden face to face, and much of exactly what you see today was influenced by these earlier plans.
Home grown
Typically the kitchen area garden was the larder of any nation home. Our kitchen area garden is a working gem, and it still fulfils its initial function of providing fresh fruit and veg for our dining establishment. There are huge pumpkins, curious decorative gourds, kale and cabbages, and with a little luck, some late raspberries.
The herbaceous borders that run down the orchard side of the kitchen garden are a riot of fall colour with the asters and michaelmas daisies looking particularly happy.
A home with a moat
Stopping briefly for a minute and looking into the moat can be very rewarding as you're most likely to spot plenty wildlife, from ducks to dragonflies. The moat needs routine raking to keep the water clear.
Rose and iris garden
A bridge leads you over the moat and through a carved and weathered oak door to the lovely walled garden The areas here are arranged as a series of linked specific garden 'rooms', each with its own theme or focus. The garden group is dividing up last of the irises at the minute - a job that is done every 4 years after they have actually ended up flowering.
Restoration of the rose beds happened throughout 2017 and they are now firmly established, with the wonderful flower display screens of Rosa 'Felicia', 'Cornelia' and' Penelope' (to call but a few) at their height previously in the summer. Autumn is when you'll see the group deep in the beds pruning everything.
Lily garden.
The biggest of the gardens and the first to be planted, the Lily Garden remains closest of all to Gertude's styles for Barrington Court, with planting that is rich and changing. Another task to keep the group busy over the coming weeks is lifting the dahlias so they can be saved over winter.
The pergola walk
The brick and wood pergola was designed by our existing head gardener, Christine Brain, along with Andrew Lyle in the 1980s. This charming feature covers the path from the busstalls to the White Garden, and there are lots of delightful, reputable climbing up plants growing over it.
Make sure to visit this amazing court in the heart of Somerset.
Barrington,
Ilminster
Somerset
TA19 0NQ
01460 241938
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