During our visit at Crufts (2007)we have stayed a few days and visit some very nice places , Witley Court was one of those places.
Witley Court
was once one of England's great country houses, reaching a peak of luxury
in Victorian and Edwardian times, when the Prince of Wales and his circle
would come shooting as guests of the Earl of Dudley.
In 1937 fire, and the
subsequent stripping of the house, left it as the evocative ruin we see
today. The many layers of the building lie revealed, showing its evolution
from a Jacobean manor house to a Victorian mansion.
The restoration of the
magnificent Perseus and Andromeda fountain and the framework planting of
the South Parterre have restored the scale and grandeur of the elaborate
formal gardens designed by William Nesfield in the 1850s to enhance the
setting of the house. The grounds also include the Woodland Garden below
the Front Pool, and a recently-planted Contemporary Heritage Garden.
