A medieval priory buried inside a country house, though most people come for the walled garden full of old roses
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
The house began as an Augustinian priory in 1201, then got remade so many times over the centuries that the medieval bones are mostly hidden inside a comfortable-looking country home. What pulls the crowds, though, is the walled kitchen garden. Graham Stuart Thomas laid out the National Collection of old shrub roses here in the 1970s and rated it his own finest work. The pre-1900 varieties flower just once a year, across a few weeks of early summer, so if the roses are the whole point of your trip it pays to time it and check when they’re out.
The rest of the year the grounds carry the day. Lawns run down to the River Test, one of the great chalk streams of the south, clear enough that you can stand on the bank and watch trout hold themselves steady in the current. Great trees, winding paths, the sound of water never far off. The Test Way follows the valley right past the door, so you can walk in along the old railway line rather than drive.
It’s a paid National Trust place with set opening hours, and the house keeps shorter hours than the garden, so it’s worth a look at the day’s times before a long journey. If you’re making a day of gardens in this corner of Hampshire, the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens are a short hop east, and the New Forest opens up not far to the south-west.
