This month we dedicate The Gallery to Parcevall Hall Gardens in the Yorkshire Dales with photographs by Enid Pyrah and Paul Aldred
If it is inspiration you are looking for then travel no further than Parcevall Hall Gardens in the Yorkshire Dales. The once wild moorland scrub is now 24 acres of what some describe as among the most beautiful gardens in the region. And it is difficult to disagree.
Sir William Milner, architect, horticulturalist and plantsman, restored the then derelict hall as his home in 1927 and from then set out and developed the gardens. The hall, a Grade II listed building, now a religious retreat and conference centre, sits high on a hillside near Appletreewick with breathtaking views to Simon’s Seat and along beautiful Wharfedale.
The hall isn’t open to visitors but the gardens are the only RHS and English Heritage registered gardens open to the public in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Sir William died in 1960 and their care is now in the hands of head gardener Phillip Nelson. The formal and woodland gardens include many specimen trees and shrubs collected from China and the Himalayas. At the top of the gardens is a natural rock garden considered to be the finest of its kind in Northern England. There are woodland trails, a camellia walk as well as a chapel garden and apple orchard to explore. w
Learn more about this tranquil place at www.parcevallhallgardens.co.uk and look for Phillip Nelson’s latest garden news and developments on the Parcevall Hall Gardens Facebook page.
