Essex: Victorian garden opens for national charity scheme

A QUINTESSENTIALLY English garden is another venue opening up for the scheme.

The Old Vicarage, in Church End, Rickling, is surrounded by one-and-half-acres of beautiful mature gardens.

An old wall and well-established hedges provide shelter and an excellent backdrop to large closely planted borders, filled with a mixture of shrubs, herbaceous plants and wonderful old roses.

A lily pond, a formal rose garden,an orchard and a small walled vegetable garden completed the picture. An arch built through a hedge gives glimpses of the medieval Rickling Church.

Visitors can wander around the Victorian vicarage garden with home-made teas on the lawn and terrace on Sunday June 5 from 2pm-5pm. Admission �4, children free.