Our gardens are an ideal spot to spend some time to relax, have fun, picnic or just stroll at your leisure.
We invite you to visit them whether the Rectory is open or closed, but always please treat our gardens with respect, leave no litter and make sure that everyone can enjoy them as you have.
You can discover:
The Orchard
Planted with heritage apple and pear varieties, experience the blossom in the Spring and the abundance of apples in the autumn.
Please feel free to pick your own fruit or come and enjoy ‘Apple Day’ each October. See our events page for more details.
On November 1st 1724, John Wesley writes to his mother Susanna Wesley about a plentiful crop of fruit:
Dear Mother, We are most of us now very healthy at Oxford as I hope you are, which may be in some measure owing to the frosty weather we have lately had, preceded by a very cool summer. All kind of fruit is so very cheap that apples may be had almost for fetching, and other things are both plentiful and as good as has been known in a long time………..
The Main Garden
Discover a host of woodland flowers and native species in our main gardens. Relax on the lawns with a picnic or at one of our ‘Epworth Old Rectory Presents….’ open air performances, Epworth Music Day or Epworth Open Garden events during the summer. Play traditional games including quoits, hopscotch or hoops, or just sit and listen to the sounds of the birds.
Our ‘Games in the Garden’ event is part of our ‘Out of the Box’ project generously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – Thanks to National Lottery Players.
The Front Garden
Full of lavender, our front door is approached through swathes of this beautifully scented plant that has been used in medicine throughout the centuries.
Lavender’s essential oil possesses antiseptic properties. It has been used to “kill typhoid, diphtheria, streptococcus, and pneumococcus bacteria” and it was even used as an antiseptic during the First and Second World Wars
The Kitchen Garden
Always showcasing vegetables or fruit, our kitchen garden is a lovely secluded spot behind the Old Rectory to stop and enjoy views over the croft next door and say hello to the heritage breed sheep. In the summer, you might even be able to spot us undertaking some archaeology on the croft as we try to uncover more of the fascinating history of the Old Rectory.
Memory Gardens
We are currently working on a new project with participants in our Chatty Café Dementia Friendly gatherings, to create several raised beds that will contain herbs, plants, flowers and vegetables all grown by our those taking part, and designed to encourage conversations and personal memories. Our Memory Gardens have been generously funded by Epworth Town Council.
The Physick Garden
The newest project that we are currently undertaking is to replant our Physick Garden using funding generously given to us by The Royal Society, and carried out by our team of enthusiastic garden volunteers.
John Wesley published the first edition of his ‘Primitive Physick’ in 1747. John had a life-long interest in health, in that only physical and spiritual health in combination could make for healthy people. This was unusual at that time.
The book was both an overall preventive approach to health and a compendium of remedies for specific ailments – in total more than 800 prescriptions for more than 300 different disorders. It was very popular throughout the 18th century and by the time John Wesley died in 1791, the book had gone through twenty-three editions.
Our new Physick Garden will include interpretive panels that explore John’s suggestions for cures and remedies. We will also be holding a number of events throughout the year so that you can come and see our progress, as well as taking part in guided tours and living history days.
You can join our Team of Garden Volunteers by contacting Sarah Maltby at manager@epwortholdrectory.org,uk
