Take Mum to a Mansion This Sunday

A tree-lined drive complete with grazing Charolais cattle isn’t exactly what you’d expect from a short tube hop to urban Hounslow…

Whisk her away for the day and spend this Sunday, 11 March at Osterley Park and House surrounded by gardens, park and farmland on one of London’s last standing country estates.

Take Mum to a Mansion This Sunday

Mums go free this Mother’s Day, so a stroll around the formal gardens can be all the more leisurely. The gardens were transformed during a six-year long project that tamed overgrown wilderness back to 18th century grandeour of herbaceous borders, roses and ornamental vegetables beds. Developed over the last few years to showcase the best that the winter season has to offer, the formal gardens showcase a tranquility unique to winter gardening, before the boom of spring. Don’t miss the three kinds of cold weather, flourishing flowers in the winter garden; Clematis x urophylla ‘Winter beauty’, Iris reticulata ‘George’, and of course, snowdrops. Look out for the original Robert Adam summer house full of lemon trees and scented shrubs.

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After storming the grounds, refuel with a visit to the Brewhouse Cafe and Stables Walled Garden, where wines, jams and curds are available for sampling and purchase. (Not a bad last minute gift idea….). Eat lunch in or take it away for a picnic by Middle Lake among resident wildlife.

Once described by Horace Walpole as ‘the palace of palaces’, Osterley was created in the late 18th century by architect and designer Robert Adam for the Child family to entertain and impress their friends and clients.

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10-5pm; Osterley Park and House, Jersey Rd, Isleworth TW7 4RB

What else are we getting up to in the country? Investigate our Country Culture Diary.