Coggeshall “Ponds, Pools and Puddles”

Recently my wife and I have been going to a number of the “National Open Gardens”  in our area. See my recent posts over the last few weeks. This weekend we visited the Coggeshall “Ponds, Pools and Puddles” open gardens. Located between Braintree and Colchester in Essex, just off the A120. They had 10 different stops around this very pretty Essex village, ranging from a country cottage through to an Abbey, a Water Mill & a very large garden with a full-time gardener. The village has its own 16-seater community bus which ran a shuttle service around the outlying gardens. This was very well attended last year they had over 1200 people, I would be surprised if they had not had considerably more this year. What fabulous day out and what a very friendly community.  

We caught the bus in the market square by the clock tower. 

Some of the flowers from the first garden, Scrips. This was a beautifully large garden with lots of different areas, form a formal garden with a large pond through to a meadow with wild flowers. 

Next we visited the Water Mill, lots to see here.

Sitting outside was this wonderful lady, a real character, we had a chat, apparently she was from Holland and had lived in England for a very long time. She told me that it was just a little bit too cold to swim in the mill pond but she was looking forward to doing so when the weather warmed up. I hope I am that athletic if get to be over ninety

On to the Abby.

Finally, the chapel apparently this was for the lower orders to worship but still a beautiful building & still in use. There was a christening taking place when we arrived. 

A great day out one for next years calendar.

© Lionel Callow 2018