OK perhaps not the best place to start in your quest for the ultimate topiary but nonetheless a delightful setting which represents the sort of history lessons you enjoyed at Primary School before the world got just a little bit too complicated. Baddesley is a Fifteenth Century moated Manor House with moat intact and during the Elizabethan period the inevitable Priest's Holes were included in the interior as this area was a Catholic enclave.

The topiary specimens in the inner courtyard give a sense of timelessness and cultural solidity which sets off the understated garden beautifully and is one of those places that you do not want to leave back to the ravages of the Twenty First Century. If the specimens are left to grow too big then I suspect that a little of the overall charm will be lost.

 

All photographs by Anthony Blagg.

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