Visit – Guy’s Cliffe Gardens & Grounds

Guy’s Cliffe Gardens and Grounds

LATEST NEWS

We are pleased to announce that in addition to our main visit to Guy’s Cliffe House and Garden we have arranged a private view of Guy’s Well and Fir Avenue (once part of the Guy’s Cliffe Estate). We will meet at the carpark of the Saxon Mill restaurant on the Coventry Road promptly at 1.15pm, before moving on to Guy’s Cliffe House at 2.00pm.  Parking is available at both the Saxon Mill and at Guy’s Cliffe House.

Guy’s Cliffe is a wild and beautiful place.  The house rises above the River Avon, its empty windows overlooking former beautiful gardens. Dark caves and wells surround the site, and the legend of Sir Guy of Warwick, a medieval knight and hermit, lingers on. Samuel Greatheed (1710–1765), built an unpretentious Georgian mansion on the site in the eighteenth century, and turned the wells and caves into shell-decorated Rococo grottoes.  However, after his son, Bertie Greatheed (1759–1826) a poet and playwright, inherited the estate in the nineteenth century he transformed the house into a Gothic wonder.  Described by Country Life: ‘It is a place meet for the Muses, a veritable Castle of Otranto, seeing as if it might be the home of romance’.  From the nearby town of Leamington, which was fast developing as a spa, Guy’s Cliffe, styled as a Gothic tourist attraction, was an ideal place for sketching. Its many visitors, including the artists Constable and Turner, were well versed to envision gloomy estates from popular Gothic novels such as Northanger Abbey and The Monk and were more than ready to enjoy its enchantments.

Warwickshire Gardens Trust members and friends are likewise invited to enjoy a 1½ hour exclusive tour of the garden and grounds by Adrian King, the Custodian of Guy’s Cliffe.  The tour is restricted to 25 people so book early to claim your place!

Now owned in part by Freemasons, the house and its caves and gardens are being rediscovered and regenerated by the ‘Bring Back Guy’s Cliffe’ campaign which encourages volunteers from the local community to become involved with its work.

After the tour of the garden and grounds coffee/tea and cake will be served.

Full directions to follow at a later date.  Parking is available on site.

Date: Saturday 16^th September 2023

Time: Meet at 1:15 in the Saxon Mill car park.

Buy Tickets