WONDERWALL
An enchanting 18th century walled garden, a ‘plot to plate’ restaurant and a spot of glamping make Timsbury’s Pythouse Kitchen Garden an exceptional place to visit Words by Nick Woodhouse Photos by Pythouse Kitchen Garden
T
he unknown. One of the most exciting parts of visiting a walled garden has to be the moment you step through those lofty boundaries, not quite aware of what to expect beyond. As I entered the kitchen garden at Pythouse in Wiltshire, hulking heating pipes lay testament to the long-fallen glasshouses that would once have cloaked the red-brick garden perimeter. This was however no pastiche of times past; there was an unexpected buzz within those walls. Amongst it, I met owner Piers Milburn in the conservatory restaurant, a space still bustling from the last of the Saturday lunch service. Piers met his wife Sophia when they were both working in London; he as a graphic designer, she as an actress. Ten years ago, the couple left the city for rural Wiltshire to run
large manure-heated pits. Today, this spirit remains, the north wall home to a rampant kiwi vine sitting alongside more traditional fare; apples, gooseberries, celeriac and chervil. Piers’ pride and joy however is the wonderful mulberry tree that sits unassumingly amongst the grass paths that now lead overnight glampers to the shepherd’s hut and bell tents. Assisted by Ann Shutt, head gardener Heather Price has worked tirelessly on the gardens for ten years now. As well as tending to the gardens and ensuring a plentiful harvest throughout the seasons, Heather also curates the pic our own ower garden there. Charged by the bucketload, visitors can pick a seasonal mix of blooms; verbena, anemones and dahlias all competing for secateurwielding enthusiasts. In fact, everything grown in the gardens goes into the menu at the bar and restaurant there, the team happily embracing the challenge to be inventive with a menu ultimately dictated by what’s in season. Everyone mucks in; the general manager will often be found weeding, the front of house waiter picking the fruit for desserts. The garden’s shop is testament to this collaborative search for the unusual, the special. Bottles of the house ‘Sprigster’ sit handsomely on the shelves; a non-alcoholic botanic mash that matches perfectly with tonic. The same base of hops, fennel seeds, rhubarb and ginger also resonates through the unusual preserves on sale. Whilst Piers admits he’s not a gardener himself hospitalit is most definitel in his blood; his father ran a successful restaurant business in galleries and museums such as the V&A. Perhaps this alternative discipline was a blessing; an opportunity to break those conventional horticultural traditions. Here is an open garden, free to enter, but perhaps not how you would imagine. Kids can be found playing hide-and-seek amongst the established borders, dogs sat expectantly next to their owners. Piers aptly describes it as Peter Rabbit meets Willy Wonka; a traditional kitchen
“Visitors can pick a seasonal mix of blooms; verbena, anemones and dahlias all competing for secateurwielding enthusiasts” a glamping site on Piers’ family farm. In that time, they would often visit the gardens at Pythouse for a cup of tea; on one such visit, the owners of the small café there explained that the were planning to sell up o ering them the opportunity to take on the business. They did just that, turning the gardens that would have once supplied produce to the Pythouse estate into a vibrant space where the new has most definitel and sensitivel embraced the old, although perhaps just for the while with a socially-distanced elbow bump. In times past, this walled garden would very likely have welcomed those latest e otic finds so pri ed b the ictorians thin pineapple plants kept unseasonably warm in
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garden more relaxed than many other open gardens, with an unorthodox approach to how the garden’s produce is served. This very approach is set to take on a new pace and direction with the recent appointment of head chef Darren Broom. a ing his in uences from candinavian food culture and his own personal finds from foraging, it is also his knowledge of the art of coo ing over fire that is destined to eep visitors returning through the seasons. firepit greets guest as they enter the gardens, cooking meats sourced from local farms to accompany The Gardener’s Board, a collection of seasonal pickings from the surrounding gardens. I as ed iers how loc down had a ected them. Perhaps this will remain for some time a question on all our lips. Soon after the restrictions were imposed, the business was burgled and their storage unit burnt down, along with all the stock within. With all the summer weddings planned in the gardens postponed until more certain times, Piers and Sophia took the time to re-evaluate. They scaled back, decided to keep things a little simpler. They certainly didn’t rest on their laurels though o ering to deliver through lockdown; veg boxes, meats and local produce regularly packed and dispatched to loyal customers. Each Friday too, suppers would be coo ed on the firepit and prepared for pic up or delivery to be re-heated at home, some nights serving as many as 150 covers. Despite those recent setbacks, Piers speaks excitedly about the future. It’s lovely to hear. If these walls could talk, I think they’d do so with a similar enthusiasm for what lays ahead. For more: Pythouse Kitchen Garden, Tisbury SP3 6PA; tel: 01747 870444; www.pythousekitchengarden.co.uk
Nick Woodhouse is the co-director of interior and garden design company Woodhouse & Law on 4 George’s Place, Bathwick Hill, Bath; 01225 428072; www.woodhouseandlaw.co.uk
