Sezincote

The entrance to Sezincote is up a dark avenue of holm oaks that opens into a very English park, with a distinct feeling of Reptonian influence – fine trees and distant views of Cotswold hills. Turning the last corner is the surprise, for there is that fascinating rarity, an English country house built in a Moghul architectural style by Samuel Pepys Cockerell.

In 1810 his brother, Charles Cockerell, formerly of the East India Company, had acquired the estate. He employed his architact brother to build the house which was developed in a unique and delightful fantasy in the Italian style, combining Hindu and Muslim elements with Palladian motifs. He was advised by Thomas Daniell on the house and Humphery Repton on the gardens.

Neglected during the Second World War, the garden was restored in 1968 by Sir Cyril and Lady Kleinwort advised by Mr Graham Stuart Thomas. Their work includes the canals and Irish yews in the South Garden, evocative of Moghul paradise gardens, a curving conservatory, home to many tender climbing plants, and little pavilion also in Indian style, and all the exceptionally fine planting of the water garden, where many rare plants can be seen. Streams and pools are lined with great clumps of bog-loving plants and the stream is crossed by an Indian bridge adorned with Brahmin bulls. Ornaments include a temple to Surya the sun god, and a snake coiled around a column in the Snake Pond.

The house is sheltered by great copper beeches, cedars, yews and limes, which provide a fine backdrop for the exotic shrubs. Planted for year-round interest, the garden is particularly strong on autumn colours.

Sezincote