Spotlight on Burton Agnes Hall

The giant open-air board, with its pieces the width of dinner plates, leaves no opportunity for those who attempt to shift pieces from one square to another while their opponent isn’t looking.

The board, in a sheltered corner of the grounds at the Elizabethan manor house midway between Driffield and Bridlington, is one of a number of outdoor games, including chess, snakes and ladders and hopscotch.

These kept my daughters and their pals entertained for at least an hour as my friend and I explored the award-winning gardens.

It was our first visit to the house and it was a lovely day – perfect for admiring the well-stocked walled garden and strolling along the cool woodland walk, not to mention our favourite pastime of sitting outdoors at a cafe sipping tea.

Built between 1598 and 1610 by Sir Henry Griffith, Burton Agnes Hall is a stately home that has remained within the same family for more than 400 years.

Fifteen generations have filled the hall with treasures, from magnificent carvings commissioned when the hall was built, to French impressionist paintings, contemporary furniture, tapestries and other modern artwork in recent years.

The journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins described Burton Agnes as ‘the perfect English house’, and as one of the 20 best English houses alongside Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Chatsworth House.

The walled garden, created by Susan Cunliffe-Lister when her family took over the hall in 1989, was originally built to contain the original Elizabethan gardens more than 400 years ago. At the beginning of the 20th century it was a typical Victorian walled garden containing vegetables, fruit and flowers for the house.

However, by the 1970s, this had become uneconomic and it was grassed over, leaving only the herbaceous borders and a vegetable plot. Mrs Cunliffe-Lister was keen to bring the walled garden back to its former glory, but rather than recreating a replica of the original, she decided to combine the two Elizabethan ages, using ideas from the first Elizabethans and combining them with later ones, as well as the wide selection of plants and materials available today.

Today, the garden is a unique wonderland containing more than 4,000 different plants.

We wandered through vegetable gardens, herbaceous borders and fruit beds.

There is also a jungle garden, with a variety of bamboos, large-leaved perennials, shrubs and grasses, and a campanula garden which houses a national collection. We didn’t have time to visit these, but will save them for next time.

Once we had gathered together our brood, we made our way along the woodland sculpture walk, where younger children can search for giant squirrels, as well as caterpillars and other creepy crawlies. We came across an enormous spider hanging from one of the trees – not real, thankfully, or we’d have been out of there quicker than you could say ‘ice cream’. I mention ice cream because we’d been pestered for one ever since we arrived and four pairs of eyes clocked the sweet little parlour at the side of the tea shop.

Bagging a table back at the cafe in a sunny courtyard, we had another cup of tea while the children devoured their cones.

The courtyard is dotted with shops selling art and craft, gifts and plants. We picked up a few items from the farmers’ food store, which had on sale a range of locally-produced fare including fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables from the garden. A number of home-made cakes looked very appetising.

Beside the courtyard stands the Red Bus Art Gallery, displaying the work of artists-in-residence, who are based at the hall throughout the year.

Then it was off to find the maze. Planted in 1990, it was seen as an appropriate choice for the garden due to its Elizabethan origins. More than 700 yew bushes were used to build the maze, and despite yew being regarded a slow-growing plant, it grew at a rate of a foot every year.

The children raced off to find the middle, while we looked at the neat kitchen garden with well-stocked beds.

The house, which, among the many interesting aspects of its history, is said to have the skull of a woman built into one of its walls, is also open to the public. But it was too gorgeous a day to spend inside, so we are saving that pleasure for another time.

Factfile

* Burton Agnes Hall and Gardens is at Driffield, East Yorkshire.

* For admission prices, ring (01262) 490324 or visit burtonagnes.com.

* They are open daily until October 31, between 11am and 5pm.