Caversham Court Gardens

I have driven past this garden innumerable times, and I'm willing to bet that you have, too.  It is on the right as you drive down the hill on the A4074 from Reading to Crowmarsh. 

You can find the garden on this map. 
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The easiest place to park you car is in the car park next to the Crowne Plaza hotel, which is right on the river. To get to it, drive over the Caversham bridge, take the last exit on the roundabout (for those of you who've been to the Reading Festival this is the road the entrance to the festival is on), take the first right as if you were parking in the hotel car park, but continue a little further until you get to the public car park, the entrance to which is on your left. The parking fees are very reasonable but the machine seemed to be playing up - I paid my £2 for 4 hours but my ticket said I could stay until 5pm, an extra 2 hours, so who knows?!

Once you've parked up, walk back over the bridge back towards Caversham, staying on the left hand side of the bridge. 

We stayed in this park for about 1.5 hours. It was not in the least busy which was surprising but also pleasant! My children played hide and seek, ran all over the place, climbed the trees, availed themselves of the cake (lots of choice of cakes - lots!!). 

Pics

View from the bridge.

If you 're a sucker for old stuff, this might help...

If you're looking for any old excuse to sit down, this might help...

The rules:

...are there for a reason, and it really is a nice garden!

Nice entrance.

The garden smells very nice

The essentials: Toilets and tea kiosk. What more could you want?

Bargain prices. 

Opening dates:

Fear not if you have small children...there's a fence all across the garden facing the river.

Chronology of British history - the line down the middle of this path.

The grassed areas surrounded by brick represent the rooms of the house that once stood on this site.

Look out for these little plaques in the middle of the grass. They tell you what the rooms were used for. This one represents the library. 

Lovely view of the church, behind. 

Well, it is a garden:) 

There are also plenty of trees. I have no pictures of these without my children climbing on them. Great fun!

We had a nice time in this garden. It is free to get into, is surprisingly quiet and picturesque. What's not to like?