The medieval church of St Michael and All Angels stands within the grounds of Croft Castle, a historic medieval castle and stately home (National Trust). The church was constructed around the year 1300. To this earlier building was later added a 17th-century clock tower and interior gallery, as well as a set of box pews.

Blaise Pascal

Although badged as a castle, Hampton Court is more accurately described as a fortified manor house. Access to the house is by guided tour and we were shown round by the housekeeper who gave us a potted history of the house and the various owners of the property.

Hampton Court has been standing among pastures and parkland beside the River Lugg for 600 years. The original manor house – of which substantial parts remain – was built by Sir Rowland Lenthall on land that was a wedding gift from King Henry IV when he married the king’s cousin, Margaret Fitzalan. Rowland fought under Henry V at Agincourt. Our Herefordshire Hampton Court is nearly a century older than the other with the same name. ‘The powerful Coningsby family bought the house from the Lenthalls and stayed here for 300 years, extending and changing it. In the nineteenth century it was bought by Richard Arkwright, son of the famous inventor and industrialist. Richard’s son John, carried out another ambitious remodelling of the house. The family stayed there until 1912.

In the twentieth century it passed through various hands and much of the original furniture was sold. It was rescued in the 1990s by the American millionaire, Robert Van Kampen, who furnished it magnificently according to his idea of how an English country manor should look. It was sold again after his death.*

Adjacent to the house is the orangery (seen to the left in the above photograph) where sandwiches, cakes and light lunches are served. We were spoilt for choice and the food was delicious.

The gardens which are stunning have been recently redesigned as they had fallen into disrepair over the years. There are several different areas to the garden which include; Flower gardens enclosed by the original victorian walls, kitchen garden, moated pavilions, Wisteria Walk, herbaceous borders, yew maze, sunk garden and dutch garden.

The water features in the garden are fed by the river Lugg to where the water is returned after it reaches the final water feature in the water circuit, the sunk garden.

These photographs were taken during my visit in June. There a few photographs of the gardens in July on the Hampton Court website.

*From the Hampton Court promotional leaflet

When we arrived at breakfast we noticed a new gentleman that seemed to be in charge of the dining room. The breakfast area was calm and efficient with none of the chaos we had experienced over the previous few days. The tea was perfect, two individual pots with just the right amount of teabags. My pancakes were presented in a delightful way and had more fruit than on the previous days.

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and headed towards Hereford but on arrival we decided we weren’t quite in the mood for visiting a city so we continued on the route home, stopping in Leominster. After a few minutes in the town we found that Leominster didn’t quite fit our mood either. We headed off to a garden centre in Tenbury Wells, where we thought we might have lunch. Once again we weren’t quite in the mood for it when we got there. I think by now we were on plan Z.

We decided to stop off in Ludlow and against all odds on a busy day we found a parking place. From the car park we admired the views over the Shropshire countryside before wandering around the town looking for a suitable teashop for lunch. We hadn’t quite finished our recce when we happened across a bakery that provided fresh filled rolls. The weather was perfect so we purchased rolls (turkey and salad for me) and cake and made our way to a bench underneath the castle walls to enjoy a picnic.

After enjoying our picnic in the sunshine, we headed off to the Ludlow Food Centre hoping to pick up an interesting ready meal for our evening meal. We left disappointed as this type of food is no longer available in the centre, leading us to opt for plan B.