In October 2005, Mr Alan Titchmarsh, the well known gardening celebrity, officially opened the first new public garden in Sherborne for 100 years commemorating 1300 years since the founding of Sherborne Abbey and town.

The open space that is now Paddock Garden was once occupied by a row of cottages facing onto Newland. These were destroyed around 1735 to open the view across the valley to the hills for the owner of Sherborne House and the ground was used as a Paddock for his household. The foundations of the original cottages still lie beneath the present garden.

Lord Digby’s School for Girls moved to Sherborne House in November 1931 and two grass courts and the three hard courts were laid out in the Paddock to provide tennis and netball facilities for the girls. The three hard courts were destroyed on 30th September 1940 when German bombers dropped their bombs during a raid on Sherborne and those were not fully repaired until 1947.

In 2005 Sherborne Town council became the owners of the Paddock and held a public competition to find the best garden design.*

*from an information board in the garden

After two days of travelling, we decided to give the car a rest. In the morning we walked around Sherborne looking at its interesting architecture along the way. We visited the Abbey, which is a fabulous building. As we entered we were warmly welcomed by one of the Abbey greeters, she was very knowledgeable and informative. After our visit Mr C was drawn into a second hand bookshop where we also enjoyed a cup of tea.

Next we visited the museum and a cook shop before enjoying lunch in Oliver’s Coffee House.

After lunch we walked to Sherborne New Castle taking in Paddock Gardens along the way. It was an unusual and slightly strange experience walking to, rather than driving to, a stately home. As we arrived it started to drizzle so we decided to visit the house first. This was a good call because by the time we had finished the tour of the house we emerged into brilliant sunshine allowing us to enjoy our walk around the estate.

We chilled out in the hotel before dining in ‘The Green’. The food was delicious and the staff were polite and friendly. Once again we stopped of at The Half Moon before returning to the hotel.