As part of the preparation for our 20 years celebrations we will have to have a brief period of partial closure, from Tuesday 5 – Wednesday 20 March when the house (including the shop and café) will be closed to the public. Our grounds will remain open. To find out more, please visit our opening times and prices page to find out more.

The grass may squelch under foot and the sky may yet have more rain for us, but the atmosphere does feel markedly different outside today at Compton Verney. I’ve just returned from carrying out a few odd jobs in the park and was uplifted as always by the flowers that are, despite the weather, out in abundance.

Cowslip, Primula veris

Common Cowslip (Primula veris)

Just a few steps from the café exit door there’s a gravel path that leads around the West Lawn, which is actually a wild flower meadow in disguise. For much of the autumn and winter season the lawn remains green just as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown would have intended, although right now the grassy expanse is beginning its meadow season transformation, and is pierced with bright yellow Common Cowslip flowers held on tall, single stems. (Primula veris). (more…)