Historic Warwick gardens ready to welcome back visitors

Historic gardens in Warwick are ready to reopen and welcome back visitors.

Hill Close Gardens, the town's restored collection of Victorian pleasure gardens, will first open to members on Friday (June 26) and Monday (June 29), and then open to the general public from Wednesday (July 1).

The gardens will initially open on weekdays between 11am and 3:30pm.

Entry is £4.50 on the gate, while members access the gardens for free.

To celebrate the gardens’ reopening, Hill Close Gardens is offering those who sign up for membership in July, 18-months’ membership for the price of 12 months (£16 individual, £24 joint, and £30 family).

The extension will run throughout the remainder of this and next year until 1st January 2022.

The gardens will open in line with current Coronavirus guidelines and with social distancing measures in place.

This includes a one-way route through the Victorian plots, sanitising stations, and card-only payments.

The majority of the garden plots will be accessible to visitors, however inside spaces such as the Lammas Room, tearoom and glasshouse will remain closed.

Rosemary Mitchell, a Trustee of Hill Close Gardens Trust, said: “Hill Close Gardens is all set for a socially distanced but spectacular summer.

"We’re eager to welcome back both our current members and offer those who wish to become members an extended membership package.

"After more than three months of lockdown, the gardens offer tranquillity and a comforting flavour of better times, and we want our visitors to enjoy the benefit of being out in the fresh air and in a safe environment.

“There will be a designated route to enable visitors to see most of the garden plots, peek into some summer houses, and to buy plants and produce.

"The main thing is to ensure that everyone – our visitors, staff and volunteers – feels safe and can take delight in the gardens at a time when the Victorian plots’ summer blooms are at their best.”

Further information on its opening times can be found online at http://hillclosegardens.com or by calling 01926 493339.