Coleshill Manor Garden: “Warwickshire’s Hampton Court”
The newly revealed garden has been dubbed “Warwickshire’s answer to Hampton Court.” The latter reference is to England’s most renowned surviving Elizabethan garden at the Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII’s old stomping grounds in southwestern London. The comparison is not particularly apt at the moment, however, since the Coleshill Manor garden had been buried and for centuries and is currently nothing more than an expanse of dry and barren earth.
But the form and structure of the garden remained intact and well-preserved. Excavations revealed the outlines of gravel access paths, multiple raised planting beds, foundation pieces for a garden pavilion, and signs of various ornaments that had been arranged to form geometric patterns.
HS2 archaeologists discover Warwickshireâs answer to Hampton Court
The find has been described as one of the most exciting Elizabethan gardens ever discovered in this country
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An HS2 archaeological dig has uncovered one of the best persevered 16th century ornamental gardens ever discovered in England, rivalling those of Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace.
The site of once-sprawling flower beds and gravel paths, uncovered to the east of the Birmingham section of the high-speed line, are comparable in size to the Elizabethan gardens of Kenilworth Castle.
The shape of what was once Coleshill Manor and a well-defined octagonal moat were originally picked up by air photography, during a site assessment of the rail route.
An artist’s impression of the moated manor and its gardens (HS2/PA)