The Elizabethan garden

The garden lodge is only the end point of a much more elaborate garden scheme, much of which still exists today. With its terraces, pyramidal and spiral mounts, and an ambitious system of canals, Lyveden is a rare survival of the great water gardens that were such an important and delightful feature of the most spectacular gardens of the 16th century.

Having escaped the influences of later garden design, Lyveden retains the original formal symmetry that typified the period. Spiral mounts offered a gradual ascent for the ladies in their Farthingale dresses, while pleasure would be taken on boats along the canals, or fishing from the banks.

Ascending up the hillside, offered excellent views over Tresham's estate and the surrounding deer park, with the anticipation of reaching the garden lodge.

Today visitors can again enjoy the garden following work to gradually clear four hundred years of scrub and abandonment. The mounts still retain their spiral pathways with superb views over the rural estate. The terrace walk still follows the formal canal with views over the orchard and beyond to the manor house below (not National Trust).

Work is currently being undertake to re-plant the orchard with trees which were growing on the site during Elizabethan times. Apple varieties include the Catshead, and Winter Queening as well as varieties of plums, pears, cherries and walnuts.

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