Walkers Unite! – August 2019

Stowe House & School

Bad weather caused the original date for our joint outing this year to be rescheduled, and so we set out four weeks later on 27th August for Stowe, a National Trust gardens of some 250 acres in Buckinghamshire. In total 17 men and women joined us for the day which to everyone’s relief was sunny. Most were from our regular walking groups, together with other friends and family members.

The landscaped gardens have developed over several centuries and many garden designers worked there and experimented in the 1700’s , providing the features we can enjoy today. Like many such estates mounting debts and disuse & disrepair have all since featured in its history. In the 1920’s ownership passed to what would become Stowe School which continues today in the enlarged Manor House. The gardens were gifted to the National Trust in 1989 and have since been restored. The house is not NT owned but may be visited, and several of our party did so.

Others in our group enjoyed a 3.5 mile walk known as the ‘Secret Places’ walk visiting many of the garden features before lunching at the NT cafe and returning home.

Alison Mullens & Colin Mayer