Packwood House gardens

The National Trust property, Packwood House in Warwickshire, is fascinating inside and also has extensive and beautiful gardens (see here).

It is famous for its huge plantation of topiary yew trees, some over 350 years old, said to represent the Sermon on the Mount. Unfortunately, the trees are now very fragile and suffer from waterlogging in the heavy clay soil so they are being carefully protected.

There are recesses known as bee boles in the old walls, where skeps - coiled straw beehives - would have been placed.