Batsford Arboretum

Batsford Arboretum is a 55-acre (220,000 m²) arboretum and botanical garden near Batsford in Gloucestershire, England, about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. It is owned and run by the Batsford Foundation, a registered charity, and is open to the public daily throughout most of the year.

The arboretum sits on the Cotswold scarp and contains around 2,900 trees, with a large collection of Japanese maples, magnolias and pines. It maintains the national collection of Prunus (sato-sakura Group) — Japanese Flowering Cherry — under the NCCPG National Plant Collection scheme run by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens.

History

The estate of Batsford Park was inherited in 1886 by Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale. He had travelled widely in Asia and developed the garden as a "wild" landscape with natural plantings inspired by Chinese and Japanese practice.

He died in 1916 and was succeeded by David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, who was father of the famous Mitford sisters. They lived at Batsford during World War I, and Nancy Mitford based the early part of her novel Love in a Cold Climate on their time at Batsford. In 1919 the estate was sold to cover death duties to Gilbert Wills, 1st Baron Dulverton, an heir to the W.D. & H.O. Wills tobacco fortune. His wife Victoria further developed the garden and specimen tree plantings.

Batsford

Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 99. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearby, situated on the Cotswold escarpment.

Moreton-in-Marsh and Batsford War Memorial, on the High Street in Moreton-in-Marsh, commemorates the village's dead of two World Wars.

Location

Batsford village is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SP187339

References

External links

Coordinates: 52°0′10″N 1°43′45″W / 52.00278°N 1.72917°W / 52.00278; -1.72917

Batsford (disambiguation)

Batsford may refer to:

Pavilion Books

Pavilion Books Holdings Ltd is a publishing company with headquarters at 1, Gower Street, London WC1. It specialises in illustrated books and digital content. Pavilion was founded in 2005 as "Anova Books" with the acquisition of the Chrysalis Books Group from the Chrysalis Group. Since then it has acquired and created several other imprints. The company's owner and publisher is Polly Powell. The Managing Director is David Graham. Non-executive directors are Vaughan Grylls, Jon Ripon and Zana Hanks. Current imprints include: