Stanton Hall and Gardens
Stanton Hall and gardens near Morpeth in Northumberland, is a delightful garden centre and day out destination. This year it celebrates its 40th year of trading! In that time the sales shed has doubled in size and the advent of the card machine has made it even easier to spend lots of money on lovely plants. Minimum card payment is £10.
Situated in the picturesque grounds and gardens of old Stanton Hall, this is a real gardener’s plant emporium. Parts of the hall date back to the 14th Century. Forty years ago, the nursery was started as a market garden growing and selling soft fruit, vegetables and cut flowers.
Stanton Hall and gardens is a small family run business. It offers something very different from the larger garden centres. The choice of quality plants is exceptional and if you are partial to a fancy fuchsia, as I am, then you will be a happy customer. Although there has been a run on fuchsias and geraniums this year by the time of my annual visit, which is later than usual..
Situated west of Morpeth in England’s northern county, Northumberland, Stanton offers plants which can thrive in the Northern climate in the setting of a beautiful mature garden and grounds. You are free to wander the gardens and in itself this is a lovely thing to do.
Stanton Hall – the gardener’s garden centre
There is a huge range of plants here, from herbs to shrubs. From bedding plants to trees. Over eighty five percent of all plants for sale are grown on site from either seeds or cuttings. Personal services include fulfilling specialist orders to find that particular plant that you’ve been looking for, and to order pre planted hanging baskets (orders must be in by end of April).
Entry to the gardens is free. Guide dogs and assistant dogs are welcome but not the family pet. The honesty cafe is open in the circular GinGan building, where a help yourself system is in place for hot drinks and biscuits payable by cash into a piggy bank. 10% of each cup goes to charity. A gin gang was a wheelhouse, roundhouse or horse-engine house.
Stanton is not one of those Garden Centres where you have to wade through a shop selling dubious household ornaments made in China or a sounds of the rainforest CD, before you get to anything alive. You will not find a coffee shop selling overpriced scones, and there is no children’s play area with a plastic dinosaur slide. You cannot purchase unflattering outdoor wear or gas barbecues or an Easter Island garden statue.
Stanton Hall and Gardens – plants galore
Instead, for sale there are lots and lots of lovely healthy plants, shrubs and trees of every variety imaginable. Plants featured are those that can survive our tough North of England climate. The prices are really good and I love my visits here because every time I go I come across another new plant I have not seen before.
The resident one eyed cat Harold sadly passed away last year but now there is Dennis. Dennis the tabby cat, was dumped here during lockdown and has now joined the resident team.
The gardens themselves have been put together over 30 years to showcase the range of plants sold at Stanton. The Maze Garden, the knot garden and the Lime walk are all lovely. They give ideas about colour, grouping and mixtures of shrubs, perennials, herbs and planting structures.
Stanton Hall and gardens – a hidden treasure
Stanton Hall and gardens is a very civilised hidden treasure set in Northumberland, one of our most beautiful and uncrowded counties. One greenhouse plays classic FM to the geraniums and the fields next door do a fine line in bifurcated cattle..
Stanton Hall, began life as a fourteenth century fortified medieval tower. Most of it built in the 16th century, it was modified over the years, with the south end of the building altered around 1700. In Henry VIII’s reign Sir Ralph Fenwick, High Sheriff of Northumberland, lived in the tower. The Fenwick family actually occupied Stanton Hall for almost 200 years until 1730.
The Reverend John Hodgson was one of the most distinguished scholars of Northumberland. In 1830 he wrote, ‘Stanton Old Hall is a three storey strong house probably dating to the 16th century. Oblong with a projecting stair turret on the east. This tower received a new front in 1700 with rusticated quorns and cross windows with swan necked pediments.’
Stanton Hall and gardens – my favourite garden centre
Stanton Hall is West of Morpeth in Pigden, Northumberland. A small family run business, it is my favourite garden centre.
The nursery has huge range of plants from herbs to trees. It is a real labour of love. Over eighty five percent of all plants for sale here are from Stanton stock. Staff can provide personal services including orders to find that specialist plant that you’ve been looking for. Customers order hanging baskets from April.
The Gardens and Plant Nursery are open 9.30 – 5.30, Tuesday – Sundays, Easter to mid September. Stanton Hall is also open to the public on some bank holidays though out the season. If you are from further afield why not stay for a few days and discover what Northumberland has to offer. The Auction House in Morpeth is a great choice for a short stay.
Entry to the beautiful gardens is free and they alone are worth a good look round. Pop along before the crowds discover the secret of Stanton Hall and gardens!
Other places to stay in Northumberland
1 thought on “Stanton Hall and gardens”
This is indeed a hidden treasure! Beautiful. Thanks for sharing this.
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