Visiting Englefield Gardens, Berkshire

Last month Dave and I finally managed to make it to Englefield Gardens, somewhere we had been meaning to visit for such a long time. It was such a nice way to spend a couple of hours and so I thought I’d share it with you.

Where is Englefield Gardens?

Englefield Gardens are the gardens attached to the Englefield Estate and Englefield House, a vast country estate covering 14,000 acres of rural land and property in West Berkshire and Hampshire, situated between Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke. Englefield House is a large Grade II Listed building at the heart of the estate and home to the Benyon family. The house is not open to the public but is often used as a filming location – recently seen in The Thursday Murder Club on Netflix.

When is Englefield Garden open?

As Englefield House is still a private home, the gardens aren’t open every day like most public gardens and attractions. However, they are open on Mondays throughout the year and operate using an honesty box on the gate which was lovely to see.

It costs just £5 for adults to enter the garden – with children going free – and there is plenty of parking at the entrance to the gardens and also a short stroll away in Englefield village.

On our way to Englefield Gardens we stopped in the village to go to Englefield Tea Rooms, grabbing takeaway drinks to enjoy during our visit. Englefield Gardens don’t allow picnics but a hot drink whilst you enjoy the gardens would be fine.

The tea rooms were beautiful with lovely staff, toilets for customer use and a lovely food and cake menu as well as the drinks on offer. It was a really lovely find and we would definitely visit again.

Exploring Englefield Garden

There isn’t a huge amount of information online about Englefield Gardens and so we didn’t really know what to expect. But, from the minute we walked through the gate it was like being in another world.

So quiet and peaceful compared to other attractions, there weren’t very many people around but the ones that we came across were all respectful of the fact that Englefield House is someone’s home. There was no climbing trees, ball games or dogs running around. Everyone was just quietly enjoying the space and it was lovely.

Englefield Gardens is a real mix of areas and they have a handy map online so you can roughly see where you are and everything you have to look forward to. We explored parkland with fantastic views, formal gardens and forest during our trip and each area was so well looked after and had so much to look at.

My favourite part was the formal gardens, with original walls. You could easily imagine being transported back to the times of Bridgerton or Downton Abbey, going for a walk through the grounds before dinner.

I loved that although the gardens were well looked after, the flowers and plants in the formal beds seemed to grow however they liked. There was a haphazard, natural quality to them that I loved, that despite being beautiful plants, in a wonderful setting, they were still allowed to have a life of their own.

The woodland areas of Englefield Gardens had so much to see – not just trees. Although there were so many varieties of trees, there were also sculptures, dens and even a bee hive, with loads to explore.

We loved the views at Englefield Gardens. On a clear day you can see for miles and it’s a great mix of lakes, trees and grassland. Plus, we saw a herd of deer happily grazing on the land. They were so beautiful to watch and a lovely surprise.

You could easily spend hours at Englefield Gardens and it’s a lovely place for a walk – although dogs aren’t permitted. The only real down side is that are no toilets in the gardens – the closest ones are in the village.

We can’t wait to visit Englefield Gardens again and would love to go back with the children – on a Bank Holiday or in school holidays! It would be a lovely place to visit with extended family – before having a nice lunch afterwards.

You can find out more about Englefield Gardens over on their website and for reference the address is: Englefield, Reading, Berkshire RG7 5ES