Friday Photo: Orangery of Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens

Castle Bromwich Hall is a Jacobean mansion built in about 1599 for Sir Edward Devereux. In 1657 the house and its land was sold to Sir John Bridgeman I, and it was he who founded the formal gardens, that were stylised in the traditional Dutch fashion as popularised by William III during his reign at the end of the 17th century.The gardens were designed as a formal arrangement of self-contained garden areas separated by walls, hedges or level-changes at terraces, some of these were ornamental and some working. On the death of Sir John Bridgeman I in 1710 his son, Sir John Bridgeman II, continued to extend the Gardens westwards until they reached their present size of 10 acres (40,000 m2). Subsequent owners continued to maintain the gardens until they fell into disrepair after the war. Castle Bromwich, once rural, has now been swallowed up into the greater Birmingham area. The gardens have escaped attempts to also be used for housing development. To try to save the gardens for the future, in 1985 The Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens Trust was formed to restore and maintain them. In 1986 the Gardens and adjoining Parkland was listed as Grade II*. Today the gardens have been beautifully restored and are a popular visitor attraction for all the family to enjoy. The above picture is the orangerie within the wall of the gardens.