I came across a book The Writer’s Garden by Jackie Bennett, at work last Saturday and immediately started flicking through it to see if I could find any information about Enid Blyton’s own beloved gardens, but the book was annoyingly devoid of them. There was one reference however, where they mentioned the demolition of Green Hedges and the fact that her garden was lost, however I felt there was something missing on this one point. What about Old Thatch at Bourne End? That was a garden that Blyton took great pride in.

Anyway I thought I would add to the book with the Old Thatch gardens I know from my visits before the owners closed the garden to the public. One of my absolute favourite happy places I miss these gardens terribly and their calming atmosphere, not to mention the brilliant cake they used to provide in the tea room! Now I’m not much of a gardener, and so I’m going to show you some of the photos I have taken over the years I visited Old Thatch and hopefully give you an idea of what it was like and a few books to look at to get an idea of what it was like in Blyton’s day! Lets take a bit of a photo tour this blog and then next blog I’ll let you know what we know Blyton had her garden like.

Enjoy!

The first part of the garden you are brought to is the court yard at the side of the house and you don’t necessarily get the full impact of the house and gardens but its so magical to step in there, its hard to stop yourself tearing around the garden at top speed.

 

There are so many pictures of Old Thatch, I wish I could show you them all but that would be impossible right now. Next week I’ll have a look at what we can find out about what the garden was like in Blyton’s day.  Follow the Tags “Bourne End” and “Old Thatch” for more blogs and pictures about this amazing place.