Packwood House Houses

A fascinating 20th-century evocation of domestic Tudor architecture, Packwood is originally a 16th-century manor house. Cromwell's general, Henry Ireton, slept here the night before the Battle of Edghill in 1642 and family tradition relates how Charles II was given food and drink at the house in 1651 following his defeat at Worcester.

What visitors see today is effectively the creation of Graham Baron Ash, who during the 1920s and 1930s extended the house and assembled the fine collections of 16th-century textiles and furniture which now adorn it.

The superb grounds are famed for their Carolean garden and yew topiary, with the biblical 'Sermon on the Mount' serving as the theme for the extraordinary layout of towering yews. The renowned herbaceous borders, set against warm 17th-century red brick, are a riot of colour throughout the summer.