The Orangery, Mapperton Gardens

The manor of Mapperton, in west Dorset, is medieval, but Historic England's register acknowledges that very little is known of its gardening before the twentieth century. The present layout dates from 1919-1927: after the estate was auctioned in 1919, Ethel Labouchere restored the house and laid out formal Arts and Crafts gardens, building on a nineteenth-century plan. In 1955, after her death, Victor Montagu bought Mapperton; between 1955 and 1980 he acquired land, extended and replanted the garden with the help of local masons, labourers and a gardener. The estate remains the home of the Earl of Sandwich's family.

The orangery dates from the years when Victor Montagu was transforming the garden: the register says it was built in the 1960s, in a Classical style, on the site of a late nineteenth-century greenhouse. On that occasion the large pergola of timber beams on stone columns was moved from the Fountain Court to a terrace further south. The garden is on the Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade II* (listed on 19 December 1986, amended in 2013) and won the Historic Houses Garden of the Year award in 2020.

Historic England's register describes an orangery in a Classical style, standing north of the Fountain Court, which it overlooks and to which one of four flights of steps, lined with clipped yews and urn-topped pedestals, leads down. Photographs on Wikimedia Commons show a long, low front of ashlar in a golden tone, pierced by a row of tall arched windows with glazing bars, under a cornice and a roof edge carrying small pointed ornaments; seen from inside, the roof is fully glazed, on white bars, above white-painted walls.

The Dorset Garden Trail speaks of roses, begonias and exotic plants "beneath a glass roof", and says the orangery leads out to the terraces and the valley. The estate calls it the "gilded" orangery, a tint that matches the colour of the stone in the photographs.

The estate's announcement for the 2026 Heritage Open Day says the orangery shelters vines, avocados, begonias, roses and exotic plants; the Dorset Garden Trail also cites roses, begonias and exotics. A 2017 photograph on Wikimedia Commons shows a lemon tree laden with fruit and, beside it, a plant with long pointed leaves. Around the orangery the garden offers topiary, an octagonal pool with a fountain in the Fountain Court and, further down, an arboretum with magnolias, dawn redwoods, dogwoods and tulip trees. The estate has also brought back into use a kitchen garden and its Conservatory, where specialist plants are grown all year: another glasshouse, distinct from the orangery, mentioned here only as a neighbour.

The orangery closes the formal gardens to the north, above the Fountain Court, and opens onto the terraces and the valley. It is part of the route through the gardens, which fill a steep-sided combe: paths are gravelled, some areas are very steep, and the estate considers about half the garden accessible by wheelchair. In 2026 the gardens are open from 1 March to 31 October, on days that vary with the season, and are usually closed on Fridays and Saturdays.

The visit combines well with the kitchen garden and its Conservatory, open on Tuesdays only in 2026, the Coach House café, the arboretum and Wildlands walks, and guided tours of the house. Beaminster is five minutes away by car and Bridport ten; parking is on site.