A went out for a bike ride with a friend the other day and they stopped off at The Walled Garden at Mells for coffee and cake on the way home. It reminded me that The Walled Garden, just up the road from us, makes the ideal venue for an afternoon break from work!
Mells is an unspoilt village with many very old and beautiful houses just 3 miles from here, and it’s the Mells River that flows behind us (and floods dramatically in winter). It’s a lively village with a primary school, shop, Post Office and cafe.
It’s typical of Frome and the surrounding area in its mixture of locals and monied, sometimes famous, incomers. Babington House, the rural outpost of trendy Soho House, is just down the road. A couple of Tripadvisor reviews of the Talbot Inn should give you the picture:
The Talbot ‘manages to combine ancient rural charm with Hoxton cool’. And ‘The Talbot is a chi chi stylish pub straight from the pages of Vogue’.
On the road between the Talbot and the PO etc is The Walled Garden at Mells. I’d popped in previously for a quick look on the way elsewhere, but never spent any time there. It’s a beautiful place, and we had it to ourselves for a while, due to the stormy autumn weather.
It’s open every day till the end of October from 10am to 5pm for light lunches and teas, and pizza cooked in the outdoor wood-fired oven is available at weekends. And a mobile pizza oven is available to hire for parties and events.
There are tables scattered around the garden, some tucked away down by the boundary wall, so have a poke around before deciding where to sit. On a fine day you might like the outside tables or straw bales.
But we tucked ourselves away in the greenhouse to stay out of the showers and breeze. It’s stuffed with bric-a-brac that vintage hunters will enjoy sifting through.
There’s also a shop next to the tea shop selling small pieces of painted furniture and homewares.
October isn’t the time to see the garden at its best, but there’s a special beauty in autumn plants and there is plenty of interest – the old stone wall and archways between gardens, sculptures, dovecote and pond.
At the right time of year you can buy British grown cut-flowers and garden plants here, order your wedding flowers, or learn a new skill at a workshop.
A wonderful place to stop for refueling on a bike ride, as it’s not far from the Colliers Way, part of Sustrans Route 24 of the National Cycle Network. Or Mells and the surrounding countryside are a fascinating place for a walk. There’s no entry fee to the garden if you just want to wander round.
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