Anne Chambers - Kiftsgate Gardens : "Three Generations Of Women Gardeners" - Dec 8th 2025

Anne Chambers, who owns and gardens at Kiftsgate Court, talked to Broadway History Society on 8th December 2025 about the family history and development of the garden by her grandmother, her mother and herself over the last 100 years.

Kiftsgate Court Gardens is a close neighbour to Hidcote Manor Gardens and Anne touches on the mutual support between its owner Laurence Johnston and Anne's grandmother Heather Muir during the development of both gardens in the early 1900's.

Anne takes us through a year in the garden, with methods and practical tips on how she maintains and enhances the borders, passed down over the generations.

Anne says, “I was brought up at Kiftsgate but not made to garden! I lived in London until the late 1980s when, with husband Johnny and our three children, I moved to Gloucestershire full time to take over the garden from my mother. We learned on the job, with no horticultural training, and decided to increase the opening of the garden and to produce and sell plants. Like every generation before us we added plants and our own personality to the garden. A modern water garden was created in 2000 from the old tennis court and the mound several years later, which is now covered in wild flowers. I am still gardening after 40 years and still get immense pleasure from visitors and the beauty of my surroundings.”

Kiftsgate Court Gardens are open annually from April to September - for directions see: http://www.kiftsgate.co.uk/how-to-find-us

For lots more information see the website: http://www.kiftsgate.co.uk/home

The beautifully illustrated "Kiftsgate Court Gardens" book, winner of Garden Media Guild’s Garden Book of the Year 2019, is available from the Kiftsgate gift shop and from all good bookshops.

00:00 Introduction
02:11 The Three Generations
03:24 The House
06:32 Top Garden
08:05 Rose Border
10:50 Lower Garden
12:33 White Sunk Garden
16:37 The Banks
18:15 Simon Verity statues
19:43 The Modernising Spirit - Anne & Johnny Chambers
24:00 The Mound
26:06 Autumn jobs
28:14 Spring & early Summer
31:58 Yellow Border
33:29 Wide Border
34:47 Four Squares
36:43 Hydrangea Border
38:25 Winter
39:25 Closing remarks and Q&A