West Country Life 2120 West Country Life www.westerndailypress.co.uk www.westerndailypress.co.uk

Dressed ingold leaf

WE have all moanedabout the lack of sunthis summer, but theheavy rain has beensoaked up by the

thirsty treesandshrubs, giving themextra strength to cope with thecoming winter.From mid-October, the landscape garden

and woodlands at the National Trust’sStourhead Estate transform to createdramatic displays of autumn colour. Thebeautiful grounds, with the magical, centrallake and mystical temples, make this one ofthe most photographed places in Europe.The sugar maple, from North America,

which started to change colour at the end ofAugust, transforms from a fragile greenthrough a sequence of yellows andwonderfulreds. This is closely followed by the riot ofexotic trees and shrubs turning andchanging from their normal colours to showoff the variety of pigments contained in theirvaried leaves.With the trees seemingly competing for

brightest foliage, the Temples are soonframed and accentuated by a trulymagnificent display. For example, the russettones of the Swamp Cypress complement theyellow tulip tree and red spindle, andtogether steal the show for an instant untilyour gaze will be drawn to the Temple ofApollo in the background.The different conifers appear to get darker

and darker as the colours of the exotics getbrighter; the conifers’ shades of deep greenand blue help to highlight the other colourson display.The exotic trees are laid out to capitalise

on their location – being close to the lakedeliberately heightens the trees and sodoubles the amount of colour you can see.Our native trees, such as beech and oak,provide the perfect backdrop for all thisautumnal activity.Great autumn colour depends on nature

playing a clever trick on the trees. Warm

Weekend Days out

Eat

Get away from it all without going too far

Sleep

Do

NESTLED beside the River Wye on the edge ofRoss-on-Wye, the Wilton Court Hotel is in anidyllic spot. As we pulled up in early evening,half-a-dozen swans were gliding past.Surrounded by stunning Herefordshire

countryside and the picturesque Wye Valley, it isa great spot to start a relaxing weekend break.First things first: food. The main part of the

hotel, now a pub-cum-restaurant bustling withlocals, was a courthouse built in 1500. Thecurrent owners have clung on to its richElizabethan past with a collection of curiosfrom around the world, cosy tapestry sofas andsoft lamplight.While meals can be taken in the beamed and

panelled bar area, we headed for the moderndinning room, housed in a conservatory andextension at the back of the building.The meal was outstanding; utterly faultless. And, really, we’re hard to please. We started with

scallops with a sensational truffle panacotta and a perfect cheese soufle. These were followed byWelsh lamb with fine beans wrapped in pancetta with a Madeira and roasted garlic jus and Cornishmonkfish with scallops, asparagus, red peppers and white mushrooms, finished with a basildressing. Starters began at £5.45 and mains at £14.25 – worth every penny. And as much aspossible, sourced from the local area, of course. Unable to make room for much more, we shareda plate of local cheeses and took liqueur coffees through to the sofas.In between all this gluttony we’d enjoyed a delightful local ale in the Wilton’s bar – and a friendly

chat with some locals in for dinner. They had no idea we were planning to reveal all in these pagesabout our stay, yet were quick to hail the genius of the Wilton’s food, beer and owners, Roger andHelen Wynn. The Wynns’ previous five-star hotel experience clearly shines through.

So, fit to burst, there was no way wewere going to drive home. The Wilton’s10 bedrooms are as delightful aseverything else we had come across. Wehad a riverside room, with ancientsloping floors, tiny lead-paned windowsand a sumptuous four-poster bed – all ofwhich suitably evoked the hotel’sElizabethan heritage.There were great homely touches, too

– Wedgewood nick-nacks were displayedon individual pieces of antique furnitureand there was a very comfortablevelvet-upholstered chaise.Each of the rooms is individually decorated, with either William Morris or Sanderson

wallpapers and fabrics, and the beams and fireplaces in the original part of the building havebeen exposed and restored.But it’s not all historic – modern touches include bottles of mineral water, huge dispensers

of soaps and lotions, WiFi internet access and DVD players. The price for all this luxury? Theweekend rate for a riverside double starts at £135 (£105 with a garden view). It may soundsteep but honestly, the Wilton Court Hotel is quite brilliant.

West Weekend: Ross onWye

See today’s Western Daily Press for a guide to the best traveldestinations in the UK and abroad

Wilton Court Hotel, Wilton Lane, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR9 6AQ. Tel: 01989 562569;email: info@wiltoncourthotel.com; website: www.wiltoncourthotel.comFlavours of Herefordshire Food Festival, Hereford Racecourse, Roman Road, HerefordHR4 9QU. Tel: 01432 260621; website: www.herefordshirefoodfestival.com

Now you’ve slept at the Wilton and eatenyour fill in the lovely restaurant, how abouta little more delicious food to finish theweekend in style? Visit the Flavours ofHerefordshire Food Festival, next weekend,on October 25 and 26.Special guests the Hairy Bikers, David

Myers and Simon King, pictured right, willbe on hand to talk to visitors about theirtours around the world for the BBC,cooking regional specialities.Held at Hereford Racecourse, the event

includes a food pavilion, a food theatre –where you can watch the Hairy Bikers andgreat local chefs in action – a farmers’market, talks, tastings and street theatre.And if you can’t make it next weekend,

visit the website www.visitherefordshire.co.uk for more information aboutyear-round foodie delights. The area isbursting with local producers, farmers’markets and cider-makers – in fact, it’spossible to eat your way around the countyon a local-food tour.

Rachael Sugden

Weekend

Daysout

●Westwalk

●Gardening

●Books

●Food

●Drink

Weekend

Mother Nature has taken hold at Stourhead inWiltshire, and Mervyn Hancocksays it is an unmissable sight

ONE of the things I love about Somersetis the variety of the landscape. It haslots of hills: most of Exmoor, theBrendon Hills, the Quantocks, the

Polden Hills, a large chunk of the BlackdownHills and, of course, the Mendips.Then there is the stunning contrast between England’s

deepest gorge at Cheddar leading out on to thebelow-sea-level Levels, which in turn are home toone-time islands such as Glastonbury, Othery, Wedmoreand tiny Athelney – where King Alfred the Great burnedthe cakes because the Ryder Cup was on TV.There’s a favourite spot of mine, a mile or so out of

Langport (which didn’t get the name “port” by accident),where you can look down across the Levels and imaginethe water rising in winter to turn your vantage point intothe “coast” – 15 or so miles from where the sea is now.And at least some of the abovewent throughmymind as

I drove to Long SuttonGolf Club, not far fromLangport, toplay a few holes and chat to Gareth Harding.Gareth is a one-time golf pro who still likes “to play golf

withmymates”whenhegoes onholiday, andwhoco-ownsthe club with Graham Holloway, a landscape gardeningexpertwhodesigned thenon-playing surfaces atmany topLondon clubs. Between them they bought Long Sutton inAugust 2007 and have continued to invest in it.Despite his other commitments – including a large hole

beside the fifth green – we played the front nine togetherand I noted the course isn’t as flat as I’d expected.“Butwe are on the edge of the Levels here,” saidGareth,

“so we have put a lot of money into drainage, and willcontinue to do so. It will be money well spent because wewant people to be able to enjoy the course year round.“We also want this to be a club where people can enjoy

more than just the golf. The first owners built the course,while the second built up the catering side. We want topromote both.“As a young Welsh lad I learned to love the game – I

played all four rounds of the Wales Open when I was 16 –but I now know what I like and don’t like about it. I don’tlike the stuffy stuff, but I do approve of looking smart. Sothe motto here is ‘no yobs, but no snobs either’.“We attract a lot of occasional or even non-golfers.

Apart from all the facilities for corporate events,weddings and so on, there are four chefs, the Sundaycarvery regularly caters for 200, andwe already have 3,500bookings for Christmas.“We must be doing something right, because we have

600 members and will soon have to close that off at 700.”By this time we’d reached the fifth and that large hole I

mentioned – the narrow green and pond will soon be a

much larger target but with water all round it. But as faras my golf was concerned I was lower than the Levels andsinking. I had one of those moments… I stood there,with a club in my hand and a ball at my feet, and I had noidea what was going to happen next (I topped it off thetee with a six-iron). How could my game have desertedme completely?Gareth kindly left me to it at the ninth green and I

carried on, determined to complete the course. And it is anice course, it’s just that I saw rather more of it thannecessary. I can’t even blame the curmudgeonly codgerswho heldme up all the way down the back nine, I was justplain bad.But I shall take Gareth up on his invitation to return –

the course, at least, deserves a second chance. It is at thelong end of medium: 6,352 yards, par-71 off the white tees(6,112 yards, yellow) and the ladies play it as a par-72 over5,520 yards. It’s also parkland, “rolling” rather than justflat and has reached that age when the trees, though notyet tall, do demand respect.Favourite holes? The dogleg right par-4 13th, 386 yards

off the yellows, which kind of encapsulated my game. Apulled drive added at least 50 yards, a blind shot over thehill with a 7-woodwent right into the trees, a 9-iron landedwithin five feet and… nope, a five. I also liked thedownhill, par-3, 17th, which now has a bank to stop ballslanding on the green running off the back.The money they have put in shows and should soon

bring more benefits. They already have a 12-bay range,have spent a lot on new equipment and teachmore than 50juniors on Saturdays. In future, they want to build aproper academy and they have planning permission for a30-plus bedroom hotel. This is a club with ambition.Visitors green fees are £20 midweek and £25 at

weekends, but theyhaveno truckwith 2-for-1 deals. “£20 ischeap enough,” said Gareth, ” And we don’t want toclutter the course up for the members.”Speaking of whom… it costs £80 for under-16s to join

and £115 for under-18s, with weekday members paying£405 and full memberships at £520 – students half price.

Address: Long Sutton Golf Club, Langport, Somerset TA10 9JU.Telephone: 01458 241017Website: longsuttongolf.comEmail: reservations@longsuttongolf.comGetting there: From Bristol I took the A39 as far as Street, thendrove through the town on the B3151 to Somerton, throughtown again and on to the B3165. After a quick right-then-leftwhere it crosses the A372, the B3165 continues and the golfclub is on your left. From the A303 head north on the B3165through Martock and the club is on your right after Long Loadand Little Load. From the M5, take the A358 at Junction 25 tothe A303.

sunny days will slow the dropping of theleaves as the trees still try to operate insummer mode. But cooler nights andmornings hint that winter is on its way andtime for the trees to draw energy back fromthe leaves and store it up for the winter.Henry Hoare, a director of Hoare’s Bank in

London, inherited Stourhead in 1741 from hisfather. A keen gardener, he had just returnedfrom the “Grand Tour”, which included avisit to Italywhere he viewed themagnificentlandscapes of Poussin and Claude.No one knows if he had always intended

to transform his inheritance into a modern-day wonder – but when his wife died in 1743,Henry devoted the rest of his daysto Stourhead.It is also a mystery exactly how he saw the

symphony of trees, lakes, temples and grottosas a completed work of art – or if he everintended future visitors to make ananti-clockwise journey around his estate, inorder to appreciate its full beauty.What is certain, though, is that Henry

Hoare was a genius, whose interest in the

‘No yobs – no snobs’At Long Sutton, Ian Pemble found a golf club that is bucking the

trend by spending money and attracting new members

NOTHING beats the taste of an English applepicked straight from the tree, and there willbe plenty of apple events across the region

next week to mark Apple Day on October 21.Although imported apples are available all year

round, it’s far more exciting to wait until theEnglish apple season, especially as so many of

these delicious varieties never make it intothe supermarkets.Thousands of events are held across the UK

throughout October, and there are too many in thecoming days to list here. For more information,check out the Days Out pages atwww.westerndailypress.co.uk

‘No yobs – no snobs’

classics influenced the way the gardens werelaid – recreating the tales of some of theancient Roman and Greek gods, who weregiven their own corners of this formerWiltshire meadow.

On Sunday, October 26, Stourhead’s estatewarden will lead a walk from 10am through thewoodlands and gardens. Tickets: adult, £10; child,£7. Booking is essential – call 08715 271885.

Stourhead, Stourton, Warminster, WiltshireBA12 6QD. Tel: 01747 841152 or visit thewebsite www.nationaltrust.org.uk