Have you ever imagined being in another time when you visited Iford? Imagine no more….!

Take this wonderful opportunity to indulge yourself by dressing in full regency dress and promenading through the garden, benefiting from a reduced £5 entry fee for those in full regency dress to celebrate our appearance in ITV’s Sanditon.

1817 was the year that Jane Austen started writing her final and unfinished novel, Sanditon. Come and marvel at our wisteria, a new plant that only reached British shores in 1815….. The plant on the front of our house is rumoured to be one of the oldest in Britain so it may have been planted during Jane’s lifetime.

The Gaisford family lived here at Iford from 1777 - 1858. A lover of trees, John Gaisford created the Great Terrace at the top of the garden and planted up the Beech Hangar above the garden, known at the time as the New Plantation.

The fabulous Plane tree on the Great Terrace was planted in 1779 for the birth of his eldest son, Thomas Gaisford (later Dean of Christchurch in Oxford, curator of the Bodlein Library and Regius Professor in Greek at Oxford).

Thomas Gaisford’s eldest son John made an excellent match in 1850, marrying Horatia, daughter of the late Rear Admiral and Lady Elizabeth Fielding of Lacock Abbey, sister to the Right Hon. the Countess of Mount Edgecumbe and niece to the Most Noble the Marchioness of Lansdowne (at Bowood). Society turned out in force for the celebrations in Lacock and many gifts were given to the villagers there.

Let your imagination run wild and allow yourself to be transported to another time on this special day.