Anglesey Abbey is located in Cambridgeshire, and the National Trust property is comprised of a working mill named Lode Mill and a country house that dates from the mid-1500s and was placed on the spot of the ruins of a monastary that dated from the 1100s. The grounds contain a mixture of forest, parkland, and landscaped grounds with formal gardens and a winter garden. It is one of the best places to see snowdrops, the first signs that spring is approaching. The snowdrops emerge from the ground and bloom in early February, and they are also known as Candlemas Bells since they emerge at the same time. There are over 270 different variety of snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey.
I visited Anglesey Abbey last weekend between the storms, and the visit ended up to be a very wet one. This was my first visit out to the countryside to enjoy nature and my first National Trust visit of the year. There are a couple of different places to see the snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey: the Winter Garden and the woodland path. Unfortunately, the woodland path was closed because of the strong wind storms that brought down some trees, so I was only able to walk through the Winter Garden. Visitors can also book special tours to see a collection that is normally off-limits to the public. Maybe I will do this one year.
On this dreary Saturday, I wandered through the Winter Garden. It is a windy well-paved pathway with trees, grasses, and flowers planted along. It was actually a fairly long trek by the time I got to Lode Mill, and I really enjoyed seeing the signs of spring and different varieties of snowdrops.
This is a Daphne Shrub with bright pink horn-shaped flowers in a cluster. It's so nice to see some bright colour.
I was happy to see some blossom and the first signs of the purple crocus flowers emerging. There were also some small pale purple flowers that look like iris, and I guess there is a winter variety of this spring bloom. Upon some further research, I discovered that this is a hybrid iris called 'Katharine Hodgkin' AGM.
Another beautiful area of the winter garden contained a large cluster of different-coloures hellebores: purples, whites, yellows, burgundies, and everything in between.
There were some flowering shrubs on the side of the walkway. I don't know what type of plant it is.
The pockets of snowdrops were beautiful to see.
After a large pocket of snowdrops, the pathway continued around a bend where Lode Mill and the river is located. I had a brief look inside, but it was very cold.
The walkway followed the river and a few more bends with some snowdrop clusters before coming upon the house. It is currently shut for the winter, but I had a wander around it and went into the bookshop.
I got absolutely soaked above the above photograph as it started to rain, and the rain increased when I was walking through and open clearing of parkland. This led me back near the woodland path, which was closed and blocked off, but further around was the main path to the exit. I'll come back on another day and explore when the house is open, and I hope it's a dry visit next time.
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