It was a lovely, dry, bright, and sunny morning as we arrived at ‘Burnby Hall Water Gardens’ on the outskirts of the small market town of Pocklington, East Yorkshire, on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds.

This was only our second visit this year, so todays visit was long overdue, especially after missing the Tulip Festival earlier in the year and more so the flowering Water Lillies which were in flower from June to the end of August!

Although all the school children have now gone back to school after the summer holidays, there were still plenty of visitors walking around the gardens this morning and who can blame them on such a lovely dry and sunny Autumnal morning. 

After passing through the ticket office the vista opens in front of you, we watched some Moorhens and Coots at the water’s edge where several others were swimming amongst the waterlilies. We continued our walk in an anti-clockwise direction around the larger upper lake. As we approached the water’s edge the water came alive with hungry fish all hoping for a morsel of food, Big Carp, several Koi, or hybrids, along with Roach and Rudd all eager to make an impression to gain some food. 

Continuing our walk around the lake a small flock of white doves flew over our heads before coming to land in the dovecote to the right of us.  A huge blue Atlas Cedar tree caught my eye on the right as we made our way towards the bridge separating the upper and lower lakes. As a photographer, many years ago I was taught many things but one which is quite prevalent here is to remember to look at the view behind you as much as what is in front of you, because the views looking back over to the ticket office and the café are just as striking as those that are in front of you and none more so a little further on looking back over towards the  footbridge on our left. Here the banks of the smaller lower lake have been planted with a variety of plants which certainly adds extra colour to the area. We exchanged pleasantries with one of the gardeners as we headed down the slope passing the bed of heathers and up into the ‘Stumpery,’ at the far end of the gardens. It is just a short pleasant circular walk around this part of the garden which was created back in 2011, and is based on the one like that at Highgrove house. The root stumps  have over planted with ferns, grasses, and other shade loving plants and make quite an impact, patches of Cyclamen and Autumn Crocus added a splash of colour to the area too. 

Several wire meshed 3D animals are interspersed amongst the trees, we passed a huge Panther climbing up one of the trees and several Owls dotted around the area and make quite a feature. Leaving the ‘Stumpery,’ through the wooden gate we continued our walk around the smaller lower lake, which was full of late flowering water lilies, this part of the garden is looking exceptionally colourful at this time especially with the manicured lawns. 

Continuing our walk around the lake our route takes us through the ‘Rock Garden’, this area was one of the original features of the garden, designed by James Backhouse and Son from the early 1900’s, alas over the years it became a little overgrown and after applying for Lottery Heritage funding the whole area was completely restored between 2016 – 2019, using the original Backhouse planting plans and today it adds splashes of colour throughout the year. On our visit today a small group of artists were settled busily painting their views onto their sketch pads. On leaving the artists and rock garden we followed the path alongside the lake and into the ‘Walled Garden.’ Apparently, this was a new project only created in 2022, the borders and beds around the garden were full of beautiful colourful plants, especially the Yellow Roses, Yellow Cutleaf Coneflowers, Purple coloured Asters, and orange coloured Zinias and Blanketflowers. Today the garden looks well established, colourful and tranquil and with plenty of benches to sit and admire the views and plants around the garden. We missed the ‘Secret Garden’ today and headed over to the Aviary Garden, the central bed looked really colourful, including the tall orange coloured Canna’s surrounded by the much smaller but equally as colourful Coleus and Heuchera’s. The hedges which ran through and round the centre of the garden looked nicely clipped and tidy and were quite a feature in themselves. 

Leaving the ‘Aviary Garden’ it is just a short walk passing the tall Giraffes on the lake side to the Lilypad café where we enjoyed a very pleasant brunch, sitting outside in the sunshine, before reluctantly leaving the gardens for the journey home.