St Peter’s Pump, Stourhead

We made our first visit of the year to Stourhead this morning. The gardens were busy with families enjoying the Easter-themed trail and the rhododendron and azalea blossoms around the lakes.

We extended our walk by nipping out of the”back gate”, as it were, (which is just about at the vanishing point in the blip) and walking up the valley to St. Peter’s Pump in the foreground here which marks the source of the River Stour which runs from here across Wiltshire and Dorset to the English Channel at Christchurch. 

The source is actually a fairly ordinary patch of boggy ground (hidden behind the Pump here) so Stourhead’s owner Henry Hoare had what was then an ornate pump brought from Bristol in 1786 and placed it here to create a more of a spectacle of the spot.

In extras is one of the classic garden views showing some of the Spring colours. Not sure I want to know how big the bird was that laid the eggs in the other “eggstra”.

Having walked about 4miles we treated ourselves to a pulled pork bap and a coffee back at the Stourhead cafe.

Managed to get a haircut when we got back this afternoon so I’m feeling quite light-headed.