Ayscoughee Gardens

After depositing Alex at Lattersey for another day of reserve management, Pete and I drove through the fens to see his Mum in Spalding. We stayed for a couple of hours,  and then headed off to do some botanical recording in the parish churchyard and the Ayscoughee Gardens. 

The house, which can be seen in the background, is currently a museum, and was built for a local wool merchant in the fifteenth century. Some of the features of the 5-acre gardens were reputedly laid out by William Sands in the early eighteenth century, and are still visible. The gardens include many fine features, including the amazing tall yew hedges seen in the foreground, an early ice-house, and a fine ornamental lake.

Our botanical foray was surprisingly interesting. We recorded Maidenhair Spleenwort in the churchyard, which had been recorded once before, sixty years ago, as well as two other ferns that had never been recorded from the locality. We also found a patch of a species of grass I'd never seen before, though I immediately recognised it as Water-bent, which seems to be established in Spalding, with three other recent records from the town,