Stowe: breathtakingly beautiful landscape gardens

I love the National Trust properties. They never disappoint. Stowe Garden's and Manor house in Buckingham is no exception. There are over 250 acres of stunning, informal landscape with over 40 historic temples and monuments, each with their own story. It is about an hour northeast of Oxford and full of fascinating history. Well worth a visit!

• Peter Temple, a sheep farmer, signed the first lease for Stowe in 1571. 

• Stowe was owned by the same family for over 350 years. 

• The family hired the most talented architects and garden designers of the age, together with a small army of staff, to ensure that they remained at the forefront of gardening fashion.

• In its late 18th-century heyday, Stowe was the most magnificent landscape garden in Britain. Indeed, it rivaled the grandest royal gardens of continental Europe. The Temple family, who owned Stowe, spent a fortune creating and extending the garden to further their political ambitions.

• Stowe reached its social peak in 1822 when Richard Temple was created 1st Duke of Buckingham. In 1845 the family laid on an extravagant welcome for Queen Victoria. But three years later the second Duke was bankrupt.

• 'Capability' Brown was married here and lived in one of the Boycott Pavilions

• Stowe was 'Capability' Brown's first major commission

• Catherine the Great of Russia loved the gardens and she copied many ideas for her gardens near St.  Petersburg

• The family claimed Lady Godiva as one of their ancestors

• The family was once richer than the king

• The second Duke was a fraudster who took his family and Stowe to the brink of financial ruin. In 1847 bailiffs seized his assets and he fled abroad.

• His son took over, selling most of the contents of Stowe, but this did little to re-coup the Duke's £1 million debt. The scandal rocked the English aristocracy and appalled the public. The future of Stowe was in grave doubt.

• The son's efforts to secure Stowe’s future were undermined when he died in 1889, with no male heir. His daughter used Stowe rarely. When her son died in the First World War, Stowe was sold.

The Palladian Bridge, one of only three in the country,  and Stowe's is the only one with no steps so that carriages can cross it, not that this happens very often in the 21st century! 

Stowe was rescued in 1922, when it was turned into a school. Clough Williams-Ellis, creator of Portmeirion, was appointed to recreate the Stowe estate as Stowe School.