Goddards in the Sunshine

M and I spent a lovely morning and lunchtime at Goddards House in York.  Goddards is a National Trust property  on Tadcaster Road and a great place to spend a couple of hours exploring the beautiful gardens.

The house was built in the 1920’s for the Terry family (yes the very family that came up with the Chocolate orange, in my opinion the best chocolate ever!).  The house is in the Arts and Crafts style which is a style I love, a place you could imagine living in, very light and cosy.  Inside isn’t too cluttered with breakable, priceless objects which is good as a 2 year olds little fingers do get everywhere.  We did a whistle stop tour of the house, there is a good exhibition of the family and their chocolate empire if you have time to stop and read, it all past in a blur for me.

The gardens is what kept M very happy.  They are gorgeous, from the moment you step from the house onto the stunning sunny terrace with welcoming wicker seats and the smell of lavender wafting over, it is very picturesque. We made our way down the steps to the pond.  M always makes a beeline for water of any kind.  We had to look for fish and tadpoles both of which there wasn’t any that we could see so he ran around it instead.

He then spied a garden quoits game on the grass.  I tried to show him how to play but he looked at me and told me “no mummy that’s not how you do it” and proceeded to show me the correct way.  Having most definitely been put in my place we played the game his way and of course he won, go figure.

We wandered down a gravel path and came to a stunning wooded area and a pond with a very cute stone bridge going over it.  We must of done a circuit 10 times so that he could go back over the bridge one more time.  There was no one else around for the whole 30 minutes we were down in this section of the garden, it was so nice and peaceful and we weren’t disturbing anyone.

We found our way to the greenhouse and M immediately found the water hose and kept demanding for it to be turned on.  I tried to explain that it wasn’t ours and that I couldn’t turn it on but I think he was a bit tired and any understanding on his part was taken over by a major meltdown.  I managed to distract him by showing him the strawberry plants and noticed you could buy them for a donation so we got a plant and M forgot the hose and was now excited about planting our strawberry plant which already had 6 strawberries on.

We spent some time in the vegetable garden smelling all the lovely fragrant herbs and M telling anyone who would listen what fruit and vegetables he liked, everyone thankfully seemed amused by him.  I am always a little worried when he starts taking to strangers that they won’t appreciate his toddler banter.

 

The gardens aren’t large but they have plenty to look at and corners to explore.  You can use the croquet and lawn tennis sets if you ask at reception and there were a few people playing while we were there. We went onto the terrace and found a table and got a pot of tea for me and a glass of milk for M.  I could of sat there forever.  The sun was shining, M was content to sit nicely, it was perfect. There are plenty of benches and nice grassy spots for a picnic, we had ours by the small meadow overlooking the racecourse.

If you don’t have a National Trust card it is £6.30 for an adult, over 5s is £3.15.  There are baby change facilities and a lot of the grounds is push chair accessible but I think a sling for a baby and letting a toddler walk is preferable as it isn’t a large property and they let you leave your pram at reception.  There are only 6 parking spaces available at the property for disabled visitors.  I park on a side street about a 5 minute walk away. It is a lovely, tranquil slice of York that we come back to all the time, it is a winner for us.