Photo: Margaret Holland
Wilder Open Gardens
Wilder Open Gardens events 2025
Across Somerset, people are celebrating what they’re doing to help nature recover – and what better way to do it than with tea and cake. Find a Wilder Open Garden below, learn from others, and help put nature on the path to recovery in your own patch.
Please note: These events are put on by our wonderful supporters who are raising vital funds in aid of Somerset Wildlife Trust. Please attend at your own risk, and note that events listed may be subject to last minute changes. For the most up to date information, please contact the individual event organiser.
Key:
Medium garden = ~50-150m2
Large garden = over 150m2 or with an extra area such as an orchard or meadow)
♿️ = most of the area is wheelchair friendly
🐕 = dogs welcome, on a lead please
🚽 = toilets nearby
Please note:
This page is currently in beta testing! The gardens listed below have been populated for the purposes of seeing what is possible, and how our wonderful past Wilder Open Garden hosts can interact with it. A fully live version will be launched in early summer.
Openings by prior arrangement
Chancellor's Farm
By prior arrangement only.
A series of traditionally managed fields around the buildings of Chancellor’s Farm and providing an outstanding example of some of the flower rich grassland communities associated with the higher parts of the Mendip plateau, which have now become very scarce. Please note the reserve is Permit Only.
Contact details: Somerset Wildlife Trust
Contact number: 01823 652400
Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
Group openings
Avalon Marshes
Avalon Marshes Centre
Shapwick Road,
Glastonbury,
BA6 9TT
10am to 5pm seven days a week
Entry: is free for adults and children.
Parking: No formal car park. Best to park in Cheddar and then proceed on foot along Lippiatt Lane to the footpath starting at ST 463 536 and then to the reserve entrance at ST 472 537.
Contact details: Contact number: 01823 652400 / Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
The Avalon Marshes Centre sits at the heart of Somerset’s Avalon Marshes. The centre has visitor information, café, craft shop, replica historic buildings, classroom, meeting room, car park and toilets. The centre lies at the heart of the areas nature reserves.
Catcott is now part of the Avalon Marshes area and is a living example of an ancient landscape much as it was before the major agricultural changes of the 20th century. Westhay Moor is also part of the mystical Avalon Marshes within Somerset's historic Levels and Moors. It provides a home for rare wildlife and a unique insight into thousands of years of shifting landscape.
♿️ 🐕🚽
Upcoming Wilder Open Gardens
April
Bubwith Acres
Off Cliff Road,
Cheddar,
Somerset
6th & 13th April 2025
2-5pm
Entry: is free for adults and children.
Parking: No formal car park. Best to park in Cheddar and then proceed on foot along Lippiatt Lane to the footpath starting at ST 463 536 and then to the reserve entrance at ST 472 537.
Contact details: Contact number: 01823 652400 / Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
In spring and summer there is a fantastic display of wildflowers, with the varying soil types found across the site supporting different species.
🐕
May
Great Breach Wood,
Reynald's Way,
Compton Dundon,
Somerset
Sunday 18th & 25th May 2025
2-5pm
Entry: is free for adults and children.
Parking: Park at Combe Hill Wood car park ST 503 329 then follow Polden Way south to reserve.
Contact details: Contact number: 01823 652400 / Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
The reserve is home to many woodland birds such as Blue and Great Tits, Nuthatch and Tree Creepers. Keep an ear out for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Barely bigger than a Sparrow, these tiny birds make a lighter ‘tapping’ than the drumming of their Great-Spotted cousin which also breed here.
Large garden ♿️ 🐕 🚽
June
Fivehead Arable Fields,
Cathanger Lane,
Off A378,
Fivehead,
Somerset
Sunday 6th & 13th June 2025
2-5pm
Entry: is free for adults and children.
Parking: No dedicated reserve parking and lanes are very narrow but some roadside parking possible in Cathanger Lane. Do not block any gates as all are used daily. Entrance to the reserve is from Cathanger Lane at ST 338 226.
Contact details: Contact number: 01823 652400 / Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
Nationally scarce species found here are Broad-leaved Spurge, Spreading Hedge-Parsley, Narrow-fruited Cornsalad and Slender Tare. Other uncommon species found on this site are Small Toadflax, Dwarf Spurge, Sharp-leaved Fluellen and Round-leaved Fluellen. Skylarks regularly nest within the fields. Brown Hares have been recorded. A number grassland butterflies are present including Marbled White and Common Blue, and the Great Green Bush-Cricket also occurs.
Small garden ♿️ 🐕 🚽
July
West Coker Fen
Off the A30 between West Coker and East Chinnock,
West Coker,
Somerset
11th & 13th July 2025
2-5pm
Entry: is free for adults and children.
Parking: No car park. There is limited roadside parking on the unclassified road between East Chinnock and Odcombe at ST 503 138 and then east along the public footpath into the reserve.
Contact details: Contact number: 01823 652400 / Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
Visiting West Coker Fen in early summer can feel like you have stepped back in time. These flower rich damp pastures are a remnant of an older landscape when farming was far less intensive. The reserve consists of three fields on gently sloping land that are bordered by two streams.
Wilder Churches ♿️ 🐕 🚽
August
Netherclay Community Woodland
Off Silk Mills road,
Roughmoor,
Bishop's Hull,
Taunton,
Somerset
11th & 17th August 2025
2-5pm
Entry: is free for adults and children.
Parking: Parking on the lane is limited but the Silk Mills Park and Ride, Bishop’s Hull village and the edge of Taunton are within easy walking distance.
Contact details: Contact number: 01823 652400 / Contact email: enquiries@somersetwildlife.org
An area of improved pasture land on the banks of the River Tone planted with broadleaved trees north of Bishop's Hull great for riverside wildlife.
Community garden 🐕 ♿️