Iford Manor: Gardens — Attraction in Westwood

My partner and I booked a private booking for two hours of the gardens to do our wedding shoot here. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the lovely Alex, who was hospitable enough to provide us with drinks as it was a hot day ahead of us and our 2 hours 45 minute journey. She showed us around and then, left us to our devices to enjoy the gardens. We arrived a little later than our booking as we traveled from afar, so we went over the slot time. An unknown lady (also works there) came marching towards us and behaved in an ignominious manner. She placed urgency that we ‘need to leave’. This incredibly rude lady escorted us out of the gardens like we were criminals!! Whilst walking out, our photographers followed and I was a bit behind with my partner due to my high heels and the mossy steps. The lady kept turning around and our photographer simply said to her ‘it’s ok’ and she replied loudly with ‘it’s not ok’ to which I had to step in and remind her that we’ve paid an awful amount of money and her reaction and treatment was uncalled for. According to her, someone had already told us 30 minutes ago that we were over time when no one had. She simply made her assumptions. This lady tried to dampen the day and ruin our moment. She has no clue on how to speak to people, how to approach her and not the slightest bit of kindness or compassion. She then tried apologise but by then we felt it was too late. According to this lady, someone else had booked the gardens at 2pm but she came home and caused a commotion at 12.40pm. How does that make sense? Fair enough we went over the slot time but the next couple wouldn’t be there until 2pm, so what’s the big rush? We travelled almost 3 hours to get here, had been up since 5.30am, spent so much money on hiring a photographer and videographer only to be treated like rubbish. We had high hopes for Iford manor but moving forwards, I will not be recommending this...

We seem to have waited forever to visit the Peto garden at Iford Manor but I really wanted to go on a nice bright day and yesterday was perfect.

We pre-booked our tickets online which is a good idea. On arrival there is a good sized car park for visitors so no parking worries. We started in the café for a good cup of coffee; this is a really nice area with tables and chairs, umbrellas and plenty of shade. There is a restaurant too but we did not visit that.

Moving on to the gardens themselves, from the entrance booth you walk down by the old manor house and through an arch and into a wonderland.

A caveat to anyone who may be a little unsteady on their feet, this is a terraced garden on a steep hillside so there are plenty of steps and some of the lateral paths are not level. But with care you should be OK.

What you have here is a very steep hillside that has been planted with a wide range of colourful plants in borders and pots; additionally there is sculpture and some lovely Italianate buildings. It is all quite lovely.

We were lucky that we had plenty of sunshine so everything looked at its best but without being too hot.

We really enjoyed our visit to Iford Manor and are already looking forward to another visit a bit later...

I just wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone, they treat you with disrespect and are incredibly rude.

However; I must add there is a lovely lady who works there called Alex and she was very hospitable and friendly. Considering we travelled from so far, a woman who also works there was so rude to us about leaving the gardens as our time was up for our private photoshoot. My sister has a health condition where she struggles to walk fast, and the lady was ushering her out as if she had committed some sort of crime in the garden!

If you’re coming from far, I wouldn’t recommend this place to you, it’s not worth the travel only for you to be treated horribly by staff. Save your time and MONEY and go elsewhere, where the staff are friendly and polite to you, as Iford manor doesn’t have friendly staff (except Alex)

If I could leave this place 0 stars I genuinely would, I will admit I was horrible back to the lady, as she was very very rude first! And I will not be taking any disrespect considering I drove from so far away, and was up at the crack of dawn!!

They tried to put a downer on our day which was supposed to be so special for us, and left us in an awful mood. Again, save your money and time and do not go to...