Wick Court, Wick & Abson

A short avenue of yew trees which date from at least the 17th century lead from the house to the main gate. Court Farm can be seen straight ahead, and it is possible than an avenue or driveway used to extend up to the Farm which was once part of the lands of Wick Court. The main gate is now sealed off by a flood gate behind it, beyond which lie the fishponds. In the field beyond the gate is a mature Sequoia, which was probably planted when the land still belonged to Wick Court.

The formal garden is lawned, and to one side is a wall with an archway through it made of yew hedging. This style is again in the 16th and 17th century formal layout tradition, where straight lines are used in the designs more often than informal curved lines.

A rustic Tudor-looking summerhouse with leaded pane windows is also situated in this part of the garden, as is the well that used to form the water supply for Wick Court. The formal garden has a herbaceous border running parallel with the house.

To the west of the formal garden there is a sunken garden, bordered by a four-foot high stone wall. There are steps leading down at each corner of the garden. The owners at the time of the last survey believed that it used to be a knot garden, and that it had also been used as a rose garden. The owner was able to draw out a plan of how this formal geometric garden was set out, and how it appeared before it became overgrown. It appeared that there was a square within the square garden, then a central circle from which radiated paths at 180 degree angles from the circle, joining the steps at the corners of the garden. Apparently there was a sundial at the centre. Some ruins of stone were still visible in the centre at the time of the last survey (1986). There was also a stone which looked like a millstone. There were remnants of a parterre-style garden, as patches of the box were still in evidence.

To the east of the garden was an overgrown walled orchard. This used to be Wick Court land, but was sold off in the 1980s. The best-maintained area of the garden is the walled vegetable garden, which was still under cultivation in 1986 growing vegetables for the two families that occupied Wick Court. There was a formal element within the vegetable garden: the path running through the kitchen garden was lined with dwarf-sized hedging. There was also a small pond of fairly modern construction.

North-north-west of the house was a smaller garden with a raised terrace and herbaceous borders. This area also contained a Victorian water pump. The last surveyor of the site thought this may be the entrance to the house in medieval or Tudor times. This was because the entrance used to be in the open hall style similar to the entrances of Bircombe Court and Tockington Manor, whose entrance halls dated from the 1200s to 1500s. This would have meant that the garden by the original entrance would have overlooked the River Boyd, where a mill and mill race were probably sited.

At the time of the last survey, the garden was found to be generally well-maintained. The yew avenue had been preserved. However, the sunken parterre garden (possible knot garden) had become very overgrown. The listed summerhouse had become very dilapidated and a historic area of the garden, including several mature box trees, had had a timber adventure play area built in it.