Garden Showcase - Compton Acres Gardens
Information kindly submitted by Paul Miley, Kaye Merna and Chris Allen

Compton Acres is one of the finest privately owned gardens in the South with a unique series of stunning tranquil gardens offering spectacular views of Poole Harbour, Brownsea Island, and the Purbeck Hills beyond. It features a large number of gardens including

• Roman Garden
• Grotto
• Italian Garden
• Palm Court
• Wooded Valley
• Rock Garden
• Wildlife Walk
• Winter Garden
• Water Garden

Japanese Garden

We are here to celebrate Japanese gardening styles and will focus on the tremendous Japanese influenced Garden at Compton.

The Japanese Garden at Compton Acres is a good example of a Japanese style landscape. The gardens include all the key elements, a beautiful wooden Imperial Tea House with the overhanging branches of a Wisteria Sinensis reflected in the water, the garden is a place that provides secluded rest and pleasure.

There are stone and wooden bridges, stepping stones, waterfalls and pools. The large Coy Carp in the deep pool are fed twice by day by hand. The gardens are also visited by dragionflies, wagtails, finches and kingfishers. The Japanese Garden at Compton Acres is a truly magnificent place.

"The Japanese garden at Compton Acres was created from gorse and heather glade Dorset Heathland. Work started in late 1924 on the insturction of the owner Mr. Simpson and the expert supervision of his head gardener Mr. Middleton.

There is reference in some early visitor guide books that Japanese Landscape architects and craftsmen were involved in its deisgn and construction - to date there is no documentation or photographic evidence to support this. In fact an early photo shows two venitian metal lamps within the garden - surely not appropriate. What the garden does have are many authentic stone artifacts, some of great age.

The Imperial Tea House creates a stunning focal point viewed across the water.

A refurbishment programme has started with the clearing and pruning of overgrown shrubs. This is a good example of a Japanese style garden and will continue providing all year round enjoyment and interest to many thousands of visitors to Compton Acres.

Also at Compton

Compton also features many other gardens ( some of them mentioned above). These include -

Model Railway -A journey into the world of the model railways, situated at Compton Acres gardens this very large "00" guage model railway is now 18 years old! The scenic layout contains loads of tiny handcrafted scenes, like Church's, Stations, Town scenes, and NEW FOR 2004, the Harbour scene, 'Drixcombe',

The Ark -an extensive range of gift and garden ware, as well as
a wide variety of plants, many of which can be seen within the gardens themselves. Unique handmade gifts are also available
from the 'Something Different' craft shop.

Future plans for Compton

Taken directly from Compton's website - the location is likely to soon get an addition to its Italian garden section- 'The second phase sees the development of an Italian Villa, designed in keeping with the Italian garden, providing a quality function and restaurant facility.'

Opening times

We hope that you have enjoyed viewing this showcase garden. We would recommend you to visit Compton Acres website (www.comptonacres.co.uk/). The Compton Acres Gardens are open to the public seven days a week from 9.00am to 6.00pm in the summer season, last entrance 5.00pm and 9.00am to 4.00pm in the winter season, last entrance 3.00pm. Visitors to Compton Acres can also enjoy FREE parking.

This page will hopefully inspire you to add a few Japanese touches to your own garden.

We aim to make this part of our website a resource to show the best of design and ideas - if you want your garden to be considered, please just let us know.