The gardens at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House are a lovingly tended oasis, offer a delightful setting for a stroll, picnic or play, and are set to be the location for a brand new Family Garden Trail that will launch on Wednesday 20 July for the school summer holidays.

The new trail will entertain families with fun facts, discoveries and things to do as they make their way around the traditionally planted Victorian garden. Awaiting exploration are colourful herbaceous borders, daisy scattered lawns, a carefully cultivated vegetable patch and a rose and clematis covered pergola. QR codes along the trail will activate the different elements and there will also be a paper version of the map available.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s favourite writing spot overlooks the garden, which is full of roses, peonies, hollyhocks and hardy geraniums – it’s where she wrote some of her most famous novels. Beyond this you can see the coach house from where the Gaskell’s coach and horses would have been kept and further beyond this there would once have been a paddock, where a cow, a pig and poultry would have been kept. The Family Garden Trail will illuminate fascinating stories about the Gaskell household in Victorian times and introduce characters like Tommy the pony. There are also a selection of traditional Victorian garden games like croquet, skittles, quoits and skipping ropes to have fun with on the lawns, where you can also enjoy a picnic.

The trail also highlights facts about sustainability and shares take home ideas about reducing carbon emissions. And to spread this message even further, whilst stocks last, families will also be able to take home a special pack of EGH wild flower seeds.

All of the research that has gone into bringing the Family Garden Trail to life has been carried out by Elizabeth Gaskell House’s Under 25 Volunteer Group and it has been supported by Arts Council and Museum Development North West. The transformation of the gardens themselves has been an ongoing labour of love by a dedicated team of gardening volunteers, who have worked incredibly hard since the 2014 restoration of the Regency-style Grade II* listed villa to create the beautiful setting that you see today.

The Family Garden Trail is a free activity for visitors to Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, which is open every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11:00am to 4:30pm. Entry is £6.50 for adults and free for children under 16, when accompanied by an adult. Tickets can be pre-booked via www.ticketsource.co.uk/elizabeth-gaskell-house. For further information on Elizabeth Gaskell’s House visit www.elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk