Stewart's Burnby Hall Gardens & Museum

These delightful Gardens, close to the centre of Pocklington (a thriving market town in the County of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England), are home to the National Collection of Hardy Water Lilies - the biggest such collection to be found in a natural setting in Europe.

The two lakes that contain the lilies are set in eight acres of beautiful gardens - including rock gardens, a natural shrubbery, formal beds, the Secret Garden, a Victorian Garden and many other attractions, details of which may be found here on our website.

The Gardens were the inspiration of Major Percy Stewart who, on his death in 1963, left his estate in Trust for the enjoyment of the people of Pocklington and the thousands of visitors who come from all over the world. The Stewart Museum in the Gardens provides a fascinating glimpse into his life.

The Stewart Museum has recently undergone a complete refurbishment with Grant Aid from the Heritage Lottery Fund, LEADER+ (a UK Government and European Union funded initiative), and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Adventurer, traveller, scholar, philanthropist, soldier, collector, environmentalist Major Percy Marlborough Stewart was an extraordinary man: a descendant of the Earls of Galloway, godson of the Duke of Marlborough, and second cousin to Winston Churchill. He was born in 1871, one of the 14 children of the Reverend James Stewart, Rector of Little Stukely, Huntingdon. He gained a 1st Class Honours degree in Semitic Languages at Cambridge University; he taught for a short period at Pocklington School and as a tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge. Then after his marriage to Katharine (nee Priestman) in 1901 the couple purchased the Burnby Hall estate. But that was only the beginning of his remarkable career and -

                          "I suddenly said to my wife: "We're terribly dull people, let's travel around the world and then we shall have something to talk about.''

So in this spirit of adventure Stewart - most often with his wife, but sometimes on his own - made no less than eight round-the-world voyages between 1906 and 1926. He had an unquenchable curiosity about the world and its peoples and as a record of his travels he brought back to Pocklington a unique collection of artefacts many of which are recognised by UNESCO as of national and international importance.

These artefacts are now in state-of-the-art display cases that show them off to full advantage; and with a number of interactive stations that relate some of the adventures he met with on his travels.

Entry to the Museum is included in the garden admission fee. Arrangements to visit the Museum out of normal hours may be made by appointment

www.burnbyhallgardens.com