Prior Park House was once the home of one of Bath’s most famous and wealthy residents, Ralph Allen, who built the house and sculpted its dramatic grounds and gardens in the 1730-40s. Ralph Allen was the inventor of the modern postal system. Usurping the traditional system of sending letters which involved dispatching couriers to deliver single items by hand, Allen introduced a system based on nodes, in which letters were collated then sent on, in bulk, to a distribution centre close to the final destination. It made him his fortune, and with it he built the masterpiece that is Prior Park. Today, the house is a boarding school for boys, but since 1993, the grounds have been in the hands of the National Trust to maintain and preserve for the public.
Like the Skyline walk, Prior Park’s grounds begin at the top of a hill, beneath the columns of the imposing, Palladian exterior of the house, and descend down into the bowl of the city below. Designed by the world renowned Capability Brown, the grounds are designed to catch the eye and the breath, with an array of focal points, natural beauty and rare species dotted along the journey. In February, the snowdrops begin to break through the chilled ground, followed by a profusion of yellows, golds and creams as the daffodils elbow them out of the way in March, but of particular interest in Spring is the wild garlic. From April to June, the inimitable fragrance and dainty, white flowers of the wild garlic dominate the languid, meandering paths that lead visitors gently down the hill.
It’s the perfect way to spend a morning or afternoon for those looking for the antidote to the harder lines and bustle of the city below. It’s also the perfect excursion for Jane Austen and Bridgerton fans wishing to dive into their imaginations and relive a bygone era, when ‘taking the airs’ was a thing, women dressed in bonnets, clutching parasols, and men dressed in breeches clutching their lapels.