NEXT Wednesday is the annual National Trust open day, when free admission is provided at its properties around England and Wales. Westbury Court Garden is among these, being open from 11am-6pm.

"A rare and beautiful survival," notes the Trust Handbook. "A formal water garden, laid out in 1696-1705, and the earliest of its kind remaining in England. It was restored in 1971 and is planted with species dating from before 1700."

The Court, on the site of the old manor house by the side of the Westbury Brook, was inherited by Maynard Colchester on the death of his father in 1694. Maynard, an evangelic co-founder of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, also applied his energies to laying out new gardens in Dutch style.

A drawing by Atkyns shows the house and gardens in their full glory. Details differing from what can be seen on the ground suggest the picture may be based on the plans rather than the finished plan.

The house had become too antiquated by the mid-18th century and was rebuilt by Maynard's nephew, also called Maynard (d.1756). "Soon after its completion, however, the Colchesters took up residence at the Wilderness, their house at Abenhall," writes Dr Nicholas Herbert in the Victoria County History.

Maynard's son, again Maynard (d.1787), owned estates listed by Nicholas Herbert as including, as well as the Court, "Court Farm at Westbury, the Stantway Court, Rodley Farm, and Hayden estates, Baglaw Farm and Ley Park." The Court was demolished in 1805.

"Maynard Willoughby Wemyss, great-nephew of the last Maynard (d.1860) succeeded to the estates and took the name Colchester-Wemyss," Herbert reports, noting that he built a new house at Westbury in 1895. "(He) was chairman of the Gloucestershire County Council from 1908 to 1918, died in 1930 and was succeeded by his son Sir Maynard Francis Colchester-Wemyss.

"Sir Francis sold the Westbury estate to his brother Col J.M. Colchester-Wemyss (d.1946), whose widow, Stella, retained Westbury Court and part of the estate until 1960." Acquired by the county council, the house was demolished and replaced by the present old people's home.