Spring at Miss Porters House

Celebrate Spring in the colourful urban garden and historic bush house (fernery), a covered outdoor area between the dining room and kitchen, at Miss Porter's House Museum.

The garden is a rare example of a modest Edwardian town garden of which few examples survive. The near century long residence of one family with limited means and cautious habits, means that visitors can continue to enjoy both the house and its small garden. Both are relatively untouched and retain many of their key elements.

Bush houses were popular during the first half of the twentieth century providing sheltered sitting areas and a location for fashionable ferns, hanging baskets and potted plant collections. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the Porter women used the bush-house for social and leisure activities.

See a special display of everything floral and leaf through a replica of the women's gardening scrapbook containing articles about individual plants, new varieties, techniques, problems and gain an insight into the family's typical mid-century tastes.

So come and enjoy the house, garden, household objects, homemade clothing and exquisite craft work and take home a memento from Miss Porter's plant stall and let the younger visitors play the Clever Detective Game.