Peckover House and garden, Cambridgeshire - Mike Sutherill

Overlooking the River Nene in Wisbech, Peckover House was built in the 1720s on the fashionable North Brink, one of Britains most perfect Georgian streetscapes. From the 1790s it was both the home and the banking premises of the Peckover family, Quakers who played a major role in the life of the town. Though their faith excluded them from certain positions, the family produced prominent collectors and a Lord-Lieutenant of the county who received an honorary degree from Cambridge University for his service to science and the cause of education and a Baronetcy. Beyond the beautifully decorated Georgian rooms, evocative servants hall and stables lies an enchanting and surprisingly large walled garden, with colourful borders, summer- and greenhouses, an orangery and a thatched reed barn. Besides 60 varieties of rose, the garden has a number of fine specimen trees, including a Chinese Chusan Palm, a maidenhair tree, tulip tree and three venerable orange trees.