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Waltham Abbey Gardens, Abbey View, Waltham Abbey, Essex EN9 1XQ
Never sleeps, open 24 hours a day
With the remains of the country’s largest Augustinian Abbey, Waltham Abbey Gardens history is closely linked with royalty and religion from Bouda and Tovi to Henry VIII
Contact us
03000 030 610
Facilities
Waltham Abbey Gardens has been the setting for a church since about 790 AD, with the first stone church commissioned in 1057/8 by Earl Harold Godwinson (later King Harold II), whose body was reputedly brought here for burial after the Battle of Hastings. At its height, the monastic church was over 400 feet (135m) long, and was the last to be dissolved by Henry VIII.
After dissolution, a large mansion house was built by the Denny family, opposite what is now the Church Centre, with extensive formal gardens. They built the boundary walls with stone from the monastery, with some of the original carvings still to be seen to this day.
The site passed through several uses, until becoming part of the Lee Valley Regional Park in 1967, since when it has become a popular venue for events and family days out.
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The gardens span 9.03ha with amenity grassland perfect for a picnic, playing games or enjoying the stretch of open space. There are some areas of the site set aside as wildlife refuges and woodland so bring your binoculars along to see what you can spot. In the south east area of the site is a moated old orchard with a number of veteran fruit trees, along with newly planted specimens, and over twenty varieties of fruit. This is also the setting of our yearly Wassailing event in the winter.
The Cornmill Stream links the gardens with Cornmill Meadows, a semi-natural floodplain grassland with changing wildlife residents. The whole site lies within the Waltham Abbey Conservation area, and the land between the Romelands Estate and the moated orchard is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
For the visitor there is an excellent heritage experience with extensive paths and the opportunity to become immersed in the multiple layers of history, spanning over 1,000 years, to be found on the site. The proximity of the site to the Waltham Abbey town centre makes the site particularly easy to visit and enjoy the stories in this historic market town.
Cornmill Meadows is a large 54ha public park and nature reserve. The site is a mosaic of woodland, wetlands and meadows including traditional wet pasture and hay meadow within a level floodplain landscape. It's particularly noted for its dragonfly species, for which it is protected by a SSSI designation. The site was originally part of the land directly worked by the Abbey’s community, and now forms part of the Scheduled Ancient Monument area. In the dragonfly sanctuary you can see the fish ponds used by the monks to stick fish. The site also has calico ditches dating back to the 17th century, now used by wading birds overwintering and in the spring.
For the visitor there is an excellent countryside experience with extensive paths and great opportunities to see numerous dragonfly species, which along with other wetland insects, attract large numbers of Swift, Swallow, House Martin and Hobby during the spring and summer months. Wintering wildfowl such as Wigeon are plentiful, as are water edge birds such as Grey Heron, Lapwing, Snipe and several species of waders. Water Vole are also present and spectacular rafts of water lilies can be seen in the Old River Lea in the early summer.
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