Wedding parties and gardening tour groups have flocked to the splendid gardens Jenny and Miles Pope have created around their elegant, two-storey, Bombay villa.
Long-time resident of the area, Jenny says, "I love old villas and I used to drive up this road and think, 'I'd love that house'. Then, when we bought it we wanted to do justice to it by creating big, elegant, park-like grounds."
After buying here 23 years ago, she and Miles created Addenbrooke Gardens, named for her grandmother's maiden name, while raising three daughters. Central to their large grounds is the turn-of-the century villa which they've heard may have been a coach-stop when Razorback Rd was the main highway to Waikato.
Miles owns an agricultural contracting business and has been invaluable in re-contouring the grounds and features such as the waterfall-fed pond. Once the gardens were established, brides-to-be and gardening groups came calling seeking a venue. This prompted the Popes to obtain a resource consent (which is still current) to operate the business and add a small wedding chapel. The gardens have hosted more than 150 weddings, including one particularly memorable one at which a possum ran amok during photography after a guest accidentally disturbed his leafy perch.
