Church Street, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
The Cowbridge Physic Garden Trust have recreated a physic garden in Cowbridge, on the site that was once part of Old Hall, the home of the Edmondes family from the 18th to the 20th century. The creation of the Physic Garden was planned as part of the 750th anniversary celebrations of Cowbridge receiving its borough charter. The garden is laid out as a ‘parterre’ with formal beds and paths. It has been designed by Anthony Jallard, a well-known landscape designer who has worked on the walled garden at Middleton and Hampton Court in Hereford. The Physic Garden will provide a unique amenity for the town of Cowbridge and the wider Vale. It will give a fascinating insight into the curative properties of plants and of the great debt owed by modern pharmaceutical medicine to the plant world.
Physic Garden is a garden where plants with medicinal properties are grown. Such plants have been known to man from time immemorial and grown in gardens for many centuries in countries throughout the world. In the Middle Ages Physic Gardens were associated in particular with monasteries. In gardens close to an infirmary herbs such as rose, lily, cumin, lovage, tansy, mint and rosemary would be grown to treat fevers, aches and pains, and other ailments of the monks and their guests. The first garden intended to provide plants to study was established at the medical school of the University of Padua in 1545. By the end of the seventeenth century physic gardens were proliferating across Europe, all linked with universities where medicine was taught The Chelsea Physic Garden in London was established in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries to train their apprentices in identifying medicinal plants.
Directions: The Garden is situated in Cowbridge town centre adjacent to Holy Cross Church. It can be accessed from entrances on Church Street or High Street......
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