The Yorkshire Country House Partnership (YCHP) is delighted to announce its shared theme for 2026: Plants, Trees and the Country House. Throughout the year, participating houses across the region are showcasing a diverse programme of exhibitions, displays, and activities celebrating the botanical heritage of the country house.

Plants and trees are integral to the history of the country house—from the gardens and estates that surround them to the botanical motifs in their interior design and the natural materials used to create their furnishings. The 2026 theme offers a unique opportunity for each house to highlight specific areas of their collections, ranging from the intricate floral details on ceramics to the ancient trees standing in their parklands.

Visitors of all ages are invited to explore these landscapes through the eyes of the people who created and nurtured them. Indoors, exhibitions will explore the local and global origins of the natural materials used in furniture and objects, alongside contemporary artistic responses to the botanical world. Outdoors, there are glasshouses, courtyards, hidden gardens and ancient trees waiting to be discovered.

Participating houses and exhibitions:

Kiplin Hall & Gardens | Richmond

This exhibition explores wood as a natural, renewable resource, historically transformed by skilled craftspeople into items of both utility and beauty. Discover wooden objects from Kiplin’s collection in a new light, highlighting the role of the Home Arts and Industries Association. From Easter onwards, visitors can venture outdoors to explore the magnificent trees in the gardens surrounding the Hall.

Lotherton Hall | Leeds

From garden to gallery, explore how nature has inspired artists, designers, and makers to create a wealth of decoration for our homes and bodies. This new exhibition features beautiful and remarkable objects inspired by flowers, fruit, leaves and trees, including original William Morris wallpapers from the Sanderson Archive, intricate Spitalfields silks, and innovative furniture by Voysey and Pugin. Our community partners will highlight Florence Nightingale’s family connection to Lotherton, her love of plants and flowers and how she included gardens in her pioneering hospital design. On show will be Nightingale’s herbarium containing pressed flowers she collected as a young girl with botanist Margaret Stovin.

Brodsworth Hall and Gardens | Doncaster

Explore the floral history of English Heritage’s Brodsworth Hall. In A Season of Flowers, this new exhibition takes inspiration from the people who lived and worked at Brodsworth and their love of gardens. From objects never before on display, historic photographs and stunning commissioned floral arrangements to oral histories told by the voices of those who knew Brodsworth well, this exhibition brings the outside in. In the gardens, visitors can discover more about hidden areas, and families can follow a fun flower-themed trail.

Burton Constable Hall | East Yorkshire

Explore social class and gender structures of the 18th century through the extensive 10-volume herbarium assembled at Burton Constable between the 1740s and 1760s. The herbarium sits within a broader narrative that follows the life of William Constable and those around him during significant changes to the house and parkland, at a time of rapid expansion in the natural specimen business. The exhibition will also facilitate a deeper appreciation for how the house and parkland inextricably form a single unit. Through digital interaction with the herbarium, visitors will discover connections to parkland species still growing on the estate today. 

Nostell Priory | West Yorkshire

  • West Yorkshire Glasshouse
  • From April 2026 

Step inside and reimagine Nostell’s glasshouse as it might have looked in the 18th century, including living plants and new interpretation rooted in nature, history and wellbeing, in the past, present and future. Learn more about the connections between plants and a country estate like Nostell, including fascinating links between natural remedies and the Winn family’s own stories. This immersive experience will grow and evolve over time, and Nostell are excited to welcome visitors into the very first chapter. Visitors are also invited to share ideas to help shape the new Apothecary Garden, which the property will be developing in the coming years. 

Sewerby Hall & Gardens | East Yorkshire

This new exhibition explores the development of Sewerby Hall’s landscape and gardens through the agency of three of its head gardeners and their Greame family employers, and the plants and trees associated with their tenure. Visitors will trace the emergence of the estate from open fields to small parcels of land in multi-ownership after the Enclosure Act award of 1811, and its transition to a private family garden then a public amenity in the early twentieth century.

Beningbrough Hall | York 

This special exhibition showcasing a vibrant collection of newly commissioned and existing works by acclaimed British artist Nancy Cadogan brings together landscapes, trees, gardens and threads of literary history. Visitors are invited to explore how a place is shaped by memory, artistry, and human connection. Moving between the real and the imagined, Cadogan’s work reflects on women, time, and storytelling – where rivers, forests and tree-lined paths become symbols of continuity, transformation, and the journeys we take.