Milehouse, your gp may also put you on a water tablet to reduce your bp if it doesn't start to come down on it's own.
There's a few things you can do to help reduce bp, losing weight is a must if your overweight, stopping smoking and only drink alcohol in moderation, exercise each day, reduce the salt in your diet and decrease the stress in your life are just a few which are beneficial. I would suggest you buy a home BP monitor so that you can keep an eye on your bp at home and record your levels and present them to your gp, sometimes people can suffer from 'White Coat Hypertension' (Google it) when attending their gp clinic so checking your own at home will be useful to your gp.