Slowly does it

Oxleaze Farm, near Lechlade, Gloucestershire The home of Mr and Mrs Charles Mann | The making of this Cotswold garden has taken place bit by bit, as time and circumstances have allowed, and the results are immensely satisfying, says Kendra Wilson

- Kendra Wilson

OXLEAZE FARM near Lechlade is steeped in Cotswolds vernacular, but, between the layers of old stone buildings, yew-enclosed garden rooms and box-trimmed vistas, there is something distinctively fresh and personal. This is made more tangible when the owners explain that the garden has been evolving for 40 years and that it was all their own work.

When Charles and Chipps Mann inherited the farm at Oxleaze as a young couple, the garden comprised two adjacent rectangles, one supporting an impossible quantity of fruit and vegetables, the other devoted to monocultures of roses and peonies around a modular lawn. Before long, the vegetable garden was reduced by half to make way for a climbing frame and swings.

At about this time, Mrs Mann found herself working with the late Rosemary Verey, who lived nearby at Barnsley House. As a garden consultant, Verey was then at the height of her powers and it was Mrs Mann’s job to help her get around: ‘I would drive her, and hold the end of a tape measure,’ she recalls. ‘I was like a huge piece of blotting paper, absorbing everything she was saying and learning from her.’