SOME long-established gardens are akin to Old Masters, where layers of original detail and colour have been obscured by later over-painting. These original features can lie concealed and unknown for centuries, until revealed by careful restoration.
Lossenham Manor is such a garden, where extensive rejuvenation has been sensitively carried out by the Kent-based garden designer Marian Boswall for Tristram and Tavia Gethin. Mr and Mrs Gethin moved here from London in 1999, partly drawn by an ancient family connection: Tristram is descended from Dame Grace Gethin, who lived in the 17th century, and who, in turn, was descended from William Culpepper, who owned the house in the 16th century.
For the first two years, the Gethins did little to the garden, deciding to ‘see what was here’ before making any major changes. They made some pleasing discoveries, such as the naturalised cyclamen in the old orchard, and important improvements, including the iron railings along the moat, as well as adding limited planting, such as the now integral hornbeam hedge. It was not until 2014 that they decided to tackle the major problems that had become steadily more evident, however. Work included commissioning Mrs Boswall to address the state of the moat, which was full of silt and had collapsing walls; the regular flooding caused by the proximity of the broad valley of the Rother; the unevenness of the walled garden immediately to the east of the house; and the approach to the house and prospect of the main south-facing façade, where a gravel area was used for parking cars and had an expanse of uneven, sloping lawn beyond.
Denne historien er fra May 19, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 19, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.