MANY of the hamlets and small villages that follow the River Windrush as it meanders through the western end of the Cotswolds lie in the dark shadow of steeply wooded slopes, until, eventually, the land rises to an escarpment that opens out offering fine views to the south. This is an area of estates and farms that date back to the early medieval period, a landscape marked out in honeyed stone walls and grazing sheep. It is here that, since 2012, the designer Graham Lloyd-Brunt has been helping the owners of what had once been a large working farm with many ancient outbuildings and barns to make a garden.
When the owners moved here in 1999, the farm came with significantly less land than the 40 acres it now encompasses. Over the years, however, they acquired further fields and woods, as well as several Cotswold stone outbuildings, notably a handsome long barn, a derelict old forge and a dilapidated stone cart shed in front of the farmhouse. All are spread out in what feels like no particular order down a steep slope, so that, from the road, only the mossed slate roofs are visible.
In the early years, much essential repair and maintenance was done throughout the site with the help of local dry-stone wallers and craftsmen. They secured a rat run of existing walls and created terraces that sloped from the top of the slope—encompassing a small productive garden now doubled in size—down to the farmhouse, where more recent work has created a small gravelled courtyard neatly walled and capped.
Denne historien er fra September 20, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra September 20, 2023-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.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
