MORE often than one might suppose, a garden begins with a chance encounter and so it with the two gardens created from scratch for this Cotswold home. Standing in the queue for entry to the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the garden designer Marcus Barnett bumped into a current client who happened to be with friends who were in urgent need of help following some major building projects.
"They had done a beautifully considered renovation on an annexed barn and had plans to develop a further smaller barn that had been situated a little way across from the main house, separated by an old farmyard, he recalls. The main house had also been substantially renovated with the same exquisite care. As well as making gardens for around the main house and outbuildings, the property needed a sympathetic eye cast over it and a master plan that would unite the various, hitherto disparate elements. Telephone numbers were exchanged and, the next day, the clients called to arrange a first meeting.
The bulk of the client's property consisted of seven acres with, at its heart, the original stone house, surrounded by a collection of traditional stone outbuildings, all of which had been given a contemporary finish inside. The home and gardens are separated by a quiet country lane, beyond which lies another small paddock field. There were views across an unspoilt valley of small woods, pasture, and agricultural fields.
The main house and its outbuildings described an almost complete square, creating within their walls a sheltered lawn with lovely vistas across the Cotswolds from the south-west corner. The diminutive barn house, barely 100 yards northwest of the main house, stood, somewhat isolated, on an area of lumpy uneven ground.
This story is from the April 20, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
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This story is from the April 20, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
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