We have been collaborating with our clients in Northamptonshire for over 5 years and have totally fallen in love with this historic property where the Gunpowder Plot was reportedly planned. The house is also incredibly lucky to have found its current owners who are injecting the space with enthusiasm, carefully considered renovation, and most importantly all the warmth of a family home. Lutyens helped extend the house and re-landscape the gardens in the early 1900s and delivered what has become one of my favourite pieces of hard landscaping.
We have been advising on various elements of the planting and management of the gardens. In 2020 we were commissioned to produce a master plan for the Victorian walled garden. The build of this garden is now complete and a culmination of meticulous planning and careful consideration of the space.
This Victorian walled garden has been designed to balance productivity with aesthetics but also being sensitive to creating as low a maintenance garden as possible.
Events are regularly held at the manor house and we wanted the walled garden to be used in this context. From a productive perspective the clients wanted to grow cut flowers to be gathered in armfuls for the house while also providing a steady flow of vegetables for the family.
The structure of the garden in based on the traditional quartered kitchen garden layout with a third of the garden given to produce and two-thirds wild flowers and orchard. A dipping pond anchors the central space surrounded by four Bramley apple trees enclosed within large clipped yew beehives. A key feature of the garden are the traditional post and rail fruit supports combined with a series of apple arches.
