A garden in PETERBOROUGH
Our client commissioned us to design a series of gardens for this historic 17th century Grade II listed house set in a rural village near Oundle, Peterborough. The house sits near the River Nene with south facing views over open countryside. It is a very private property, secluded within its own extensive gardens and grounds. The gardens were recast in their design by 20th century British architect and garden designer Sir Reginald Blomfield early in his career. To the east of the house, a formal area was originally designed by Elizabeth Banks Associates.
Some of the main features (avenues, walks and hedges) we inherited no longer made sense, as parts of the land previously belonging to the property had been sold off. Our first task was to reinterpret these features, stripping away overgrown elements and re-designing the routes around the garden. We opened up and extended the south terrace, replaced some of the extensive lawns with wildflower meadows and used topiary to create an architectural back bone to the scheme.
An old paddock was turned into a productive kitchen garden, complete with a new working yard and machine storage shed for the gardening team. A Victorian piggery was turned into a gym.
On the north side we created a restrained courtyard garden using patterns of cobbles, clipped shapes and pleached trees. To the south we created a tennis court garden. The tennis court was positioned on a lower level to obscure its view from the piggery, in the foreground a mass of drought tolerant planting was introduced, surrounding a generous new seating terrace, outdoor kitchen and lawn.
Some of the details that we have incorporated in to the garden have included a set of bespoke French oak garden dining furniture we designed in collaboration with Bosco London, with outdoor cushions by Amelfi. Dan designed a collection of large statement planters in collaboration with Coade. The design is based on the features of a Venetian well head. The original can be found in the Venasse Palace, Venice, Italy.
