Synopsis
Viewing this tranquil landscape as the sun goes down, it is well-nigh impossible to envisage anything other than gardens vibrant with plants, woodland echoing with birdsong, and untroubled reflections upon the clear waters of the lake. But when Phillippa and Steve Lambert first visited, they describe a scene that is unrecognisable today. ‘It was complete dereliction.’ The once magnificent early Picturesque gardens were consumed by a tangle of undergrowth, rubbish was strewn throughout, and the lake was clouded and silted up. ‘Yet, somehow, the garden still retained a mysterious and beguiling grandeur,’ they recall. ‘We recognised we could make a difference to a lost historic landscape of significance.’
Today, this two-acre, restored nineteenth century garden incorporates a one-third-of-an-acre lake edged in woodland paths that lead through semi-tropical borders, passing a spring-fed water cascade and stream, before arriving at the house. A Japanese style courtyard, leads to a walled kitchen garden (37m x 24m) with a period greenhouse and decorative potager.
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